Hi folks
I think it was our mate Luc that sometime ago said that Pitangas are greatly underrated amongst Myrtaceae collectors, just because they are relatively common, and some strains have an odd resinous aftertaste.
IMHO this is a big injustice that needs to be urgently corrected!...
In fact, after years collecting and growing myrtaceae species I’m realizing that Pitangas rank very high on the best fruits list.
For me nothing beats the flavor of a very good Pitanga, and even its looks are appetizing!...
Have you ever looked closely to a perfect Pitanga fruit?... just look at it again and think!... I’ve always heard that women who have those cute little dimples on both cheeks are amongst the prettiest of them all, so why not think the same about fruits!...
Well, for me the Pitanga fruits are the “girls with dimples on their cheeks” on the group that include Grumichamas, Calycinas, Cherries of Rio Grande, Jaboticabas, Uvaias, etc…
But let me present to you folks the best cultivar of Pitanga (Eugenia uniflora cv.) on my personal colection: the name that I chose for this cultivar is "Regina"
"Regina" is a dark/purple fruit variety, that consistently produces huge crops, with the curious fact that it produces a lot of seedless fruits.
In fact, I have the idea that this variety produces fruits in most of the flowers, and just that on it's own is an achievement because me too I've grown a lot of Pitanga trees that flower profusely but do never gave me fruits or produce very low crops.
But let me tell you about another interesting observation I made regarding this cultivar:
During the years that I had my GH open, and so the fruits were accessible to the birds, I've realized that birds seemed to prefer the smaller seedless fruits, leaving behind the bigger fruits (with seeds) for me... maybe those smaller fruits were just perfect "bite size" for the birds, but really who cares!... a tree that can fool birds is just fantastic!