She is obviously a health nut as her breakfast consists of avocado, strawberry guava, nuts and passion fruit.
A happy Friday to all and we also wish you a great weekend.
Today we have made a wonderful discovery, as the little squirrel mom gave us a new lesson on the identity of a tree in our front garden. I will explain it all in the pictures below and we were very happy about the new discovery.
So, come and see!
At first she had some avocado and we know that it's her favorite. So my wife puts some avo skins out for her every morning.
Ah! This picture below alerted us to a new fruit source. What was that little, red and round fruit that she was eating?
A new discovery right under our noses.
This little evergreen tree next to our study window is in fact a Strawberry guava tree. And we didn't know that until we saw the squirrel eating its fruits.
The Strawberry guava tree somehow floated over the ocean from Brazil along with the granadilla, passion-fruit, plant, to come and live in our garden :))
Psidium cattleyanum is a small, highly-branched tree that reaches a maximum height of 13 meters, although most individuals are between 2 and 4 m. P. cattleyanum has smooth, grey to reddish-brown bark, with oval to elliptical leaves that grow to 4.5 cm in length. It bears fruit when the plants are between 3 and 6 years old. This fruit has thin skin that ranges from yellow to a dark red or purple, is ovular in shape, and grows to around 4 cm in length. Its flowers grow either individually or in clusters of three, and each flower has five petals.
Psidium cattleyanum (World Plants : Psidium cattleianum), commonly known as Cattley guava, strawberry guava or cherry guava, is a small tree (2–6 m tall) in the Myrtaceae (myrtle) family. The species is named in honour of English horticulturist William Cattley. Its genus name Psidium comes from the Latin psidion, or "armlet." The red-fruited variety, P. cattleyanum var. cattleyanum, is commonly known as purple guava, red cattley guava, red strawberry guava and red cherry guava.
Look how the fruits fall under the tree and this is where the squirrels pick the ripe ones up to eat. We will have to remove the fruits, as the squirrels will go and bury them in the gardens around here, resulting in a strawberry guava forest starting to grow.
Here she switched over to have some nuts.
And finally, I seemed to have disturbed her, as she gave me "That" look.
Hey Zac, please go inside so that a girl can eat in peace!
After she had her breakfast, she departed and left me this empty granadilla shell as a gift :))
Such is life, and we learn new things every day. We both tasted the strawberry guava fruits, and it has a distinct guava taste, with a trace of a tarty citrus flavor. I bet that some nice tarts and cheesecakes can be made with the fruit, and we will search for some recipes. Watching the habits of wild little animals can teach one a lot about nature, and I bet that long ago monkeys taught mankind how to eat bananas Lol.
Be it as it may, we are so glad to have the little animals here, as they are all cuties and each of them has their own different and unique character. We call them blessings.
I hope you have enjoyed the story and the pictures.
Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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