Date

From WikiMD.org
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Date (fruit)

Date (/deɪt/), also known as Phoenix dactylifera, is a flowering plant species in the palm family, Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit.

Etymology

The term "date" comes from the Greek word "daktulos," which means "finger," possibly named for the fruit's shape.

Description

The date is a drupe, where the outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp consisting of a single seed. Dates are oval-cylindrical, 3 to 7 cm long, and 2 to 3 cm in diameter. The fruit's English name, as well as the Latin species name dactylifera, both come from the fruit's elongated shape.

Cultivation and uses

Dates have been a staple food of the Middle East and the Indus Valley for thousands of years. They are believed to have originated around the Persian Gulf, and have been cultivated since ancient times from Mesopotamia to prehistoric Egypt, possibly as early as 4000 BCE.

Related terms

  • Drupe: A type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside.
  • Arecaceae: A family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales, also known as palm family.
  • Phoenix (genus): A genus of 14 species of palms, native to an area starting from the Canary Islands in the west, across northern and central Africa, to the extreme southeast of Europe (Crete), and continuing throughout southern Asia from Turkey east to southern China and Malaysia.

External links

Esculaap.svg

This WikiMD dictionary article is a stub. You can help make it a full article.


Languages: - East Asian 中文, 日本, 한국어, South Asian हिन्दी, Urdu, বাংলা, తెలుగు, தமிழ், ಕನ್ನಡ,
Southeast Asian Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, မြန်မာဘာသာ, European español, Deutsch, français, русский, português do Brasil, Italian, polski