Pomegranate

Pomegranate

　　The pomegranate, now known as Pomegranate (Pomegranate).

Belongs to the Punicaceae family. It is a deciduous shrub or small tree, growing 2–7 meters tall; the branches are round or slightly angled, with spiny tips, smooth and hairless. The leaves are opposite or clustered, oblong-obovate to oblong, or elliptic-lanceolate, 2–8 cm long and 1–2 cm wide, with pointed tips, glossy on the upper surface, with raised midribs on the lower surface; they have short leaf stalks. The flowers grow singly or in clusters of a few, at the branch tips or in leaf axils, on short stalks; the calyx is bell-shaped, orange-red, thick, 2–3 cm long, with 5–7 lobes at the tip, and the lobes are covered with nipple-like protrusions on the outside; the petals are equal in number to the sepals, alternate, growing inside the calyx tube, obovate, slightly higher than the sepal lobes, usually red, but also available in white, yellow, or deep red. The petals are crinkled, and depending on whether they are single or double-petaled, there are several varieties, such as the White Pomegranate, Yellow Pomegranate, Double White Pomegranate, and Double Red Pomegranate.

The flowering period is June to July, and the fruiting period is September to October. The pomegranate is native to central Asia, particularly Iran and surrounding regions. Legend has it that the pomegranate was introduced to China during the Western Han Dynasty by Zhang Qian.