Pomegranate

Pomegranate
[size=75]From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [/size]

The Pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 5–8 m tall. The pomegranate is native to the region from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran to the Himalayas in northern India and has been cultivated and naturalized over the whole Mediterranean region and the Caucasus since ancient times. It is widely cultivated throughout Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, India, the drier parts of southeast Asia, Peninsular Malaysia, the East Indies, and tropical Africa. Introduced into Latin America and California by Spanish settlers in 1769, pomegranate is now cultivated mainly in the drier parts of California and Arizona for its fruits exploited commercially as juice products gaining in popularity since 2001[1][2]. In the global functional food industry, pomegranate is included among a novel category of exotic plant sources called superfruits[3].

In the Northern Hemisphere, the fruit is typically in season from September to January.[4] In the Southern hemisphere, it is in season from March to May.

The leaves are opposite or sub-opposite, glossy, narrow oblong, entire, 3–7 cm long and 2 cm broad. The flowers are bright red, 3 cm in diameter, with four to five petals (often more on cultivated plants). The fruit is between a lemon and a grapefruit in size, 5–12 cm in diameter with a rounded hexagonal shape, and has thick reddish skin and around 600 seeds.[5] The seeds and surrounding pulp, ranging in colour from white to deep red, called arils, are edible; indeed, the fruit of the pomegranate is a berry. There are some cultivars which have been introduced that have a range of pulp colours such as purple.

Punica granatum nana is a dwarf variety of P. granatum popularly used as Bonsai trees and as a patio plant. The only other species in the genus Punica is the Socotran pomegranate (Punica protopunica), which is endemic to the island of Socotra. It differs in having pink (not red) flowers and smaller, less sweet fruit. Pomegranates are drought tolerant, and can be grown in dry areas with either a Mediterranean winter rainfall climate or in summer rainfall climates. In wetter areas, they are prone to root decay from fungal diseases. They are tolerant of moderate frost, down to about −10°C (14°F).

The name “pomegranate” derives from Latin pomum (“apple”) and granatus (“seeded”). This has influenced the common name for pomegranate in many languages (e.g. German Granatapfel, seeded apple). The genus name Punica is named for the Phoenicians, who were active in broadening its cultivation, partly for religious reasons. In classical Latin, where “malum” was broadly applied to many apple-like fruits, the pomegranate’s name was malum punicum or malum granatum, the latter giving rise to the Italian name melograno, or less commonly melagrana.

A separate, widespread root for “pomegranate” comes from the Ancient Egyptian rmn, from which derive the Hebrew rimmôn, and Arabic rummân. This root was given by Arabs to other languages, including Portuguese (romã)[6], Kabyle rrumman and Maltese “rummien”. The pomegranate (‘rimmôn’) is mentioned in the Bible as one of the seven fruits/plants that Israel was blessed with, and in Hebrew, ‘rimmôn’ is also the name of the weapon now called the grenade. According to the OED, the word grenade originated about 1532 from the French name for the pomegranate, la grenade. La grenade also gives us the word grenadine, the name of a kind of fruit syrup, originally made from pomegranates, which is widely used as a cordial and in cocktails.

Even though this fruit does not originate from China, one common nickname is “Chinese apple.” In German and Dutch, the term “Chinese Apple” (apfelsine in German), refers to the orange

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