An apricot is a fruit or the tree that bears the fruit.

Usually, an apricot tree

is from the tree species Prunus armeniaca, but the species Prunus brigantina, P
runus mandshurica, Prunus mume, and Prunus sibirica are closely related, have si
milar fruit, and are also called apricots.[1]
The apricot is a small tree, 812m (2639ft) tall, with a trunk up to 40cm (16in)
in diameter and a dense, spreading canopy. The leaves are ovate, 59cm (2.03.5in)
long and 48cm (1.63.1in) wide, with a rounded base, a pointed tip and a finely
serrated margin. The flowers are 24.5cm (0.81.8in) in diameter, with five white
to pinkish petals; they are produced singly or in pairs in early spring before t
he leaves. The fruit is a drupe similar to a small peach, 1.52.5cm (0.61.0in) di
ameter (larger in some modern cultivars), from yellow to orange, often tinged re
d on the side most exposed to the sun; its surface can be smooth (botanically de
scribed as: glabrous) or velvety with very short hairs (botanically: pubescent).
The flesh is usually firm and not very juicy. Its taste can range from sweet to
tart. The single seed is enclosed in a hard, stony shell, often called a "stone
", with a grainy, smooth texture except for three ridges running down one side.[
2][3]
The origin of the apricot is disputed. It was known in Armenia during ancient ti
mes, and has been cultivated there for so long, it is often thought to have orig
inated there.[4][5] Its scientific name Prunus armeniaca (Armenian plum) derives
from that assumption. For example, the Belgian arborist baron de Poerderl, writ
ing in the 1770s, asserted, "Cet arbre tire son nom de l'Armnie, province d'Asie
, d'o il est originaire et d'o il fut port en Europe ..." ("this tree takes its
name from Armenia, province of Asia, where it is native, and whence it was broug
ht to Europe ...").[6] An archaeological excavation at Garni in Armenia found ap
ricot seeds in an Eneolithic-era site.[7] Despite the great number of varieties
of apricots that are grown in Armenia today (about 50),[5] according to the Sovi
et botanist Nikolai_Vavilov its center of origin would be the Chinese region, wh
ere the domestication of apricot would have taken place. Other sources say that
the apricot was first cultivated in India in about 3000 BC.[8]
Its introduction to Greece is attributed to Alexander the Great;[8] later, the R
oman General Lucullus (10657B.C.) also would have imported some trees the cherr
y, white heart cherry, and apricot from Armenia to Rome[citation needed]. Subse
quent sources were often confused about the origin of the species. John Claudius
Loudon (1838) believed it had a wide native range including Armenia, the Caucas
us, the Himalayas, China, and Japan.[9]
Apricots have been cultivated in Persia since antiquity, and dried ones were an
important commodity on Persian trade routes. Apricots remain an important fruit
in modern-day Iran, where they are known under the common name of zard-l (Persia
n: ).
Egyptians usually dry apricots, add sweetener, and then use them to make a drink
called amar al-dn.
In the 17th century, English settlers brought the apricot to the English colonie
s in the New World. Most of modern American production of apricots comes from th
e seedlings carried to the west coast by Spanish missionaries. Almost all U.S. c
ommercial production is in California, with some in Washington and Utah.
Many apricots are also cultivated in Australia, particularly South Australia, wh
ere they are commonly grown in the region known as the Riverland and round the s
mall town of Mypolonga in the Lower Murray region of the state. In states other
than South Australia, apricots are still grown, particularly in Tasmania and wes
tern Victoria and southwest New South Wales, but they are less common than in So
uth Australia.
Today, apricot cultivation has spread to all parts of the globe with climates th
at support it.
Although the apricot is native to a continental climate region with cold winters
, it can grow in Mediterranean climates if enough cool winter weather allows a p
roper dormancy.[citation needed] A dry climate is good for fruit maturation. The
tree is slightly more cold-hardy than the peach, tolerating winter temperatures
as cold as 30C (22F) or lower if healthy. A limiting factor in apricot culture
is spring frosts: They tend to flower very early, meaning spring frost can kill
the flowers. Furthermore, the trees are sensitive to temperature changes during
the winter season. In China, winters can be very cold, but temperatures tend to
be more stable than in Europe and especially North America, where large temperat
ure swings can occur in winter. Hybridisation with the closely related Prunus si
birica (Siberian apricot; hardy to 50C (58F) but with less palatable fruit) offe
rs options for breeding more cold-tolerant plants.
Apricot cultivars are most often grafted onto plum or peach rootstocks. The scio
n from an existing apricot plant provides the fruit characteristics, such as fla
vour and size, but the rootstock provides the growth characteristics of the plan
t.
Cultivators have created what is known as a "black apricot" or "purple apricot",
(Prunus dasycarpa), a hybrid of an apricot and the cherry plum (Prunus cerasife
ra). Other apricotplum hybrids are variously called plumcots, apriplums, pluots,
or apriums.
Apricots have a chilling requirement of 300 to 900 chilling units. They are hard
y in USDA zones 5 through 8. Some of the more popular US cultivars of apricots i
nclude 'Blenheim', 'Wenatchee Moorpark', 'Tilton', and 'Perfection'.
An old adage says an apricot tree will not grow far from the mother tree; the im
plication is that apricots are particular about the soil conditions in which the
y are grown.[citation needed] They prefer well-drained soils with a pH of 6.0 to
7.0. Some apricot cultivars are self-compatible and do not require pollinizer t
rees; others are not:Moongold and Sungold, for example, must be planted in pairs
so that they can pollinate each other.
