HISTORY

The word pomegranate comes from the Latin "Pomum Granatum" and means "apple of many seeds." Another early name, "Malum Punicum," means "Apple of Carthage. The most famous varieties in Roman times were pomegranate fruit raised in gardens around ancient Carthage.

The pomegranate was grown in the gardens of Alcinous (probably in Sicily) as mentioned by Homer in the Odyssey. The word pomegranate comes from the French "Pome Garnete" (seeded apple).

The wild pomegranate predates modern human civilization. The cultivated pomegranate appeared in the ancient civilization of Sumer located between the Tigris and Euphrates over 4000 years ago. That location is in modern day Iraq. .

It is believed that the fruit spread from the mountains of Persia and South Central Asia, from where it spread, in all directions, from there within the sub-tropical zones, of the ancient world. The Phoenecians spread it within the Mediterranean region.

The pomegranate, arrived in  China from Central Asia in about the second century B.C.. Homer mentions it in the Odyssey as a fruit common in Phoenicia. Theophrastus described the pomegranate in his "Natural History" written many years before the Christian era. The pomegranate is also mentioned in the Old Testament several times where it is described as a plant that was cultivated for its fruit. Some believe that the pomegranate (seeded apple) was the true fruit on the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. The Romans considered it a valuable fruit and thought the best kinds came from Carthage where there were large sweet varieties.

"Pomum granatum" or seeded apple was the name it was called in the middle ages. Linnaeus named it "Punica Granatum" its current scientific name.

There is a quote from "Romeo and Juliet": "Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree. Believe me, love, it was the nightingale". There is a word in Sanskrit for pomegranate in the Indus valley, as a celebrated fruit.

In India, festive occasions are celebrated with pomegranates, grapes and jujubes.

The pomegranate was refferred to as the "fruit of paradise" by anceint traders. Probably Arabian caravans carried the fruit with othere trade goods and spices, as well as the water and food they transported for the travelers. The pomegranate’s leathery-skin provided a long storage life and was a replacement for water and easier to carry. Containing up to 80 percent water, the fruit supplies liquid and minerals - sodium, potassium, calcium iron and phosphorus that travelers lost to sweat in the hot deserts they crossed. Pomegranates generally were grown in the settlements they visited (at least after they visited).

The Greek, legend of Persephone, is one of our most evocative stories, about the pomegranate. Persephone was abducted and given 6 pomegranate seeds secretly while she was in the underworld. Because she had tasted the fruit in Hades, she was banished to the realm of darkness in winter for a 1/3 part of the year and allowed to come forth into the light in spring where she remained until winter came around again.

In the Muslim Qu’uran the pomegranate is called the "Fruit of Paradise". In Arabic folklore and poetry, it is the symbol for the fluid of life (the mothers breast).

Jewish custom considers the pomegranate important. Tradition has it that a pomegranate has 613 seeds to represent the 613 commandments in the Torah. The pomegranate symbol is woven into high priest’s robes. The pomegranate is also mentioned in the "Song of Solomon". It is the symbol of fertility, relating to the first commandment of the Torah, to be fruitful and multiply.

The pomegranate is mentioned in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics as "First among fruits".

The Chinese consider the pomegranate one of the three blessed fruit (the others are the citron and peach). The numerous seeds symbolized many male offspring dispersed around the world earning fame, fortune and glory.

The Spanish brought the pomegranate to the New World with their conquests, to Mexico in the 1500's, and California in the 1600-1700's. They also brought it to Spanish Florida with them.

In the early 1900's the USDA Division of Seed and Plant Introduction listed over 100 varieties or pomegranates, many of them seedlings of the varieties the Spanish introduced earlier. The USDA held pomegranate germ plasm at the Plant Introduction Station at Chico, California in the early years. It may be that the pomegranate came to the deep south and Florida with the oranges that the Spanish introduced.

The variety that most see in the nurseries nowadays is called "Wonderful" and was found in a batch of cuttings that Mr. Bearrs or Porterville, California got from Florida in 1896, in which one of the cuttings proved especially good.

The pomegranate has never gained the popularity in the United States that it holds in many other countries because people think it is hard to eat. But now that pomegranate juice is gaining fame for its health benefits, it is becoming popular.