The first historical accounts of walnut trees growing under civilized cultivation was in ancient Babylon (Iraq) about 2000 B.C.; however, walnuts have evidently been attached to mankind much earlier by excavations from cave fossils as suggested by archeologists. There is a reference point in the Biblical record in the Old Testament, that King Solomon was growing nuts (identified as walnuts by some translators), however, the likelihood of these nuts being other than almonds is very remote, because of the almond nut image that was used as symbols commonly in Hebrew icons and stone carving displays in Jerusalem inside Solomons temple. The adaptability of almonds is much more likely for almond trees to succeed than for walnut trees in the climate and soils of Israel.
The Greeks were credited with the first certified improvements in the size and quality of the Persian (Iran and Iraq) today called English walnut trees through selection and cultivation. The Romans soon established the Persian walnut trees throughout most of Europe and much of North Africa, that have most popularly become known today as the English walnut trees.
English Walnuts, Juglans regia, were...