Date palm

Real date palms in Morocco

The real date palm (Phoenix dactylifera ) is a plant of the genus date palms ( Phoenix) in the palm family ( Arecaceae ). Its fruits are called dates. The true date palm is an ancient, oriental culture plant whose human use can be traced back to the archives of Mesopotamia.

Description

The real date palm reaches stature heights of 15 to 20 meters. The base of the fronds remain on the trunk. The leaves are fronds; they are 3-5 m long and about 30 cm long and 2 cm wide leaflets. In the lower part of the frond spines are present.

Phoenix species are dioecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( dioecious ). The axillary inflorescences are simple branches with a large bract. The stalked or sessile flowers are unisexual and threefold. The three sepals and petals are fused with each other. The crown is longer than the calyx. The male flowers usually contain three stamens, the stamens are fused at their base. The female flowers contain three free carpels and six intergrown staminodes. The scars sit without stylus directly on the carpels. There shall be fleshy, single-seeded berries hanging in large racemose fruit stalls at the Palm. The first dates can be harvested after 5 to 6 years.

Cultivation

The date palm requires a lot of sun and desert plant, especially in the summer months a lot of water. Otherwise, the plant is considered to be unpretentious and comes with nutrient-poor soils cope. It grows slowly and is regarded as winter harder than their relatives, the Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariensis).

Over the millennia, many variants of the dates have been bred so that their fruit color varies from red to black.

The cultivation of dates takes place in Palm Gardens. The plants have a working life of 80 to 100 years, so such a garden needs to be planned carefully. As the fruits develop from fertilized flowers only every two years, will be planted to 3 male to approximately 100 female plants 2. The yield per tree can be up to 100 kg. The fruiting takes place outside temperature at 30 to 35 degrees Celsius. The plants need plenty of water. For this reason, such a garden should be well watered and the plants need access to groundwater.

Preservation

In the extremely dry climate of growing countries, the fruits of various Dattelpalmsorten preserve because of their high sugar content - similar to figs and grapes - of yourself and stay at least until the next harvest durable.

Economic Importance

A large part of the production remains in the countries themselves and is further processed. The products of the production of dates in addition to the fruit ( fresh and dried) Dattelöl, Dattelschnaps ( and vinegar). From trunk of older date palms can siphon off a juice, which immediately is located in the fermentation process and is fermented as palm wine. The sheets can be used for the preparation of wattle all kinds.

The global harvest amounts, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization about 7 million tonnes ( 2004). Especially in the United Arab Emirates production since 1970 has risen sharply ( from 1970 to 2004 8 kt to 760 kt).

Pests

Like many other crops have also date palm pests; here is currently mainly the red red palm weevil ( Rhynchophorus ferrugineus ) should be mentioned that spreads since about 1994 in the Mediterranean. It is dangerous because it lays its larva within the date palm and if any damage is visible only solution is cutting down and destroying.

Fungi can clog the date palm. So Bayoud disease has destroyed the fungus Fusarium oxysporum large holdings in Algeria and Morocco. New varieties of date palm cultivars are not as susceptible to this fungus.

Special

1963 were found during excavations in the fortress of Masada some 2,000 years old, date stones. The researchers asked one of the germs to grow in 2005. The plant is now known as Judean date palm and is record holder in age-related germination.

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