The World of Apples

The apples that aren't

Pomegranate

Punica granatum, Lythraceae

The pomegranate is native from north-eastern Türkiye to Pakistan2. It has been grown since ancient times around the Mediterranean; Morton notes its place in Egyptian art, the Old Testament and the Babylonian Talmud, and that desert caravans carried it for its thirst-quenching juice3. Spanish settlers took it to California in 17693.

Its English name is the Old French pome grenate: pome, apple, and grenate, having many seeds4. The Latin was mālum grānātum, the apple well provided with seeds, which medieval German half borrowed and half translated as grānātapfel, today’s Granatapfel5. The Dutch say granaatappel3, and the Italian melagrana comes from the same Latin6. The seeds, each in a sac of juicy pulp, make up about 52% of the fruit’s weight3.

The botanical name looks elsewhere. Morton connects Punica with Carthage, from where, she says, the best pomegranates came to Italy3.

Where the sources disagree

  • Native range. Kew gives north-eastern Türkiye to Pakistan2; Morton wrote “from Iran to the Himalayas in northern India”3.

Sources

  1. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy: Punica granatum, Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Supports: the accepted name and family.
  2. Plants of the World Online: Punica granatum, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: the accepted name and the native range, "NE. Türkiye to W. & N. Pakistan".
  3. Pomegranate, in Fruits of Warm Climates, Julia F. Morton, Purdue University NewCROP, 1987. Supports: the native range "from Iran to the Himalayas in northern India"; cultivation since ancient times and where it is grown; Egyptian art, the Old Testament, the Talmud and the caravans; California in 1769; the seeds as about 52% of the weight; the Dutch granaatappel; Punica and Carthage.
  4. pomegranate, American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fifth edition, HarperCollins, 2022. Supports: the derivation from Old French pome grenate, pome "apple" and grenate "having many seeds".
  5. Granatapfel, Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, with Wolfgang Pfeifer's Etymologisches Wörterbuch. Supports: Middle High German grānātapfel, half borrowed and half translated from Latin mālum grānātum, an apple well provided with seeds.
  6. melagrana, Wiktionary. Supports: the Italian melagrana from Latin mālum grānātum.