Plant · P-930

Guayusa

Ilex guayusa

Guayusa is an evergreen holly grown for its caffeine theobromine and L-theanine-rich leaves; harvested fresh and steeped as a stimulating tea. Native to premontane Amazonian forest between 200 and 2000 m elevation; wants frost-free warmth humid air and acidic sandy-loam soil in the pH 4.3-5 range and will not tolerate waterlogging. Growth habit shifts with light - stays an understory shrub in shade and becomes a full canopy tree to 30 m in open sun; cultivated plantings are usually kept pruned much shorter. Propagates mainly by basal shoots and suckers rather than seed so an established plant spreads slowly outward from its own root crown. Dioecious - fruiting requires both a male and a female plant.