Psidium L.
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Authority
Maguire, Bassett. 1969. The botany of the Guayana Highland-part VIII. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 18: 1-290.
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Family
Myrtaceae
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Scientific Name
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Discussion
An American genus comprising 100 or more species; for discussion of its limits see Fieldiana Bot. 29: 512-518. 1963. Confusion has arisen over the generic limits of Psidium because of contradictory statements in literature as to the relative prevalence of species having the calyx "closed" or "open" [i.e., with evident lobes], in the bud. As n o w defined, Psidium includes not only species in which the calyx is completely closed in the bud, and species with large, well-formed calyx-lobes, but also those with calyces of various intermediate types, including those with a small porelike opening at the tip of the bud; those with truncate but scarcely lobulate margin; and those with small but evident lobes. T h e distinguishing features of Psidium as I understand it are as follows:
E m b r y o uncinate or C-shaped; seeds hard or bony; ovary 3-4 (rarely 2-7-)- locular; placentae usually bilamellate but in bilocular ovaries the ovules often in a single cluster; calyx (whether originally open or closed) splitting between the lobes at anthesis.