Psidium cattleyanum Sabine

Psidium cattleianum Sabine (orthographic variant)

Cattley guava, cherry guava, cherry purple guava, purple guava, red guava, strawberry guava

South America: eastern Brazil and northeastern Uruguay.

In New Zealand cultivated in gardens in lowland areas, grown for its fruit; occasional naturalised seedlings near parent plants.

Records and observations are mainly from the North Island of New Zealand, from the East Cape, Rotorua, and northwards to Northland as well as from Manawatu to Taranaki; few records from the South Island, in Nelson and Christchurch.

• Bark pale brown, smooth, peeling off in flakes.
• Leaves with 6–7 pairs of prominent side veins.
• Leaf base gradually tapering to the stalk.
• Fruit dark purple or sometimes yellow, round, topped by the remains of persistent sepals.

Shrub or tree to ± 6 m tall.

Bark pale brown, smooth, peeling off in flakes. Stems and branchlets round, hairless.

Leaves opposite, elliptic (oval), dull green, 40–80 mm long, 25–45 mm wide, leaf surface flat, not puckered, leaf surface hairless, margins with scattered hairs, midvein and side veins raised, side veins 6–7; margins entire; tips rounded or pointed; base gradually tapering to the stalk; leaf stalks 2–10 mm long.

Flowers mostly solitary, axillary (in leaf forks), ± 10–25 mm in diam., flower stalks ± 3–5 mm long, petals 4–5, white; sepals 4–5, tips free, persistent, hairy; stamens white. Main flowering period: spring and summer.

Fruit mostly a purple-skinned when ripe, (rarely yellow), round berry, 4–5 locular, ± 10–15 mm wide. The very juicy, whitish flesh is sweet-tasting.

In the context of New Zealand, P. guajava is similar to P. cattleyanum, but the former possesses hairy, 4-angled branchlets, leaves with 10–20 paired side veins, leaf bases rounded, and fruit that mature from green to yellowish, as opposed to hairless and rounded branchlets, smaller purplish-red (but sometimes yellow) fruit and leaves with 6–7 paired side veins, leaf bases gradually tapering to the stalk.

Psidium cattleyanum is listed as a DOC Environmental Weed and a Regional Pest Management Strategy species in New Zealand.

Psidium is a genus of about 100 species indigenous to tropical America.

• Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants
• CitSciHub
• Flora of New Zealand Online (species profile)
• Flora of New Zealand Online (weed profile)
• GBIF
• iNaturalist NZ
• NZPCN
• NSW WeedWise
• PlantNET: New South Wales Flora Online
• Weeds of Australia: Biosecurity Queensland