Psidium cattleyanum |
Myrtaceae |
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strawberry guava |
myrtle family |
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Habit | Shrubs or trees to 8 m; trunk reddish brown, smooth to scaly; young twigs light reddish brown to light gray, flattened, becoming subterete, older twigs usually gray, remaining ± smooth; young growth glabrous or sparsely puberulent to strigose on some floral structures, hairs whitish, most less than 0.1 mm. | Trees, shrubs, or subshrubs, usually synoecious, terrestrial, unarmed, occasionally clonal by root sprouts; young growth usually glandular, usually aromatic when crushed; trunk often with smooth or scaly bark; hairs unicellular, simple or dibrachiate. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leaves | petiole channeled, 2–14 × 1–2 mm, glabrous; blade drying light or dark reddish brown or grayish green, nearly concolorous, obovate, oblanceolate, or elliptic, 5–10 × 2–5.8 cm, 1.5–2.6 times as long as wide, leathery (rubbery when fresh), midvein prominent abaxially, nearly flat to shallowly impressed adaxially, lateral veins 8–13 pairs, ascending, weak to obscure, alternating with weaker veins arising near margin and extending toward midvein, base usually attenuate to cuneate, rarely rounded, apex acute or acuminate to broadly rounded, surfaces glabrous. |
usually persistent, opposite, alternate, or whorled, sometimes decussate, simple; without true stipules; usually petiolate; blade leathery, papery, or submembranous, margins entire, sometimes somewhat sinuate. |
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Inflorescences | 1-flowered, borne in leaf axils, from leafless nodes, or in axils of leaflike or reduced bracts; bracteoles ovate, lanceolate, or oblong, 1–2 mm. |
usually axillary, sometimes terminal or pseudoterminal, solitary flowers, dichasia, racemes, panicles, or spikes; bracts often present; bracteoles usually present. |
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Flowers | bud subpyriform, 6–13 mm, apex rounded; calyx tube extended 3–7 mm beyond ovary summit, terminating in sinuate-edged terminal pore (rarely completely closed), tearing irregularly at anthesis, tears cutting through staminal ring; hypanthium 3–5 mm (below calyx); petals suborbiculate to elliptic, 3–6 mm; disc within staminal ring ca. 4–6 mm across; stamens 280–400, 3–8 mm; anthers 0–1 mm; style 4–8 mm; stigma ca. 1 mm wide; ovary 3- or 4-locular; placenta reflexed; ovules ca. 12–25 per locule. |
usually bisexual, rarely unisexual, (0–)4 or 5(–7)-merous, actinomorphic; usually epigynous, rarely semiepigynous; hypanthium obconic, cylindric, or cup-shaped, sometimes prolonged beyond summit of ovary; calyx lobes distinct and, usually, imbricate, or fused in calyptra that falls as a unit or tears open; petals distinct and imbricate, or fused with calyx, rarely coherent, usually equaling calyx lobes (when lobes distinct); nectary glands, when present, produced on disc surrounding style; stamens 10–720; anthers basifixed or dorsifixed, usually dehiscing by slits; pistil 1; ovary inferior (partially so in Melaleuca), 1–6[–18]-locular and carpellate; placentation axile, subapical, or basal; style 1; stigma 1; ovules 2–300(–500), usually biseriate or multiseriate, bitegmic. |
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Fruits | berries, capsules with apical dehiscence, or nutlike. |
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Berries | red or yellow, pyriform to subglobose, 15–30 mm. |
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Seeds | few–100, round to subreniform, ca. 5 mm, smooth. |
1–100+; seed coat membranous, ± leathery, or hard and bony; embryo starchy or oily; endosperm scant or absent. |
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Psidium cattleyanum |
Myrtaceae |
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Phenology | Flowering spring. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Disturbed areas. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–15 m. (0–0 ft.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
FL; South America (Brazil) [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Pacific Islands (Hawaii)] |
sw United States; se United States; Mexico; Central America; South America; s United States; West Indies; s Asia; se Asia; Africa; Pacific Islands (Hawaii, New Guinea, Philippines); Australia; nearly worldwide in tropical; subtropical; and Mediterranean regions |
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Discussion | Psidium cattleyanum is known in the flora area from the central and southern peninsula and is commonly cultivated for its edible fruit. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Genera ca. 130, species ca. 6000 (13 genera, 38 species in the flora). Myrtaceae are apparently of Gondwanan origin with centers of diversity in tropical America and Australasia and with fewer species in Africa and southern Asia. Syzygium aromaticum (Linnaeus) Merrill & L. M. Perry (clove) and Pimenta dioica (Linnaeus) Merrill (allspice) are economically important spices; Psidium guajava (guava) is a common tropical fruit; species of Eucalyptus are widely planted for fast growing timber and as ornamentals. Melaleuca (including Callistemon) and other genera are planted as ornamentals with M. quinquenervia having become an invasive pest in Florida. Native and introduced genera of Myrtaceae in North America can be divided conveniently into two groups: those with dry fruit (Chamelaucium, Eucalyptus, Leptospermum, and Melaleuca) and those with fleshy fruit (Calyptranthes, Eugenia, Luma, Mosiera, Myrcianthes, Myrtus, Psidium, Rhodomyrtus, and Syzygium). This division based on fruit type has historically been the basis for recognizing subfamilies or tribes; molecular work shows that neither group is monophyletic. For the purposes of this treatment, the division based on fruit type will be retained, but without formal taxonomic standing. Among the fleshy-fruited genera, embryo structure has been taxonomically important. In the bony-seeded genera (Mosiera, Myrtus, Psidium, and Rhodomyrtus), the embryos are small and difficult to see. The C-shaped embryos in that group have small, leaflike or linear cotyledons equal to or shorter than the cylindrical hypocotyls. In other fleshy-fruited genera, it is usually possible to open the seed coat and see the embryo. In Eugenia, the embryo is mainly cotyledon tissue fused into a reniform to globose mass. In Myrcianthes and Syzygium, the cotyledons are similar to those of a bean and unfused and the hypocotyl is insignificant. In Calyptranthes, the cotyledons are leaflike and folded into a bundle and the equally long hypocotyl curls around the bundle. In Luma, the cotyledons are lenticular and pressed against each other and the hypocotyl about equals them in length. Recently, Pimenta dioica has been shown to be naturalized near Miami, Florida. It is most similar to Syzygium cumini (both have berry fruits and many-flowered panicle inflorescences). The two species are compared under 2. S. cumini. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Myrtaceae > Psidium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | P. littorale, P. variabile | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Sabine: Trans. Hort. Soc. London 4: [315–]317, plate 11. (1821) | Jussieu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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