Avocado
General view of an adult tree. Maui Island, Hawaii, USA
Scientific classification
show Intermediate ranks Domain: Eukaryotes Kingdom: Plants Department: Flowering Class: Dicotyledons[1] That is ok: Laurel Family: Laurel Genus: Perseus View: Avocado
International scientific name
Persea americana Mill., 1768
Synonyms
Laurus persea L. Persea edulis Raf. Persea floccosa Mez Persea gigantea L.O.Williams Persea gratissima C.F.Gaertn. Persea leiogyna S.F.Blake Persea nubigena L.O.Williams Persea paucitriplinervia Lundell Persea persea (L.) Cockerell Persea steyermarkii C.K.Allen
Taxonomy in Wikispecies Images on Commons ITIS   18154 NCBI   3435 EOL   596888 GRIN   t:27393 IPNI   467921-1 TPL   kew-2529835

Avocado,or Perseus of america^[2] (Latin: Persēa americāna),is an evergreen fruit plant; a species of the genus Perseaof the familyLauraceae, the type species of the genus ^[3].

An important fruit crop. The fruits of the plant are also called avocados:their flesh is rich in vitamins and important minerals. In addition to fruits, wood is used, which goes to the manufacture of furniture and is used as a building material. Earlier in the Russian language, the names of the alligator pear[4] and agcat^[5] were also used to refer to this plant.

Description[edit | edit code]

Avocado is a fast-growing tree, reaching a height of 20 m. The trunk is usually straight, strongly branched.

The leaves are elliptical, up to 35 cmlong. Fall all year round^[6].

 

Avocado fruits on a branch

The flowers are nondescript, small, greenish, double-sexed, are in the axils of the leaves^[6].

The fruit is a single-seeded ^{berry [7]} pear-shaped, ellipsoidal or spherical in shape. The length of the mature fruit is from 5 to 20 cm,the weight is from 50 g to 1.8 kg. The skin of the fruit is hard, in immature fruits - dark green, some time after ripening it turns black. The flesh of a mature fruit has a green or yellow-green color, oily, contains a lot of fat. In the center of the fruit is a large seed.

Cultivation[edit | edit code]

Cultivation

History of cultivation

According to archaeological data, avocados were cultivated as early as the third millennium BC^[1]. The Aztecs called it ahuacatl (ast. Āhuacatl,"forest oil").

In 1553, avocado (in the form of "aguacate"^[2])was first mentioned in literature - in the book"Chronicle of Peru"by Pedro Ciesa de León