Scientific Name: Psidium guajava L.

Synonyms: Guajava pumila (Vahl) Kuntze, Myrtus guajava (L.) Kuntze

Unique ID: 119

Systematic Position

Class: Dicotyledonae

Sub Class: Polypetalae                      

Series: Calyciflorae

Order: Myrtales

Family: Myrtaceae

Common Names

English – Guava

Malayalam – പേര

Tamil –  Koyya

Hindi – Amrud

Description: hallow-rooted shrub or small tree, up to 10 m tall, branching from the base and often producing suckers. Bark smooth, green to red-brown, peeling off in thin flakes. Young twigs four-angled and ridged, pubescent. Leaves opposite, with translucid punstations; petiole 3-10 mm long; blade elliptic to oblong, 5-15 x 3-7 cm, glabrous above, finely pubescent beneath, veins prominent below. Flowers solitary or in two- to three-flowered axillary cymes, about 3 cm in diameter; four to six calyx lobes, 1-1.5 cm long, irregular; petals four to five, white, 1-2 cm long; stamens numerous, 1-2 cm long; ovary 4-5-locular; style 1.5-2 cm long, stigma capitate. Fruit a berry, globose, ovoid or pyriform, 4-12 cm long, surmounted by the persistent calyx lobes; exocarp green to yellow; mesocarp fleshy, white, yellow, pink or red, sour to sweet and aromatic. Seeds numerous, yellowish, bony, reniform, 3-5 mm long, embedded in a pink or white pulp.

Habitat:  Widely cultivated

Distribution: The native distribution range of P. guajava is uncertain. Many botanists consider the species to be native to tropical America, probably from southern Mexico to South America, but its distribution has been greatly extended through cultivation and it is now widespread throughout the tropics and subtropics.

Uses:  Medicinal ; wood products; food; agroforestry; dye,tanning