Prunus armeniaca
Prunus armeniaca | |
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Apricot fruits | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Rosales |
Family: | Rosaceae |
Genus: | Prunus |
Subgenus: | Prunus subg. Prunus |
Section: | Prunus sect. Armeniaca |
Species: | P. armeniaca
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Binomial name | |
Prunus armeniaca | |
Synonyms[2][3] | |
Prunus armeniaca is the most commonly cultivated
The
Description
Prunus armeniaca is a small tree, 8–12 m (26–39 ft) tall, with a trunk up to 40 cm (16 in) in diameter and a dense, spreading canopy. The
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Apricot flowers in the village of Benhama, Kashmir
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Unripe fruits
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Apricot and its cross-section
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Bark from an old species in Luoyang
Varieties
According to the Catalogue of Life and Flora of China, there are six varieties of P. armeniaca:[11][12]
- Prunus armeniaca var. ansu – ansu apricot (Japanese: アンズ, anzu), pink-flowered, East Asia
- Prunus armeniaca var. armeniaca – common apricot, Central Asia and China, widely cultivated
- Prunus armeniaca var. holosericea – Tibetan apricot, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Tibet
- Prunus armeniaca var. meixianensis – Mei County apricot, double-flowered, Shaanxi
- Prunus armeniaca var. xiongyueensis – Xiongyue apricot, Liaoning
- Prunus armeniaca var. zhidanensis – Zhidan apricot, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, and Shanxi
Cultivation and uses
Origin, domestication and diffusion
According to the Soviet botanist
There were at least three independent domestication events in the demographic history of P. armeniaca:[4]
- The one from the wild populations in southern Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan) gave rise to the cultivated apricot in southern Central Asia and northern South Asia.
- The one from the wild populations in northern Central Asia (Kazakhstan) gave rise to the cultivated apricot in northern Central Asia, West Asia (including Armenia, Europe and North Africa.
- The third one occurred in China and gave rise to cultivated apricot in East Asia. It involved the wild populations from northern Central Asia or/and its hybrids with P. sibirica.
The cultivated apricot diffused westward by two main routes: one is Central Asia → West Asia →
History of cultivation
The apricot was known in Armenia during ancient times, and has been cultivated there for so long that it was previously thought to have originated there.[14] An archaeological excavation at Garni in Armenia found apricot seeds in a Chalcolithic-era site.[15] Its scientific name Prunus armeniaca (Armenian plum) derives from that assumption. For example, Belgian arborist Baron de Poerderlé, writing in the 1770s, asserted, "Cet arbre tire son nom de l'Arménie, province d'Asie, d'où il est originaire et d'où il fut porté en Europe ..." ("this tree takes its name from Armenia, province of Asia, where it is native, and whence it was brought to Europe ...").[16] A large variety of apricots, around 50, are grown in Armenia today.[14]
Apricots have been cultivated in China since no later than 1000 BC.[17] Beginning in about the seventh century, apricots in China have been preserved by various methods, including salting and smoking, and the more common drying. Hubei is noted for its black smoked apricots.[18]
Its introduction to Greece is attributed to Alexander the Great.[19]
Apricots have been cultivated in Persia since antiquity, and dried ones were an important commodity on Persian trade routes. Apricots remain an important fruit in modern-day Iran.[citation needed]
An article on Apricot cultivation in Andalusia of Spain is brought down in Ibn al-'Awwam's 12th-century agricultural work, Book on Agriculture.[20]
Egyptians usually dry apricots, add sweetener, and then use them to make a drink called amar al-dīn.[citation needed]
In England during the 17th century, apricot oil was used in
In the 17th century, English settlers brought the apricot to the English colonies in the New World. Most of modern American production of apricots comes from the seedlings carried to the West Coast by Spanish missionaries. Almost all U.S. commercial production is in California, with some in Washington and Utah.[22]
Today, apricot cultivation has spread to all parts of the globe having climates that can support its growth needs.
Uses
Seeds or kernels of the apricot grown in
Etymology
The scientific name armeniaca was first used by Gaspard Bauhin in his Pinax Theatri Botanici (page 442), referring to the species as Mala armeniaca "Armenian apple". It is sometimes stated that this came from Pliny the Elder, but it was not used by Pliny. Linnaeus took up Bauhin's epithet in the first edition of his Species Plantarum in 1753.[24]
The name apricot is probably derived from a tree mentioned as praecocia by Pliny. Pliny says "We give the name of apples (mala) ... to peaches (persica) and pomegranates (granata) ..."[25] Later in the same section he states "The Asiatic peach ripens at the end of autumn, though an early variety (praecocia) ripens in summer – these were discovered within the last thirty years ...".
