![]() ![]() Other caves in the Tehuacan Valley from around the same time period also show early evidence for the presence and consumption of avocado. The oldest discovery of an avocado pit comes from Coxcatlan Cave, dating from around 9,000 to 10,000 years ago. The earliest residents of northern coastal Peru were living in temporary camps in an ancient wetland and eating avocados, along with chilies, mollusks, sharks, birds, and sea lions. ![]() The three separate landraces were most likely to have already intermingled in pre-Columbian America and were described in the Florentine Codex. The Mexican and Guatemalan landraces originated in the highlands of those countries, while the West Indian landrace is a lowland variety that ranges from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador to Peru, achieving a wide range through human agency before the arrival of the Europeans. However, there is evidence for three possible separate domestications of the avocado, resulting in the currently recognized Mexican ( aoacatl), Guatemalan ( quilaoacatl), and West Indian ( tlacacolaocatl) landraces. Persea americana, or the avocado, possibly originated in the Tehuacan Valley in the state of Puebla, Mexico, although fossil evidence suggests similar species were much more widespread millions of years ago. The species produces various cultivars with larger, fleshier fruits with a thinner exocarp because of selective breeding by humans. The avocado fruit is a climacteric, single-seeded berry, due to the imperceptible endocarp covering the seed, rather than a drupe. They have no petals but instead 2 whorls of 3 pale-green or greenish-yellow downy perianth lobes, each blossom has 9 stamens with 2 basal orange nectar glands. Avocado blossoms sprout from racemes near the leaf axils they are small and inconspicuous 5–10 mm ( 3⁄ 16– 3⁄ 8 in) wide. The tree flowers thousands of blossoms every year. Panicles of flowers with deciduous bracts arise from new growth or the axils of leaves. The leaves are 7.62–25 cm (3–10 in) long and alternately arranged. Persea americana is a tree that grows to 9–20 m (30–66 ft) with a trunk diameter between 0.3–0.6 m (0.98–1.97 ft). Global warming is expected to result in significant changes to the suitable growing zones for avocados, and place additional pressures on the locales in which they are produced due to heat waves and drought. Avocado production is also implicated in other externalities, including deforestation and human rights concerns associated with the partial control of their production in Mexico by organized crime. In major production regions like Chile, Mexico and California the water demands of avocado farms place strain on local sources. The nutrient density and extremely high fat content of avocado flesh are useful to a variety of cuisines and are often eaten to enrich vegetarian diets. For commercial purposes the fruits are picked while unripe and ripened after harvesting. ![]() Depending on the cultivar, avocados have green, brown, purplish, or black skin, and may be pear-shaped, egg-shaped, or spherical. The fruit of domestic varieties have smooth, buttery, golden-green flesh when ripe. Mexico is the world's leading producer of avocados as of 2020, supplying nearly 30% of the global harvest in that year. Avocados are presently cultivated in the tropical and Mediterranean climates of many countries. Avocado trees are partly self-pollinating, and are often propagated through grafting to maintain consistent fruit output. Its fruit, sometimes also referred to as an alligator or avocado pear, is botanically a large berry containing a single large seed. The tree likely originated in the highlands bridging south-central Mexico and Guatemala. Then as now it was prized for its large and unusually oily fruit. It is native to the Americas and was first domesticated by Mesoamerican tribes more than 5,000 years ago. The avocado ( Persea americana) is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel family ( Lauraceae). ![]()
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