Species
+

Feijoa sellowiana (O.Berg) O.Berg

Feijoa, Guavasteen, Pineapple Guava, feijoa

Climate known 70 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Feijoa sellowiana, also known as Acca sellowiana (O.Berg) Burret, is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. It is the only species in the genus Feijoa. It is native mainly to the highlands of Colombia, southern Brazil and the hills of northeast Uruguay, but it can also be found in eastern Paraguay and northern Argentina. It is commonly known as feijoa, quirina, or pineapple guava.

Text from Wikipedia, “Feijoa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Feijoa

Feijoa sellowiana, also known as Acca sellowiana (O.Berg) Burret, is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. It is the only species in the genus Feijoa. It is native mainly to the highlands of Colombia, southern Brazil and the hills of northeast Uruguay, but it can also be found in eastern Paraguay and northern Argentina. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Feijoa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
(O.Berg) O.Berg
Native to
Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast +1
Wild records
383 in range· 269 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jan, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1726mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 169 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (January, March to August and October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1726 mm a year, wettest January at 169 mm, driest August at 117 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -1.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Acca sellowiana (O.Berg) Burret; Acca sellowiana var. rugosa (Mattos) Mattos; Feijoa coolidegii J.R.Duncan & V.C.Davies; Feijoa obovata (O.Berg) O.Berg; Feijoa schenckiana Kiaersk. and 4 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (January, March to August and October in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1226 mm of 1726 mm) takes 8 months, September to February, April and July. Mean temperature moves 10.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: January, March to August and October.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1726 mm a year, wettest January at 169 mm, driest August at 117 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1726 mm a year at the habitat, 1226 mm of it September to February, April and July. Wettest month January at 169 mm, driest August at 117 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1179 mm to 2174 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -1.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -1.0 °C, the absolute minimum -4.8 °C, about 6 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.7 °C in July (across the envelope cells 6.1 °C to 10.0 °C), warmest day 26.3 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 16 °C in Jul to 26 °C in Jan; mean night from 8 °C in Jul to 18 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1726 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 291 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 16–41RH 62–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 291 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 23–2926 / 23–2925 / 22–2722 / 20–2518 / 17–2116 / 14–1916 / 14–1918 / 15–2119 / 16–2122 / 19–2423 / 21–2625 / 23–28
Night °C18 / 15–2018 / 15–2017 / 14–1914 / 12–1611 / 9–138 / 7–118 / 6–109 / 7–1110 / 8–1213 / 10–1515 / 12–1716 / 14–19
Rain mm169 / 103–247163 / 115–235125 / 102–166134 / 101–175132 / 93–160126 / 69–168145 / 62–181117 / 62–149161 / 81–204165 / 109–224145 / 107–184144 / 92–198
DLI40 / 35–4636 / 33–3931 / 29–3324 / 23–2519 / 17–2016 / 14–1818 / 15–1922 / 21–2527 / 25–2933 / 29–3639 / 35–4341 / 37–47
RH %63 / 58–6964 / 60–7064 / 60–6964 / 61–6864 / 62–6764 / 62–6664 / 62–6662 / 60–6463 / 60–6663 / 59–6862 / 58–6762 / 57–68

Each figure is the median across the 291 grid cells holding the 367 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2424:2530 (-31.225, -53.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 291 distinct grid cells holding the 367 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2424:2530 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -31.00_-53.750, lapse-corrected +15 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 287 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBrazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Uruguay· introduced: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Costa Rica, Colombia, Juan Fernández Is.
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-28.072, -50.503 · in the densest population, 173 records (45% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 383 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 269 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 544 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 16 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 383 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Feijoa sellowianaFeijoa sellowianaFeijoa sellowianaFeijoa sellowianaFeijoa sellowianaFeijoa sellowianaFeijoa sellowianaFeijoa sellowiana

Photographs: (c) Denis Zabin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) B. Phalan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) William G. Borges, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Feijoa sellowiana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of Feijoa sellowiana fruit
Maria Luisa Vuotto, Adriana Basile, Vincenza Moscatiello, Pasquale De Sole (2000) · International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents
Feijoa sellowiana derived natural Flavone exerts anti-cancer action displaying HDAC inhibitory activities
Paola Bontempo, Luigi Mita, Marco Miceli, Antonella Doto (2007) · The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology
ANTIOXIDANT AND FREE RADICAL SCAVENGING ACTIVITY OF FEIJOA SALLOWIANA FRUITS PEEL AND LEAVES
Mohammad Ali Ebrahimzadeh, Seyed Jalal Hosseinimehr, A Hamidinia (2008)
Antibacterial activity in Actinidia chinensis, Feijoa sellowiana and Aberia caffra
Adriana Basile, Maria Luisa Vuotto, Umberto Violante, Sergio Sorbo (1997) · International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents
Correlation between Sun Protection Factor and Antioxidant Activity, Phenol and Flavonoid Contents of some Medicinal Plants.
Mohammad Ali Ebrahimzadeh, Reza Enayatifard, Masoumeh Khalili, Mahdieh Ghaffarloo (2014) · PubMed
Somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration from zygotic embryos of Feijoa sellowiana berg
Gil S. Cruz, Jorge Canhoto, Maria Alexandra V. Abreu (1990) · Plant Science
Effect and analysis of phenolic compounds during somatic embryogenesis induction in Feijoa sellowiana Berg
Érika Soares Reis, Maria Teresa Batista, Jorge Canhoto (2008) · PROTOPLASMA
Antibacterial and Antifungal Properties of Acetonic Extract of Feijoa sellowiana Fruits and Its Effect on Helicobacter pylori Growth
Adriana Basile, Barbara Conte, Daniela Rigano, Felice Senatore (2010) · Journal of Medicinal Food
Intensification of bioactive compounds extraction from Feijoa ( Feijoa sellowiana Berg.) leaves using ultrasonic waves
Yasaman Poodi, Mandana Bimakr, Ali Ganjloo, Soheila Zarringhalami (2017) · Food and Bioproducts Processing

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 151 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.