Date palm
The date palm is a tree. It has been cultivated for a very long time because of its fruit. The tree is between 15 and 25 metres (49 and 82 feet) high. It has long leaves that look like feathers. Such leaves are called pinnate. The leaves can grow to 3 to 5 metres (9.8 to 16.4 feet) in length. The leaves have visible spines. There are about 150 leaflets. Each leaflet can be up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) in length and 2 centimetres (0.79 inches) in breadth. The full span of the crown of the tree is 6 to 10 metres (20 to 33 feet).
| Date palm | |
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| Phoenix dactylifera | |
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| Species: | P. dactylifera
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| Binomial name | |
| Phoenix dactylifera | |
The tree has one or more trunks. All the trunks come from a single system of roots.
Production
World production of dates was approximately 6.7 Mio tonnes in 2004 (FAO statistics). The major producers are:
- Egypt: 1,100,000 t (16.2% of world production)
- Iran: 880,000 t (13.0%)
- Saudi Arabia: 830,000 t (12.3%)
- United Arab Emirates: 760,000 t (11.2%)
- India: 710,000 t (10.6%)
- Pakistan: 650,000 t (9.6%)
- Algeria: 450,000 t (6.6%)
- Sudan: 330,000 t
- Oman: 240,000 t
- Libya: 140,000 t
- Tunisia: 150,500 t
- Others: 1,140,000 t
- Iraq used to be a major producer of dates but in recent years production and exports have fallen considerably.
- Kuwait
The First International Date Conference was held in Tripoli in 1959. In that conference, it was decided to develop a special program under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to promote the commercial use of substandard or physically defective dates.
Date Palm Media
Phoenix dactylifera trunk section. As with other members of the palm family, date palms do not produce annual tree rings.
Germination of Date Palm
Sooty mould, nymph and larval cuticle of Ommatissus lybicus, Oman
Mazafati dates – whole, halved and seed. Grown in Iran
Antique date forks in rack
Sweet sap tapped from date palm in West Bengal, India
Dried date, peach, and apricot from Lahun, Fayum, Egypt. Late Middle Kingdom
Date palm in the emblem of Saudi Arabia
Date palm cutting growing on the trunk
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