ACCA SELLOWIANA, FEIJOA, MYRTASEAI

  ACCA  SELLOWIANA, FEIJOA, MYRTASEAI

      MAIN CHARACTERISTICS 

The plant is a leafy shrub 3 to 20 feet (0.9-6 m) or more tall, with pale gray bark; The branches are extended and swollen in the nodes, they have white hairs when they are young. The leaves are perennial, opposing, short petiole, frankly elliptic, cherry-like, 1 1/8 to 2 1/2 inches (2.8-6.25 cm) wide; Smooth and shiny on the upper surface, finely veined and with silver hair below. Bisexual flowers, 1 1/2-inch (4 cm) wide, are born simple or in clusters, have 4 fleshy, oval, concave, white on the outside, purple red on the inside; Stamens in large groups of 5/8 to 3/4 inch (1.6-2 cm) long are erect, purple, with round anthers and golden yellow. The fruit is ovoid or slightly pear-shaped, 11/2 to 2 1/2 inches (4-6 cm) long and 1 1/8 to 2 inches (2.8-5 cm) wide, with segments of Calyx attached at the apex. The skin, thin, is covered with a hair of fine whitish hairs until maturity when it reaches a green opaque or yellowish green color, sometimes with a red or orange veil. The fruit emits a strong and lasting fragrant scent, even before it is ripe. The pulp is thick, white, and the central part, which is translucent, wraps the seeds, is sub-acid or sweet flavor that suggests a combination of pineapple and guava or pineapple and strawberry. It usually has 20 to 40, occasionally as many as 100 seeds, very small, oblong, hard and noticeable when the fruit is eaten.

      WHAT ARE THEY USED FOR

Usually the fruit of the feijoa is used as food and beverages, but also presents benefits for complementary treatments in excess cholesterol due to its high concentration of pectins, which contribute to lower and stabilize cholesterol levels and to control the hypertension.

      WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT
   Because the fruit presents benefits for the body this is usually used for medicine. 

     ORIGIN

      Feijoa is native to the extreme south of Brazil, northern Argentina, western Paraguay and Uruguay where it is common wild in the mountains. It is believed that the plant was first brought to Europe by M. Wette to Switzerland, and somewhat later, about 1887, it is known that it was in the "Botanic Garden" in Basle. In 1890, the renowned French botanist and horticulturist, Dr. Edouard Andre, led an airborne plant from La Plata, Brazil, and was planted in his garden on the Riviera. Fructified in 1897. Andre published a description with colored plates of leaves, flowers and fruits, in the "Revue Horticole" in 1898, praising the fruit and recommending its cultivation in the south of France and the surrounding territory in the area Mediterranean.