another precocious Eugenia - sp. "Pitangão Amarelo da Unicamp"

[brian]

Anybody else get this from BellamyTrees or AndersonTropicals when it showed up in 2022?  I bought two seeds from Kameron in Aug2022, both sprouted into healthy trees and are now pushing their first flower buds.  18mo from seed to flowering is pretty quick.  They both have long spindly growth with the longest branches about 3ft, but not bushy at all.  I figure I will paintbrush cross-pollinate them  to boost fruiting odds and if I'm lucky get to try the fruit this season

There's a thread with some more info on this, I guess there was some argument about it being Burkartiana vs this type.  https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=53455.0

I'll post some more updates if these flowers turn into fruit.

seller description is:

"Eugenia sp. "Pitangão Amarelo da Unicamp" is a small tree that is native to the understory of the Semideciduous Seasonal Forest, Ombrophylous Forest, and Mixed Ombrophylous Forest in Brazil. It can reach a height of 3-5 meters in the semideciduous forest and 10 meters in the rainforest.

The fruit is very tasty and resembles the taste of Acerola, but sweeter and more pleasant; has a great amount of pulp that can be used to make juices, ice cream, and jellies. The tree is small and can be cultivated as an ornamental, to attract bees, birds, and wild animals. Fruiting occurs from October to November."

Both of my trees look like this now:



Here's the seller fruit photo:

[roblack]

Nice, and congratulations! Hope you get to try it soon, and report back =)

Mine is a bit smaller, maybe next year.

I have 3 "e. burkartianas," and 1 Unicamp; pretty sure they are different species. The 3 burks all look the same, and from 2 different sources.

[Timbogrow]

That's cool Brian! I have 2 of those and 3 burkartiana. They are both easy to differentiate. Hope you get to test the fruit!

[elouicious]

Nice Brian! some of these will make for great interplantings or groundcovers in a food forest

[nullzero]

Looks great, I have some doing well but I'm a year behind yours Brian. Is anyone growing Eugenia sp. BIG from wildlands is it the same as Eugenia sp. Big Una from Bellamy?

[Giant Gecko]

Wow that is fast for a Eugenia!

[W.]

I also have two plants that I bought from BellamyTrees at about the same time. Mine are smaller and have yet to show any signs of flowering, though I know now to keep an eye on them.

[Fruit Jungle]

My 2 are the same age. If I knew they flowered so soon, I would have kept them in bigger pots. Very healthy species, easy to grow, hope to plant out soon. I really think this species could become naturalized here in south florida.

[Timbogrow]

-1 for me unless it comes back. Damn raccoons/squirrels need dealing with. It chewed it down to the roots and dug up the soil. Then ruined a nice sapodilla. That was my last straw with their greedy selfish attitude. Definitely was one of my favorite plants.

[brian]

-1 for me unless it comes back. Damn raccoons/squirrels need dealing with. It chewed it down to the roots and dug up the soil. Then ruined a nice sapodilla. That was my last straw with their greedy selfish attitude. Definitely was one of my favorite plants.

Ouch, that sucks.  I am thankful for the red fox population here keeps the squirrels down, but deer wreck my in-ground orchard trees every year. 

[brian]

No fruit set on either tree, unfortunately, but they are growing happily and I hope for another chance in the upcoming spring.  A number of my other uncommon eugenias put out flowers but no fruit set this spring/summer also, I figure I'll update when they actually set fruit instead of celebrating flowers.

I just up-potted this one