Apricots are susceptible to numerous diseases whose relative importance is diffe
rent in the major production regions as a consequence of their climatic differen
ces. Diseases include bacterial canker and blast, bacterial spot and crown gall,
and an even longer list of fungal diseases, including brown rot, black knot, Al
ternaria spot and fruit rot, and powdery mildew. Other problems for apricots are
nematodes and viral and phytoplasma diseases, including graft-transmissible pro
blems.
Seeds or kernels of the apricot grown in central Asia and around the Mediterrane
an are so sweet, they may be substituted for almonds.[citation needed] The Itali
an liqueur amaretto and amaretti biscotti are flavoured with extract of apricot
kernels rather than almonds.[citation needed] Oil pressed from these cultivar ke
rnels, and known as oil of almond, has been used as cooking oil. Kernels contain
between 2.05% and 2.40% hydrogen cyanide, but normal consumption is insufficien
t to produce serious effects.[clarification needed]
Dried apricots are a type of traditional dried fruit. When treated with sulfur d
ioxide (E220), the color is vivid orange. Organic fruit not treated with sulfur
vapor is darker in color and has a coarser texture. The world's largest producer
of dried apricots is Turkey.
Cyanogenic glycosides (found in most stone fruit seeds, bark, and leaves) are fo
und in high concentration in apricot seeds. Laetrile, a purported alternative tr
eatment for cancer, is extracted from apricot seeds. Apricot seeds were used aga
inst tumors as early as AD 502. In England during the 17th century, apricot oil
was also used against tumors, swellings, and ulcers.
A 2011 systematic review of amygdalin from the Cochrane Collaboration found:
The claims that laetrile or amygdalin have beneficial effects for cancer patient
s are not currently supported by sound clinical data. There is a considerable ri
sk of serious adverse effects from cyanide poisoning after laetrile or amygdalin
, especially after oral ingestion. The riskbenefit balance of laetrile or amygda
lin as a treatment for cancer is therefore unambiguously negative.
In Europe, apricots were long considered an aphrodisiac, and were used in this c
ontext in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and as an inducer of
childbirth, as depicted in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi.
Due to their high fiber to volume ratio, dried apricots are sometimes used to re
lieve constipation or induce diarrhea. Effects can be felt after eating as few a
s three.
The scientific name armeniaca was first used by Gaspard Bauhin in his Pinax Thea
tri Botanici (page 442), referring to the species as Mala armeniaca "Armenian ap
ple". It is sometimes stated that this came from Pliny the Elder, but it was not
used by Pliny. Linnaeus took up Bauhin's epithet in the first edition of his Sp
ecies Plantarum in 1753.
The name apricot is probably derived from a tree mentioned as praecocia by Pliny
. Pliny says "We give the name of apples (mala) ... to peaches (persica) and pom
egranates (granata) ..." Later in the same section he states "The Asiatic peach
ripens at the end of autumn, though an early variety (praecocia) ripens in summe
r these were discovered within the last thirty years ...".
The classical authors connected Greek armeniaca with Latin praecocia: Pedanius D
ioscorides' " ... , " and Martial's "Armeniaca, et praecocia latine dicuntur".
Putting together the Armeniaca and the Mala obtains the well-known epithet, but
there is no evidence the ancients did it; Armeniaca alone meant the apricot. No
netheless, the 12th century Andalusian agronomist Ibn al-'Awwam refers to the sp
ecies in the title of chapter 40 of his Kitab al-Filaha (The Book of Agriculture
) as , "apple from Armenia", stating that it is the same as or ("al-mishmish"
or "al-barqq").
Accordingly, the American Heritage Dictionary under apricot derives praecocia fr
om praecoquus, "cooked or ripened beforehand" [in this case meaning early ripeni
ng], becoming Greek praikkion "apricot" and Arabic al-barqq, a term that has b
een used for a variety of different members of the genus Prunus (it currently re
fers primarily to the plum in most varieties of Arabic, but some writers use it
as a catchall term for Prunus fruit).
The English name comes from earlier "abrecock" in turn from the Middle French ab
ricot, from Catalan abercoc. Both the Catalan and the Spanish albaricoque were a
daptations of the Arabic, dating from the Moorish rule of Spain.
However, in Argentina, Chile, and Peru, the word for "apricot" is damasco, which
could indicate that, to the Spanish settlers of Argentina, the fruit was associ
ated with Damascus in Syria. The word damasco is also the word for "apricot" in
Portuguese (both European and Brazilian, though in Portugal the word alperce is
also used).
The Chinese associate the apricot with education and medicine. For instance, the
classical word (literally: "apricot altar") which means "educational circle",
is still widely used in written language. Chuang Tzu, a Chinese philosopher in 4
th century BCE, told a story that Confucius taught his students in a forum surro
unded by the wood of apricot trees. The association with medicine in turn comes
from the common use of apricot kernels as a component in traditional Chinese med
icine, and from the story of Dong Feng (), a physician during the Three Kingdoms
period, who required no payment from his patients except that they plant aprico
t trees in his orchard on recovering from their illnesses, resulting in a large
grove of apricot trees and a steady supply of medicinal ingredients. The term "E
xpert of the Apricot Grove" () is still used as a poetic reference to physicians
.
The fact that apricot season is very short has given rise to the very common Egy
ptian Arabic and Palestinian Arabic expression "filmishmish" ("in apricot [seaso
n]") or "bukra filmishmish" ("tomorrow in apricot [season]"), generally uttered
as a riposte to an unlikely prediction, or as a rash promise to fulfill a reques
t.
The Turkish idiom "bundan iyisi am'da kays" (literally, the only thing better th
an this is an apricot in Damascus) means "it doesn't get any better than this".
It is used when something is the very best it can be, like a delicious apricot f
rom Damascus.
According to FAOSTAT, the top producers of apricots (in tonnes) in 2012 were as
follows: