pear Eugenia / pêra-do-cerrado

Photo: João Medeiros — CC BY 2.0 · source

Survives zone 8 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

⚠ Large velvety pear-shaped yellow fruit — strongly aromatic but sharply acidic; for juice, jam and liqueur rather than fresh eating. Care: Winter protection — mulch, fleece, or a warm wall.

Hardiness

Zone 8–9

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer

Mature size

Low subshrub 0.5–1.5 m from a woody underground rootstock; containerable

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

5.5–7.0 (acid–neutral; dislikes chalk)

Environment

Cerrado

Native range

Cerrado and campo of central Brazil — Distrito Federal, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

3–4 yrs

Growth speed

Slow

Spacing

150 cm (59 in) apart — about 2.3 m² (24 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Opposite, elliptic to oblong, leathery and conspicuously hairy on both surfaces when young, 6–12 cm long, with the marginal vein typical of Eugenia.

Root system

Extensive woody underground system running more or less parallel to the surface, from which multiple stems arise — plants form interconnected clumps (touceiras) rather than single trunks. The visible shrub is a small part of the plant, and this is what carries it through cerrado fire and drought.

Fruit description

Distinctly pear-shaped, downy, 5–8 cm long — much the largest fruit of the cerrado Eugenias and the reason for its name, pera-do-cerrado. Yellow when ripe, aromatic and juicy, acid in flavour, rich in fibre, iron and carotenoids. Usually cooked into jelly or jam rather than eaten raw.

Propagation

Seed sown fresh from ripe fruit; seed is recalcitrant and will not tolerate drying. Division of the underground system is possible but slow to re-establish.

Pollination

Self-fertile, better with a partner

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.