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Prunus dulcis

It is difficult to say exactly where the origins of the almond lies. The common assumption is that it lies somewhere in South-Western Asia, potentially as far west as the Eastern Mediterranian. However, almonds have been cultivated and escaped cultivation for such a long time, that it is difficult to differentiate naturalised from wild plants.

 

While almonds (the fruit) are traded as nuts, they are botanically speaking drupes rather than nuts. The main difference is that drupes have a fleshy shell around the seed while nuts. Thus hazelnuts are actual nuts while walnuts, pecans and of course almonds are the seeds of drupes. Together with the name-giving plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, and apricots, almonds are members of the Prunus family. Along with peaches, the almonds are often classified in a seperate subgenus (Prunus subg. Amygdalus), which is distinguished from the other subgenera by corrugations on the seed shell. However, that classification does not seem to be generally agreed upon.

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Uploaded on March 20, 2024