Branch of tree with green fruits. Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The fruit of the almond is a drupe, consisting of an outer hull and a hard shell with the seed, which is not a true nut. Shelling almonds refers to removing the shell to reveal almond joy chocolate seed.

Almonds are sold shelled or unshelled. The almond tree prospers in a moderate Mediterranean climate with cool winter weather. California produces over half of the world’s almond supply. The young twigs are green at first, becoming purplish where exposed to sunlight, then gray in their second year. Almond grows best in Mediterranean climates with warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters.

Almonds begin bearing an economic crop in the third year after planting. Trees reach full bearing five to six years after planting. It is not a nut but a drupe. The seeds of Prunus dulcis var.

For example, the amygdala of the brain, which uses a direct borrowing of the Greek term amygdalē. Selection of the sweet type from the many bitter types in the wild marked the beginning of almond domestication. It is unclear as to which wild ancestor of the almond created the domesticated species. The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Almonds were one of the earliest domesticated fruit trees, due to “the ability of the grower to raise attractive almonds from seed. Of the European countries that the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh reported as cultivating almonds, Germany is the northernmost, though the domesticated form can be found as far north as Iceland. Almond trees are small to medium sized but commercial cultivars can be grafted onto a different root-stock to produce smaller trees.