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Of the estimated 50,000 edible plant species on earth, humanity relies on just a tiny collection of 100 or so key crops for pretty much everything we eat. As a greedy botanist I am eternally fascinated by the 99.8% on which we are missing out. After valiantly munching my way though a fair few over the years, right at the top of my list is still the Chilean guava, an exotic Andean berry.
Hailing from the shady understorey of Valdivian rainforest at the tip of South America, these small, evergreen shrubs are well suited to our cool, humid climate, offering up generous harvests of little deep-pink berries late each autumn. About the same size and shape as a blueberry, of which they are close relatives, the fruit have a powerful candyfloss aroma of the best wild strawberries, set off by an intense sweetness that no blueberry could ever match.
Unlike many other berries, they are also high in pectin, making them the perfect addition to pies, jams and cordials for knock-out fragrance with an unctuous set. Traditionally prized for everything from liqueurs to ice creams in their native Chile, the fruit are now cultivated in Tasmania under the brand name Tazziberry and in New Zealand as a Ugniberry. Even Queen Victoria is said to have been a fan, having the fruit freighted to London by train from farms in the West Country.
Compared with all common berry crops, I also find these also the most ornamental, with beautiful scented flowers like pink flushed lily-of-the-valley scattered on their branches in midsummer, followed by the pretty, dusky-red fruit in late autumn and winter. The plant’s small, glossy evergreen leaves make it a convincing substitute for traditional hedging plants like box, and also happen to be totally immune to box blight.
Unusually for a fruit crop, Chilean guavas prefer damp, shady spots to basking in full sun – not only growing more luxuriantly but producing bigger yields of larger, tastier fruit. I particularly love the British-bred cultivar ‘Ka Pow’, which produces the biggest flowers and berries of all, with an excellent flavour to boot. Unlike their relative the blueberry, they are much less fussy about soil, and although they prefer a slightly acid mix they have grown well on my Croydon chalk for more than a decade.
The plants have a reputation for being slightly on the tender side, but I have mates who have grown them outside in Sheffield and Newcastle, where they sail through winter lows, which makes sense considering they originate from the same regions as hardy exotics like the monkey puzzle tree.
Plant a little hedge of these guys and thank me for decades to come (hopefully with a punnet or two).
Email James at james.wong@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @Botanygeek
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Gardens: the remarkably under-rated Chilean guava
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