Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
7
The avocado (
Persea americana
) is the most common English name but it is
also known as alligator pear and butter pear. Spanish-speaking people call it
aguacate, cura or cuprandra, while in Chile, Peru and Educador, it is called by
its Inca name, palta. In French, it is known as avocat and avocatier. The name
'avocado' refers to the fruit and is derived from the Aztec Nahuatl language
word, ahuacatl, meaning 'testicle'. This name is in reference to the shape of
the fruit, which was regarded by the Aztecs as the fertility fruit. The species is
now cultivated worldwide in tropical and subtropical climates.
BOTANY
Family
The laurel family (
Lauraceae
)
is composed of about 55 genera, with more than
2000 species. This basal family in the dicots is in the Order Laurales, which
was sometimes included in the Magnoliales. They are mostly evergreen
trees and shrubs, occasionally aromatic, and native mostly to tropical and
subtropical regions. There are about 150 species of tropical evergreen trees,
many of which are cultivated as ornamentals for their laurel-like leaves.
Important genera and species
The genus
Persea
Mill. is the best known for the fruit called avocado or
aguacate,
P. americana
Mill. (
Persea gratissima
C.F. Gaertn.). The fruits of
most
Persea
species are small and worthless. Only
P. americana
and
Persea
schiedeana
Ness. bear large fruit, the latter species being watery and fi brous
but pleasant in fl avour and eaten by people in its native habitat in Mexico and
Central America. Other species of commercial or ornamental value include
Cinnamomum camphora
(L.) Nees and Eberm., camphor tree;
Cinnamomum
