Prunus armeniaca is the most commonly cultivated apricot species. The native range is somewhat uncertain due to its extensive prehistoric cultivation. Genetic studies indicate Central Asia is the center of origin.[ It is extensively cultivated in many countries and has escaped into the wild in many places.][ Flora of North America, Prunus armeniaca Linnaeus, 1753. Apricot][ Altervista Flora Italiana, Albicocco, Prunus armeniaca L. includes photos and European distribution map]
The specific epithet armeniaca refers to the country of Armenia in Western Asia.
Description
Prunus armeniaca is a small tree, tall, with a trunk up to in diameter and a dense, spreading canopy. The
leaf are
leaf shape, long and wide, with a rounded base, a pointed tip and a finely serrated margin. The
are in diameter, with five white to pinkish petals; they are produced singly or in pairs in early spring before the leaves. The
fruit is a
drupe similar to a small
peach, diameter (larger in some modern
), from yellow to orange, often tinged red on the side most exposed to the sun; its surface can be smooth (botanically described as: ) or velvety with very short hairs (botanically: ). The flesh (mesocarp) is succulent and its taste can range from sweet to tart. The single
seed is enclosed in a hard, stony shell, often called a "stone", with a grainy, smooth texture except for three ridges running down one side.
[Rushforth, K. (1999). Trees of Britain and Europe. Collins .]
Varieties
According to the Catalogue of Life and Flora of China, there are six varieties of
P. armeniaca:
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Prunus armeniaca var. ansu – ansu apricot (, anzu), pink-flowered, East Asia
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Prunus armeniaca var. armeniaca – common apricot, Central Asia and China, widely cultivated
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Prunus armeniaca var. holosericea – Tibetan apricot, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Tibet
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Prunus armeniaca var. meixianensis – Mei County apricot, double-flowered, Shaanxi
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Prunus armeniaca var. xiongyueensis – Xiongyue apricot, Liaoning
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Prunus armeniaca var. zhidanensis – Zhidan apricot, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, and Shanxi
Cultivation and uses
Origin, domestication and diffusion
According to the Soviet botanist Nikolai Vavilov, the center of origin of P. armeniaca is Central Asia, where its domestication would have taken place, and China is another center of domestication.
There were at least three independent domestication events in the demographic history of P. armeniaca:[
]
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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.
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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.
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The third one occurred in China and gave rise to cultivated apricot in East Asia. It involved the wild populations from northern Central Asia, and the kernel-using varieties have introgression from Prunus sibirica.
The cultivated apricot diffused westward by two main routes: one is Central Asia → West Asia → Mediterranean Europe & North Africa, and the other is Central Asia → continental Europe. In addition, the cultivated apricot from Japan had a minor contribution to that in Mediterranean Europe.[
]
History of cultivation
Eastern Eurasia
The earliest archaeological evidence for apricots comes from Kuahuqiao site (6,000–5,400 BCE) in East China.[Davidson, Alan. "Apricot" The Oxford Companion to Food, Oxford University Press, 2014 (unpaginated).]
Archaeological evidence shows that apricot cultivation had occurred in Kashmir by the 2nd millenium BCE.[
]
Western Eurasia and the Mediterranean region
Apricot stones from the Chalcolithic era have been found at Garni and Shengavit in Armenia.[Arakelyan, B. (1968). "Excavations at Garni, 1949–50", p. 29 in Contributions to the Archaeology of Armenia. Henry Field (ed.). Cambridge.] The common 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.[
]
Apricots have been cultivated in Greater Iran since antiquity, and dried ones were an important commodity on Persian trade routes. Apricots remain an important fruit in modern-day Iran.
Egyptians usually dry apricots, add sweetener, and then use them to make a drink called amar al-dīn.
Its introduction to Greece is attributed to Alexander the Great.[Huxley, A., ed. (1992). New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. Vol. 1, pp. 203–205. Macmillan. .]
An article on Apricot cultivation in Andalusia of Spain is brought down in Ibn al-'Awwam's 12th-century agricultural work, Book on Agriculture.[ (pp. –315 (Article XL)]
In England during the 17th century, apricot oil was used in herbalism treatments intended to act against tumors, swelling, and Peptic ulcers.
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 New Spain missionaries. Almost all U.S. commercial production is in California, with some in Washington and Utah.[Agricultural Marketing Resource Center: Apricots ]
Uses
Seeds or kernels of the apricot grown in central Asia and around the Mediterranean may be substituted for bitter . The Italian liqueur amaretto and amaretti biscotti are flavoured with extract of apricot kernels rather than almonds. Vegetable oil pressed from these cultivar kernels, and known as oil of almond, has been used as cooking oil. Kernels contain between 2.05% and 2.40% hydrogen cyanide, but consumption after proper processing is sufficient to reduce harmful effects.[ Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa – Watt & Breyer-Brandwijk (1962)]
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. Carl Linnaeus took up Bauhin's epithet in the first edition of his Species Plantarum in 1753.[Linnaeus, C. (1753). Species Plantarum 1:474.]
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) ..."[N.H. Book XV Chapter XI, Rackham translation from the Loeb edition.] 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:[ Holland's chapter enumeration varies from Pliny's.] Pedanius Dioscorides' " ... Ἀρμενιακὰ, Ῥωμαιστὶ δὲ βρεκόκκια"[De Materia Medica Book I Chapter 165.] and Martial's "Armeniaca, et praecocia latine dicuntur".[Epigram XIII Line 46.] 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 American Heritage Dictionary under apricot derives praecocia from praecoquus, "cooked or ripened beforehand" in, becoming Greek πραικόκιον praikókion "apricot" and Arabic البرقوق al-barqūq, a term that has been used for a variety of different members of the genus Prunus (it currently refers primarily to the plum in most varieties of Arabic, but some writers use it as a catchall term for Prunus fruit).
The English name comes from earlier " abrecock" in turn from the Middle French abricot, from Catalan language abercoc in turn from Spanish language albaricoque.[ Webster's Third New International Dictionary under Apricot.] The Spanish language albaricoque were adaptation of the Arabic language البرقوق (al-barqūq), dating from the Al-Andalus. Al-barquq in its turn comes from the Aramaic/Syriac word of barquqyo.
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.
In culture
The China associate the apricot with education and medicine. For instance, the classical word (literally: 'apricot altar') which means "educational circle", is still widely used in written language. Zhuang Zhou, a Chinese philosopher in the 4th century BCE, told a story that Confucius taught his students in a forum surrounded by the wood of apricot trees.
In Armenia, the wood of the apricot tree is used for making wood carvings such as the duduk, which is a popular wind instrument in Armenia and is also called " apricot pipe" (). Several hand-made souvenirs are also made from the apricot wood. The colour is used on the flag of Armenia.
See also
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Barack (brandy)
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List of apricot diseases
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Peacotum, peach-apricot-plum hybrids
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Pluot, various apricot-plum hybrids, mostly involving P. armeniaca
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Prunus dasycarpa, "black apricot" or "purple apricot", a P. armeniaca hybrid
External links
