Shrub or small tree with cylindrical branchlets. Leaves elliptic to obovate, 5-10 cm long, pointed, thick and leathery, veins inconspicuous. Flowers white, solitary, about 2.5 cm wide; spring. Fruit round to ovoid, 2.5-3.5 cm long with white flesh.

var. littorale, Yellow Strawberry Guava (Yellow Cattley Guava), from Brazil. A large shrub or small, open tree with yellow astringent fruit.

var. longipes (O. Berg.) Fosb., Purple Guava (Strawberry Guava, Cattley Guava), from Brazil. A large shrub or small, densely branched tree with sweet purplish red fruit. This is the most common edible variety. Syn. P. cattleyanum Salisb., sometimes spelled cattleianum.

Brazil.

Source: Spencer, R. (2002). Myrtaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.