Psidium

Shrubs or trees, glabrous or pubescent, hairs simple. Leaves sometimes drought deciduous, opposite; blade venation usually brochidodromous. Inflorescences 1- or 3-flowered, axillary, solitary flowers or dichasia; bracteoles caducous. Flowers usually 5-merous, sessile or pedi­cellate; hypanthium obconic; calyx lobes distinct or connate beyond summit of ovary to form calyx tube, sometimes forming calyptra (in closed flower bud, calyptra completely closed or open only as a terminal pore, tearing regularly into 5 lobes or irregularly); petals whitish; stamens [100–]280–720; ovary [2- or]3–6-locular; placenta bilamelate, often protruding as a peltate structure; ovules 12–180 per locule, biseriate or multiseriate. Fruits berries, green, yellow, or red, pyriform, globose, or subglobose. Seeds few–100+; seed coat dull, bony, densely woody, ca. 9–30 cells thick at narrowest point, covered with thin layer of pulpy tissue when wet, or glaze or crusty tissue when dry; embryo curved; cotyledons usually reflexed, linear to elliptic, shorter than hypocotyl.

Distribution

Introduced; Florida, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America (except Chile).

Discussion

Species ca. 70 (2 in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Psidium cattleyanum, Psidium guajava

Key

1	Leaf blades glabrous, obovate, oblanceolate, or elliptic, lateral veins 8–13 pairs (weak to obscure); floral buds each usually with a terminal pore, apex rounded.	Psidium cattleyanum
1	Leaf blades appressed-pubescent abaxially, elliptic, elliptic-oblanceolate, elliptic-obovate, lanceolate, or oblong, lateral veins 9–22 pairs (prominent); floral buds each without terminal pore, apex usually conic.	Psidium guajava