Pomegranate (redirected from Pommegranite)

pomegranate (pŏm`grănĭt, pŏm`ə–), handsome deciduous and somewhat thorny large shrub or small tree (Punica granatum) belonging to the family Punicaceae, native to semitropical Asia and naturalized in the Mediterranean region in very early times. It has long been cultivated as an ornamental and for its edible fruit. The fruit, about the size of an apple, bears many seeds, each within a fleshy crimson seed coating, enclosed in a tough yellowish to deep red rind. Pomegranates are either eaten fresh or used for grenadine syrup, in which the juice of the acid fruit pulp is the chief ingredient. Grenadine syrup, sometimes made from red currants, is a flavoring for wines, cocktails, carbonated beverages, preserves, and confectionery. The astringent properties of the rind and bark have been valued medicinally for several thousand years, especially as a vermifuge. The pomegranate is now cultivated in most warm climates, to a greater extent in the Old World than in America; in North America it is grown commercially chiefly from California and Arizona south into the tropics. The fruit has long been a religious and artistic symbol. It is described in the most ancient of Asian literature. In the Old Testament, Solomon sang of an "orchard of pomegranates." Because of its role in the Greek legend of Persephone, the pomegranate came to symbolize fertility, death, and eternity and was an emblem of the Eleusinian Mysteries. In Christian art, it is a symbol of hope. Pomegranates are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Myrtales, family Punicaceae.

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pomegranate

Fruit of Punica granatum, a bush or small tree of Asia, which with a little-known species from the island of Socotra constitutes the family Punicaceae. Native to Iran and long cultivated around the Mediterranean and in India, it also grows in the warmer parts of the New World. The orange-sized and obscurely six-sided fruit has smooth, leathery, brownish yellow to red skin. Several chambers contain many thin, transparent vesicles of reddish, juicy pulp, each containing an angular, elongated seed. The fruit is eaten fresh, and the juice is the source of the grenadine syrup used in flavourings and liqueurs. The plant grows 16–23 ft (5–7 m) tall and has elliptical, bright green leaves and handsome orange-red flowers. Throughout the Orient, the pomegranate has since earliest times occupied a position of importance alongside the grape and the fig. It is mentioned in the Bible, by the Prophet Muhammad, and in Greek mythology.

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pomegranate

1. an Asian shrub or small tree, Punica granatum, cultivated in semitropical regions for its edible fruit: family Punicaceae

2. the many-chambered globular fruit of this tree, which has tough reddish rind, juicy red pulp, and many seeds

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pomegranate [′päm·ə‚gran·ət]

(botany)

Punica granatum.A small, deciduous ornamental tree of the order Myrtales cultivated for its fruit, which is a reddish, pomelike berry containing numerous seeds embedded in crimson pulp.

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pomegranate

indicates abundance. [Heraldry: Halberts, 36]

See : Fertility

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pomegranate

bursting with seed, it symbolizes open tomb. [Christian Symbolism: Appleton, 77]

See : Resurrection

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pomegranate

symbol of foolishness. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 176]

See : Stupidity

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Pomegranate

(Punica granatum), a bush or small tree (up to 5 m high) of the family Punicaceae. The leaves are leathery, smooth-edged, and usually fall off before winter. The shoots are prickly. The blossoms form on the new year’s growth. Some of them are large and pitcher-shaped and have a normally developed ovary, pistil, and anthers. These blossoms form the fruits. The other blossoms (85–95 percent) are rudimentary, have short pistils, and fall off. Blossoming occurs from May through August. There is cross-pollination. Fruit-bearing begins in the third or fourth year after planting, and full fruit-bearing starts in the seventh or eighth year. The fruits ripen from September to November. With good care, each plant will produce 50–60 kg of fruit. The pomegranate fruit is berry-shaped and round, with a diameter up to 12 cm, and weighs 300–600 g and more. The calyx of the flower is at the top of the fruit. The fruit contains from 400 to 700 seeds and has a leathery red or yellowish pericarp. The edible part, the juicy pulp surrounding the seeds, makes up about 50 percent of the total mass of the fruit. Pomegranates do not require special soils but grow the best and bear the most fruit in deep loam that is rich in organic matter and has a porous, light subsoil. They endure temperatures as cold as -16° C. Pomegranates grow wild in mountainous areas of Middle Asia, Transcaucasia, northwestern India, Iran, Afghanistan, and Asia Minor. In the USSR they are grown in the Crimea, Dagestan, the Transcaucasian republics, and Middle Asia.

The fruit of the pomegranate is used fresh and also for preparing drinks, syrups, and flavoring from the juice. The juice contains 8–19 percent sugars, 0.3–9 percent citric acid, and also tannin and vitamin C. Dried bark from the trunk, branches, and roots, which contains alkaloids, is used in decoctions and extracts as an anthelmintic preparation, and the skin of the fruit is sometimes used to treat colitis. The leaves, the bark of the roots and trunk, and the fruit peels contain large amounts (up to 32 percent) of tannin, which is used for tanning fine leathers and for dye production. The best varieties cultivated in the Soviet Union are Azerbaijan Giulosha, Pink Giulosha, Bala-miursal’, Shakh-nar, and Krmyzy kabukh, all cultivated in Azerbaijan, and Kazake-anar, Achik-Dona, and Kzyl-anar, cultivated in the Middle Asian republics.

Pomegranates are propagated through cuttings, prepared in fall or winter from the most productive plants, or more rarely by layerings or root offshoots. Seedlings are planted in covered crop areas with 5 × 3 m or 4 × 2 m spacing, or in open ground with 5 × 4 or 5 × 5 m spacing. Care during the growing period involves cultivating the soil, clearing weeds, fertilizing, irrigating, and pruning. Pomegranates are valued in decorative horticulture; ornamental varieties include ones with single and double flowers of white, yellow, and red hues. In the central and northern zone of the European USSR they are grown as pot- or tub-plants. Pomegranates are damaged by codling moths, aphids, and mites and are attacked by stem-end rot (branch cancer).

REFERENCES

Gutiev, G. T. Subtropicheskie plodovye rasteniia. Moscow, 1958.
Derev’ia i kustarniki SSSR, vol. 4.Moscow-Leningrad, 1958.

B. S. ROZNOV