The feijoa is native to temperate regions of Southern Brazil, parts of Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Northern Argentina. However, they have been naturalized in many other countries including New Zealand. In fact, New Zealand is now one of the primary producers of feijoas in the world. The fruit was introduced to New Zealand in the mid-1920s. Very quickly it was discovered that New Zealand had the perfect climate to grow feijoas. This unique fruit has flowers that have a remarkable resemblance to our New Zealand national flower the Pohutukawa tree. They were first discovered in 1815 by a little-known German explorer Friedrich Sellow who was a botanist and naturalist. He was one of the earliest European scientific explorers of Brazil.