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FEIJOA SELLOWIANA - Feijoa, Pineapple Guava, Guavasteen |
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This evergreen shrub or small tree from South America is a useful landscape ornamental with its showy flowers and grey-green leaves. It is hardy and withstands 14°F. The fruit has green skin covered with white powder, is oblong to 3" and has sweet/acid white pulp. It should be harvested immediately after it falls. (Holding out your hand is the "tongue-in-cheek" recommended method.) It is eaten fresh, makes a good jelly or the pureed pulp dries to a flavorful leather.
Related Species: In more recent times Feijoa sellowiana has been renamed Acca sellowiana, but most sources still use the older name.
Distant Affinity: Eugenias (Eugenia spp.), Guavas (Psidium spp.), Jaboticaba (Myrciaria spp.).
Origin: The feijoa is native to extreme southern Brazil, northern Argentina, western Paraguay and Uruguay where it is common in the mountains.
Adaptation: Feijoas prefer cool winters and moderate summers (80 degrees to 90 degrees F), and are generally adapted to areas where temperatures stay above 15 degrees F. Flower production is poor in areas with fewer than 50 hours of chilling. The flavor of the fruit is much better in cool than in warm regions. Even thought the plants are relatively hardy, sudden fall frosts can damage ripening fruit and late spring frosts can destroy blossoms. Spring frost damage is most likely in mild-winter areas, where the plants are not completely hardened off and respond to warm spells by blooming early.
DESCRIPTION
Growth Habit: The feijoa is a slow-growing evergreen shrub that can reach 15 ft. high and 15 ft. wide. The bark is pale gray and the spreading branches are swollen at the nodes and white-hairy when young. In addition to the fruit it provides, the shrub also doubles handsomely as a landscape specimen. When planted close together, the shrubs make a nice hedge, screen, or windbreak. Feijoas can also be espaliered or trained as a small tree (20 to 25 ft. tall) with one or more trunks. The wood is dense, hard, and brittle.
Foliage: The evergreen, thick, leathery leaves of the feijoa are opposite, short-petioled and bluntly elliptical. In size they range from 1 to 2-1/2 inches long and 5/8 to 1 inch wide. The leaves are smooth soft green on top and silvery underneath, flashing nicely in a gentle breeze.
Flowers: The 1 inch showy, bisexual flowers, borne singly or in a cluster, have long, bright red stamens topped with large grains of yellow pollen. Flowers appear late, from May through June. Each flower contains four to six fleshy flower petals that are white tinged with purple on the inside. These petals are mildly sweet and edible and can make a refreshing addition to spring salads. Birds eating the petals pollinate the flower.
It has been said that feijoa pollen is transferred by birds that are attracted to and eat the flowers, but bees are the chief pollinators. Most flowers pollinated with compatible pollen show 60 to 90% fruit set. Hand pollination is nearly 100% effective. Two or more bushes should be planted together for cross-pollination unless the cultivar is known to be self-compatible. Poor bearing is usually the result of inadequate pollination.
Fruit: The fruits range from 3/4 to 3-1/2 inches long and vary in shape from round to elongated pear shape, with the persistent calyx segments adhering to the apex. The waxy skin is dull blue-green to blue or grayish green, sometimes with a red or orange blush. Skin texture varies from smooth to rough and pebbly and is 3/16 to 5/8 inch thick. The fruit emits a strong long-lasting perfume, even before it is fully ripe. The thick, white, granular, watery flesh and the translucent central pulp enclosing the seeds are sweet or subacid, suggesting a combination of pineapple and guava or pineapple and strawberry, often with overtones of winter green or spearmint. There are usually 20 - 40, occasionally more, very small, oblong seeds hardly noticeable when the fruit is eaten.
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