The apricot's scientific name honours Armenia, but genetics points to China
Botanists named the common apricot Prunus armeniaca because it had grown in Armenia for so long that it seemed native there. Genetic studies instead back Nikolai Vavilov's idea that it was domesticated in Central Asia and China. Its English name took a winding route through Latin, Greek, Arabic and Spanish.
An apricot is the fruit, or the tree, of several Prunus species, most often P. armeniaca. The tree seldom exceeds 8 metres, with a rounded crown, and opens white or pinkish blossoms about 2 cm wide before its leaves appear. The fruit is an orange-yellow stone fruit blushed with red. In 2023 the world grew 3.7 million tonnes, with Turkey supplying 20 percent.
From its eastern homeland the crop spread south into South Asia, west to Armenia, Europe and North Africa, and east to Japan. It reached southwest Asia from Iran or Armenia in the third century BC and within a few centuries was grown in Syria, Turkey, Greece and Italy. The word travelled too. Latin praecocia, early ripening, became a Greek term, then Arabic al-barquq, then Spanish and French forms, before surfacing in 16th-century English as abrecock.
Relatives include the Siberian apricot, grown for its kernel and hardy to minus 50 degrees Celsius, and the flowering apricot P. mume of southern China, prized for blossom. The Briancon apricot of Europe is a puzzle: chloroplast DNA groups it with plums, nuclear DNA with apricots. Breeders have also crossed apricots with plums to create plumcots, pluots and apriums.
Growing apricots is a gamble on weather. Trees need 300 to 900 chilling units and survive winters of about minus 30 degrees, but bloom so early, around early March in western Europe, that spring frost often kills the flowers. China's steadier winters suit them better than the wild swings of North America. Orchards graft named varieties such as Blenheim onto plum or peach roots, and some, like Moongold and Sungold, must be planted in pairs to pollinate each other. Unlike peaches, apricots escape leaf curl. In Austria the fruit becomes Marillenknodel, sweet dumplings.
Source: Apricot
