Psidium guajava L.

• Title

  Psidium guajava L.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Psidium guajava L.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Psidium Guajava Guayava Guava Family Myrtaceae Myrtle Family Psidium Guajava Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 470. 1753. Guava is the most abundant, native food-fruit of tropical America, used extensively for jellies and paste, and the basis of an important industry. The tree is often planted for its fruit, but wild ones supply much, especially for domestic use; it grows throughout the West Indies and tropical continental America, north to Florida and Bermuda; in Porto Rico it is mostly at lower and middle altitudes, but ascends to at least 600 meters elevation. The hard, brownish, strong and tough wood is used for implements, and in carpentry. Only one species of the genus is wild in Porto Rico. Psidium (Greek, referring to the edible fruit) is a Linnaean genus, with the species here illustrated typical. It has many relatives, about 100 species having been described, all American trees and shrubs, with opposite, pinnately veined leaves, punctate with pellucid dots, and large, regular, clustered or solitary flowers, borne in the leaf-axils, or at the ends of branches. The calyx-tube is attached to the ovary and somewhat prolonged beyond it, with 4 or 5 lobes which are often united in bud, separating as the flowers open, and persistent on the ripening fruit; there are 4 or 5, spreading petals; the many stamens, with very slender filaments, are arranged in several series; the 4-celled, or 5-celled ovary contains many ovules; the style is topped by a small stigma. The fruit is a many-seeded berry, crowned by the calyx-lobes. Psidium Guajava (aboriginal name) is usually a shrub, but may form a tree from 5 to 7 meters high, with a trunk up to about 20 centimeters in diameter, the bark smooth, the hairy twigs 4-angled. The oblong, short-stalked leaves are rather thin, pointed or blunt, from 4 to 8 centimeters long, hairy, and prominently veined beneath; the calyx-lobes, united in bud, are from 1 to 1.5 centimeters long, the petals 1.5 or 2 centimeters long. The yellow, globose, or pear-shaped fruit is from 3 to 6 centimeters in diameter.