avocado

avocado

1. a pear-shaped fruit having a leathery green or blackish skin, a large stony seed, and a greenish-yellow edible pulp

2. the tropical American lauraceous tree, Persea americana, that bears this fruit

3. a dull greenish colour resembling that of the fruit

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

avocado

avocado

Tree grows to 75 ft (25m) Alternate simple pointy leaves, shiny on top, lighter and soft underneath with ribs. Small greenish yellow flowers. Fruit is high in monounsaturated fat.(that’s good). The mineral-rich pit can be easily liquified in a Vitamix. The avocado plant is toxic to most animals. Avocado leaves are toxic, do not use them.

Edible Plant Guide © 2012 Markus Rothkranz

avocado

[‚av·ə′käd·ō]

(botany)

Persea americana. A subtropical evergreen tree of the order Magnoliales that bears a pulpy pear-shaped edible fruit.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Avocado

 

or alligator pear (Persea), a genus of evergreen fruit-bearing plants of the laurel family. Avocado trees grow to 10–20 m high and have monoecious, almost white blossoms that form paniculate racemes. Their fruits are large dark green or almost black monospermous drupes (length 5–20 cm, weight 250–600 g) that come in several shapes. There are about ten species of avocado (more than 20 according to some sources). The Persea armeniaca is widely cultivated.

The avocado grows best on fertile, well-drained, neutral or slightly acidic soil; avocado plantings must be protected from winds. The industrial cultivation of avocados is developed in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world, most widely in the USA (California, Florida, and Hawaii) and Brazil. In the USSR there are experimental avocado plantings on the Black Sea coast of the Georgian SSR (Meksikola and Chernaia ptitsa strains).

The avocado yields a harvest of 150–200 kg of fruit per tree. Its fruit contains up to 30 percent fat and 1.6–2.1 percent protein; vitamins B_1, B_2, C, and D, and others; and almost no carbohydrates. The avocado, which is similar in taste to the walnut, is eaten raw, in salads, and in sandwiches. Its cultivation is similar to that of citrus fruit.

REFERENCE

Gutiev,G. T. Subtropicheskie plodovye rasteniia. Moscow, 1958.

A. I. KOLESNIKOV

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.