The apricot or common apricot tree (Prunus armeniaca or Armenian plum in Latin,
syn. Armeniaca vulgaris,
Armenian: Ծիրան,
Chinese: 杏子,
Czech: Meruňka) is a
fruit-bearing
tree, whose native range is somewhat ambiguous, due to the prehistoric antiquity of its
cultivars. The GRIN database gives only
Kyrgyzstan and
China with the cryptic comment: "widely cultivated, exact native range obscure."
Loudon earlier was rather more sanguine: "It is a native of
Armenia,
Caucasus, the
Himalayas,
China and
Japan, where it forms a large spreading tree." Nearly all sources presume that because it is named armeniaca, the tree must be native to or have originated in
Armenia as the Romans knew it. For example, De Poerderlé asserts: "Cet arbre tire son name de l'Arménie, province d'Asie, d'où il est originaire et d'où il fut porté en Europe ...." (this tree takes its name from Armenia, province of Asia, where it is native, and whence it was brought to Europe ....) This presumption is an heirloom. There is little evidence to support such a view (see under Taxonomy below). Today the cultivars have sperad to all quarters of the globe with environments that support it. It is classified with the
plum in the
subgenus Prunus of the
Prunus genus.
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