Guava

Psidium guajava has become naturalized in disturbed habitats in many tropical parts of the world.

Trees, to 13 m tall. Bark gray, smooth, peeling in strips. Branchlets angular, pubescent. Petiole ca. 5 mm; leaf blade oblong to elliptic, 6-12 × 3.5-6 cm, leathery, abaxially pubescent, adaxially slightly rough, secondary veins 12-15 on each side of midvein and usually impressed, reticulate veins obvious, base rounded, apex acute to obtuse. Flowers solitary or 2 or 3 in cymes. Hypanthium campanulate, ca. 5 mm, pubescent. Calyx cap nearly rounded, 7-8 mm, irregularly opening. Petals white, 1-1.4 cm. Stamens 6-9 mm. Ovary adnate to hypanthium. Style as long as stamens. Berry globose, ovoid, or pyriform, 3-8 cm, with persistent calyx lobes at apex; flesh white or yellow; placenta reddish, well developed, fleshy. Seeds many. Fl. summer.

Tropical America, widely planted and naturalised in Tropical Asia.

450-1200 m

Cultivated and sometimes naturalized in Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Sichuan, Taiwan, and Yunnan [native to tropical America].

Guajava pyrifera (Linnaeus) Kuntze; Myrtus guajava (Linnaeus) Kuntze; Psidium pomiferum Linnaeus; P. pyriferum Linnaeus.