Psidium

Read about Psidium in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Psidium (Greek, psidion, the pomegranate). Myrtaceae. A large group of tropical and subtropical trees and shrubs, all native to America, many of which produce edible fruits. The common guava of the tropics, P. Guajava, is the best known. It has become naturalized in many parts of Asia and Africa. See Guava. Leaves opposite, petiolate, glabrous, pubescent or tomentose, pinnately veined: fls. usually rather large, whitish, on axillary or lateral 1-3- (rarely many-) fld. peduncles; calyx-tube urceolate or pyriform, lobes 4-5. persistent; calyx sometimes closed before anthesis and splitting irregularly into 2-5 lobes; petals 4 or 5, spreading; stamens numerous, disposed in many series and inserted upon the disk, filaments filiform, anthers oblong or linear, basifixed, longitudinally dehiscent; ovary with 2-7, commonly 4, locules, the style slender, stigma peltate or subcapitate: fr. a berry, ovoid, globose or pyriform, commonly 1-3 in. long, yellow to red in color, sometimes green, crowned with the calyx- limb; seeds few to numerous, small, hard.—About 150 species. The genus is somewhat confused and in need of further study. A large number of species doubtless exist in S and Cent. Amer., which have not as yet been described. The genus is allied to the myrtles (Myrtus), the pomegranate (Punica), and the various Eugenias, of which a number are cult, in the tropics for their frs. The following treatment includes the principal ones known to horticulture. A species intro. by Franceechi under the name of P. acre. Ten., resembles P. Cattleianum var. lucidum, but has more elongated and usually larger frs. The foliage is of the same type.—P. dichotomum, Weinm., is properly P. Araca: a species intro. by Franceschi as this species is evidently something else, having broad coriaceous, glabrous lye. and somewhat resembling P. Cattleianum in habit.— P. guayabita, A. Rich., is a species recently intro. from W. Cuba, where it grows wild: the frs. are small and not considered very valuable.—P. guianense, Pers., is a synonym of P. fluviatile, Rich., a species with branchlets terete, glabrous: lvs. oval, glabrous: pedicels opposite, 1-fld. Cayenne.—P. guineense, Swartz, is a synonym of P. Araca, Raddi, according to Berg, but DeCandolle considers it a distinct species. He distinguishes it from P. Araca by the lvs. less soft, glabrous above, with the nervation not raised as in the latter. More recently Urban uses it in preference to P. Araca, which latter is made a synonym; he states that it resembles P. Guajava, but is easily distinguished by the less numerous transverse veins, not impressed above. Swartz, in describing P. guineense, stated that it came from Afr., and was cult, in Santo Domingo, but as all psidiums are now known to be American, he was doubtless mistaken regarding its origin.—P. littorale, Raddi, intro. by Franceschi, resembles P. Cattleianum very closely, but has lvs. somewhat more attenuate toward the base, and obovate or pyriform frs. Berg (in Linnaea, xxvii) groups this species, P. Cattleianum and P. humile together under the name of P. variabile. S. Brazil.—P. montanum, Swartz, is a species from the mountains of Jamaica, with 4-angled branchlets: lvs. oblong-oval, acuminate, glabrous: peduncles many-fld.: fr. subrotund. F. W. Popenoe. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

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