Stuff You Don’t See Every Day

The feijoa is a slow-growing subtropical spreading bush native to foothills in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, which produces small lovely and edible flowers and egg-sized green fruit said to taste like the combination of guava and pineapple (although Feijoa sellowiana is related to neither). Thus it’s more commonly known as the pineapple guava.

I planted three 2-foot bushes in December 2009, and two years and four months later the largest is not much over 4 feet tall. Feijoas can handle colder weather than we get around Houston, and while they are said to prefer moderate to low humidity, ours appear to be doing fine here in our sopping humid climate, although they have yet to fruit.

That could be about to change, however, as one of the three has broken out into full bloom this year (Click on the photo for a larger view).

Research indicates that feijoas fruit more reliably when cross pollinated. One of our other bushes is producing a few flowers this go-around, but they haven’t opened yet and, although there is a huge wild honeybee nest high up in a pecan tree just a few yards away, I never see bees on these flowers. Thus I am attempting to pollinate the feijoa using the damp finger method (yeah, OK, proceed with your crude jokes, I care not).

The blooms, about the size of cherry blossoms, include short, fat, fleshy pedals that taste very sweet and can be sprinkled over salads when you want to show off. The fruit, of which I have yet to taste, are a good source of Vitamin C and potassium.

I’m withholding judgment until we get a harvest or two, but suspect this plant holds promise as a healthy “new” fruit for the Deep South – but only for the patient grower, because they are truly slow-growing. Regardless of how the harvest turns out, however, it’s obvious they make for a swell landscape plant.