Do you guys know this one?
In my humble opinion this is a must have Psidium spp. specially if you live on a colder area like I do... but apparently it's still very rare around even among collectors... at least I have not seen it discussed before here on the forum and there isn't much information online also...
Let me share some of my experience with this one to you all:
I think I first received seeds from Brazil of this species around 2007 or 2008 and they arrived only labeled as " Araçã roxo folha larga", meaning something like "Purple Araçã with large leaves “and describing it as a south Brazilian “Araçã” variety originated from frosty areas...
Sprouting was OK and plants grew very fast, much faster than normal Psidium cattleyanum to which the leaves seemed very similar in appearance at the beginning, only larger... so for years I kept thinking this was just another purple Psidium cattleyanum who is not so rare, so I didn't gave it much attention...
All my plants were in pots at the GH and growing faster than P.cattleyanum but a little bit restrained by the not so big pots where they were growing... but one plant that I gave to a friend and that he planted in the ground (on 2009 or 2010) grew very much almost immediately and fruited on the same season... and then he told me the fruits were good and a little different from the normal araçã... I then decided to look a little closer to this tree and I became clear that it was not the Psidium cattleyanum… so my collector interest grew and I decided to re-pot and pay some more attention to my own plants... and then started trying to correct identify what species was this...
After several attempts I realized that on the EJardim blog when Eduardo posted about the strawberry-guava he made a reference that on south Brazil, on upper grounds (serras), the common Psidium cattleyanum was replaced by a much bigger species with the name Psidium longipetiolatum…That's it!...
Eduardo Jardim say this one can reach 25 to 30 meters high !... it doesn't surprised me so much as 3 meters on a 20 litter pot in only 2 years was my personal experience!... latter Helton posted also one photo of red fruits with this scientific name saying it started fruiting at 2011 at his place also, and speaking about 8 meters high ( less than EJardim but also a big tree for sure)... one common accepted name in Brazil seems to be "Araçã-Goiaba".
Well my plants started fruiting last year and the fruit were about the size of red Strawberry-guavas (+/- 3 cm diameter), but rounder and with a long pedicel, with seeds that were apparently bigger but also undetectable, at least in my mouth, and with a very good flavor that I rate very similar or even superior to the Psidium cattleyanum fruits.
Unfortunately I don't have pictures from the last year’s fruits but if you Google "Psidium longipetiolatum" you will find some photos of the fruits... look for those from Anestor who are very good as always...
For the moment I can only show you some photos of the other special details of this species and some comparisons with the common Psidium cattleyanum so you can understand what I am saying here:
Enjoy!
For start pics of some older leaves who have a typical heart shape:
Just compare these leaves with a normal Psidium cattleyanum leaf (on my hand):
Even tip branches leaves are bigger than those of the strawberry-guava ( P.cattleianum leaves on the background):
and the flowers buds are big, with a long stalk, and grow up vertically:
just compare the size of the flowers with those of Psidium cattleyanum (on the right):
This plant of the pics is still on my GH and is flowering for the first time now; on the GH they stay evergreen during all winter, but the plants that fruited last year on my GH were planted outside by December 2012 and they spent all winter outside where they probably faced -5ºC ; Those plants outside exhibited a total deciduous behavior and quickly became stripped of all leaves; Not really sure if this is normal behavior or just a reaction to the choke of being transferred from the GH to the outside without any adaptation period... next winter will tell;
Anyway those outside plants are now sprouting nicely and the only apparent difference to those on the GH is a delay of some weeks (or months?) on flowering... and I'm also waiting to see if they fruit OK outside. By the way the fruit set on the GH was close to 100% of the flowers... and ripe fruit fall to the ground without any visible damage...
This is the actual situation of one of the outside plants sprouting now:
I will try to post pics of the fruits latter (when in season) if I can just to complement this description;
I do think this "Araçâ" can really "push limits" to those living in a area too cold for the strawberry-guava... maybe by a full climate zone or two... you just have to have the space to accommodate such a big tree!
Miguel
Topic: Psidium longipetiolatum... for collectors only! (Read 10750 times)