Wild Guave

Guettarda scabra (L.) Lam. Tab. Encyc. 2: 21S. 1819
Matthiola scabra L. Sp. PI. 1 192. |753. Guettarda riigosa Sw. Prodr. 59. 1788. Guettarda Matthiola Pers. Syn. PI. 1 : 200. 1805. Guettarda havanensis DC. Prodr. 4: 455. 1830. Guettarda ambigua DC. Prodr. 4: 455. 1830.
A shrub or tree, sometimes 10 meters high, but u.sually much lower, the branches terete, gray or reddish-brown, the branchlets stout, subcompresscd, rufous-pilose or hirtellous, the internodes short or elongate; stipules triangular-acuminate to subulate, 3.5-8 mm. long, persistent or tardily deciduous; leaves opposite, the petioles stout, 0.3-2 cm. long, rufous-hirtcllous; leaf-blades very variable, oblong, elliptic, oval, oval-ovate, oblong-obovate, rounded-oval, obovate-rhombic, or sometimes somewhat panduriform, mostly broadest above the middle, 3-17 cm. long, 2-1 1 cm. wide, rounded to acute at the apex, subcordate to acutish at the base, often mucronate-apiculate or acutely acuminate, coriaceous, yellowish-green above, often lustrous, very scabrous, the costa and lateral nerves prominulous but usually embedded, the veins more or less impressed, beneath densely and minutely hirtellous, the lateral nerves very prominent, 7-9 on each side, straight or subarcuate, ascending at an angle of 45 degrees or more, the veins prominent-reticulate, the margin usually revolute; cymes usually subcapitate and 3-7-flowered, sometimes twice bifid, with branches 1-1.5 cm. long, the stout peduncles 2-12 cm. long, rufous-pilose, the flowers sessile, the bractlets deltoid to subulate, 2-7 mm. long; calyx and hypanthium tomentulose, often purplish, the calyx 2.5-3 mm. long, more or less bilobate; corolla whitish, tinged with red outside, the slender tube 17-21 mm. long, densely retrorsepilose outside, the 5 or 6 lobes oblong or obovate, obtuse, 5 mm. long; style densely appressedpilose; fruit globose or depressed-globose, 5-8 mm. broad, usually 6-celled, minutely tomentulose, often reddish.
Type locality: America.
Distribution: In thickets or forest; southern Florida; general in the West Indies to Trinidad, and on islands off the coast of Venezuela; reported, but almost certainly in error, from Mexico and Central America.

Guettarda scabra, commonly known as the rough velvetseed, is a species of plant in the family Rubiaceae native to the Neotropics.