History Of The Apricot Fruit Prunus Armeniaca L. And Flowering Apricot Trees Prunus Mume
Apricots originated on the Russian-Chinese border in about 3000 BC and were imported along with peach seed into Europe through the Silk Road that extended camelback trading to the Mideast. The fruit grows as an escaped naturalized plant along modern roadsides in Turkey and Armenia today in abundant numbers. Apricots were known in ancient Greece in 60 BC and later introduced into the Roman Empire. The apricot trees are believed to have arrived in the early American colonies in seed form for growing into fruit trees by the French explorers of the 1700s in Gulf regions and in the Eastern United States and at California monasteries by Spanish explorers and missionaries.
The apricot, Prunus armeniaca L., has a distinctive taste and no other fruit has a flavor to match it. Fresh apricots picked directly from the trees are delicious, if a person is fortunate enough to live close to an apricot tree orchard. Canners of the apricot fruit have supplied national markets reliably with tasty tree-ripened apricots. The most important market for apricot fruit developed from the exceptional...