Psidium cattleianum

Common Name(s): strawberry guava

Non-Native to Florida

Origin: Brazil1

This species appears on the following legally prohibited plant lists

Federal Noxious Weed List Florida Noxious Weed List Florida Prohibited Aquatic Plants List
No No No

UF-IFAS Assessment of Non-Native Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas

CATEGORY I on the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council’s (FLEPPC) 2017 List of Invasive Plant Species

Download a recognition card (PDF) from Invasive and Non-native Plants You Should Know2

Download a page (PDF) from Identification and Biology of Nonnative Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas – Second Edition1

Control information: Integrated Management of Nonnative Plants in Natural Areas of Florida (EDIS publication SP 242)

Psidium cattleianum is occasionally found growing in disturbed sites of the central and southern peninsula of Florida (Wunderlin, 2003). It is native to southeastern Brazil but escaped cultivation. Strawberry guava blooms all year.

Appearance

Evergreen shrub or small tree to 8 m (25 ft) tall, with gray to reddish-brown peeling bark and young branches round, pubescent.

Leaves

Opposite, simple, entire, glabrous, elliptic to oblong, to 8 cm (3 in) long. Flowers: To 2.5 cm (1.2 in) wide; borne singly at leaf axils, with white petals and a mass of white and yellow stamens.

Fruit

A globose berry, 3–6 cm (1.2–2.4 in) long, purple-red, with whitish flesh usually sweet-tasting when ripe; seeds numerous.

Ecological threat

Forms thickets and shades out native vegetation in forests and open woodlands. Also serves as a major host for the naturalized Caribbean fruit fly, which occasionally spreads to commercial citrus crops. FLEPPC Category I

Distribution

C, SW, SE

Field Notations PSIDCATT/PSCA

Text from Invasive and Non-Native Plants You Should Know, Recognition Cards, by A. Richard and V. Ramey, 2007. UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, Publ. No. SP 431.

 

View the herbarium specimen image from the University of Florida Herbarium Digital Imaging Projects.

 

Citations

1. Identification and Biology of Nonnative Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas – Second Edition, by K.A. Langeland, H.M. Cherry, et al. University of Florida-IFAS Publication # SP 257. 2008.

2. Invasive and Non-native Plants You Should Know – Recognition Cards, by A. Richard and V. Ramey. University of Florida-IFAS Publication # SP 431. 2007.

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