The classical authors connected Greek armeniaca with Latin praecocia:[26] Pedanius Dioscorides' " ... Ἀρμενιακὰ, Ῥωμαιστὶ δὲ βρεκόκκια"[27] and Martial's "Armeniaca, et praecocia latine dicuntur".[28] Putting together the Armeniaca and the Mala obtains the well-known epithet, but there is no evidence the ancients did it; Armeniaca alone meant the apricot. Nonetheless, the 12th century Andalusian agronomist Ibn al-'Awwam refers to the species in the title of chapter 40 of his Kitab al-Filaha as والتفاح الارمني, "apple from Armenia", stating that it is the same as المشمش or البرقوق ("al-mishmish" or "al-barqūq").
Accordingly, the
The English name comes from earlier "abrecock" in turn from the
However, in Argentina and Chile the word for "apricot" is damasco, which could indicate that, to the Spanish settlers of these countries, the fruit was associated with Damascus in Syria.[30] The word damasco is also the word for "apricot" in Portuguese (both European and Brazilian, though in Portugal the words alperce and albricoque are also used).
In culture
The
In Armenia, the wood of the apricot tree is used for making wood carvings such as the
See also
- Barack (brandy)
- List of apricot diseases
- Peacotum, peach-apricot-plum hybrids
- Pluot, various apricot-plum hybrids, mostly involving P. armeniaca
- Prunus dasycarpa, "black apricot" or "purple apricot", a P. armeniaca hybrid
References
- ^ Pollard, R.P.; Rhodes, L.; Maxted, N. & Rivers, M.C. (2000). "Prunus armeniaca". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2000: e.T50134200A50134213. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
- ^ "Prunus armeniaca". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 2012-06-22.
- ^ The Plant List, Prunus armeniaca L.
- ^ S2CID 207833328.
- ^ PMID 32523597.
- ^ Flora of North America, Prunus armeniaca Linnaeus, 1753. Apricot
- ^ Australia, Atlas of Living. "Prunus armeniaca : Apricot – Atlas of Living Australia". bie.ala.org.au.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Altervista Flora Italiana, Albicocco, Prunus armeniaca L. includes photos and European distribution map
- ISBN 978-0-19-101825-1.
- ISBN 0-00-220013-9.
- ^ a b Lu, Lingdi; Bartholomew, Bruce (2003). "Armeniaca vulgaris". In Wu, Z.Y.; Raven, P. H.; Hong, D.Y. (eds.). Flora of China. Vol. 9. Beijing & St. Louis: Science Press & Missouri Botanical Garden Press. pp. 396–401.
- ^ "Prunus armeniaca L." Catalogue of Life. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
- ISBN 9780933421189.
- ^ a b "VII Symposium on Apricot Culture and Decline". International Society for Horticultural Science. Retrieved 2012-06-22.
- ^ Arakelyan, B. (1968). "Excavations at Garni, 1949–50", p. 29 in Contributions to the Archaeology of Armenia. Henry Field (ed.). Cambridge.
- ^ De Poerderlé, M. le Baron (1788). Manuel de l'Arboriste et du Forestier Belgiques: Seconde Édition: Tome Premier. Brussels: Emmanuel Flon. p. 682.
- ^ Zohary, Daniel; Hopf, Maria; Weiss, Ehud (2012). Domestication of Plants in the Old World. Oxford University Press. p. 144.
- ^ Davidson, Alan. "Apricot" The Oxford Companion to Food, Oxford University Press, 2014 (unpaginated).
- ISBN 0-333-47494-5.
- –315 (Article XL)
- ISBN 978-0-471-62882-8.
- ^ Agricultural Marketing Resource Center: Apricots Archived 2007-06-07 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa – Watt & Breyer-Brandwijk (1962)
- ^ Linnaeus, C. (1753). Species Plantarum 1:474.
- N.H. Book XV Chapter XI, Rackham translation from the Loebedition.
- ^ Holland, Philemon (1601). "The XV. Booke of the Historie of Nature, Written by Plinius Secundus: Chap. XIII". James Eason at penelope.uchicago.edu. pp. Note 31 by Eason relates some scholarship of Jean Hardouin making the connection. Holland's chapter enumeration varies from Pliny's.
- Materia MedicaBook I Chapter 165.
- ^ Epigram XIII Line 46.
- ^ Webster's Third New International Dictionary under Apricot.
- ^ "DICTIONARY > english–latin american Spanish" (PDF).
- ^ "《莊子·漁父》". Ctext.org. Retrieved 2012-06-22.
External links
- Media related to Prunus armeniaca at Wikimedia Commons
- "Prunus armeniaca". Plants for a Future.
- "Prunus armeniaca mandschurica". Plants for a Future.