Definition of Apricots

The apricot or common apricot tree (Prunus armeniaca or Armenian plum in Latin, syn. Armeniaca vulgaris, Armenian: Ծիրան, Chinese: 杏子, Czech: Meruňka) is a fruit-bearing tree, whose native range is somewhat ambiguous, due to the prehistoric antiquity of its cultivars. The GRIN database gives only Kyrgyzstan and China with the cryptic comment: "widely cultivated, exact native range obscure." Loudon earlier was rather more sanguine: "It is a native of Armenia, Caucasus, the Himalayas, China and Japan, where it forms a large spreading tree." Nearly all sources presume that because it is named armeniaca, the tree must be native to or have originated in Armenia as the Romans knew it. For example, De Poerderlé asserts: "Cet arbre tire son name de l'Arménie, province d'Asie, d'où il est originaire et d'où il fut porté en Europe ...." (this tree takes its name from Armenia, province of Asia, where it is native, and whence it was brought to Europe ....) This presumption is an heirloom. There is little evidence to support such a view (see under Taxonomy below). Today the cultivars have sperad to all quarters of the globe with environments that support it. It is classified with the plum in the subgenus Prunus of the Prunus genus.