#kallarkahar #loquat #fruits
The loquat is in the family Rosaceae, and is native to the cooler hill regions of south-central China.In Japan the loquat is known as biwa (枇杷, びわ), and has been grown for over 1,000 years. The loquat has been introduced to regions with subtropical to mild temperate climates throughout the world.
Eriobotrya japonica was formerly thought to be closely related to the genus Mespilus, and is still sometimes mistakenly known as the Japanese medlar. It is also known as Japanese plumand Chinese plum,as well as pipa in China, naspli in Malta, lukaat in Pakistan and India, lucat or loket in Sri Lanka, níspero in Spain, nêspera in Portugal, shések in Israel, akidéné in Lebanon, ebirangweti in Kisii, nespolo in Italy (where the name is shared with Mespilus germanica), and golabi jangali (jungle pear) in Iran
The plant is originally from China, where related species can be found growing in the wild.It has been cultivated there for over a thousand years. It has also become naturalised in Georgia, Armenia, Afghanistan, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bermuda, Chile, Kenya, Lebanon, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, South Africa, the whole Mediterranean Basin, Pakistan, New Zealand, Réunion, Tonga, Central America, Mexico, South America, and warmer parts of the United States (Hawaii, California, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina).[citation needed] In Louisiana, many refer to loquats as "misbeliefs" and they grow in yards of homes.[18] Chinese immigrants are presumed to have carried the loquat to Hawaii and California.It has been cultivated in Japan for about 1,000 years and presumably the fruits and seeds were brought back from China to Japan by the many Japanese scholars visiting and studying in China during the Tang dynasty.
The loquat was often mentioned in medieval Chinese literature, such as the poems of Li Bai. Its original name is no longer used in most Chinese dialects, and has been replaced by pipa (枇杷), which is a reference to the fruit's visual resemblance to a miniature pipa lute.
The first European record of the species might have been in the 16th century by Michał Boym, a Polish jesuit, orientalist, politician and missionary to China. He described loquat in his Flora sinensis, the first European natural history book about China.The common name for the fruit is from Portuguese nêspera (from the modified nespilus, originally mespilus, which referred to the medlar), (José Pedro Machado, Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa, 1967). Since the first contact of the Portuguese with the Japanese and Chinese dates also from the 16th century, possibly some were brought back to Europe, as was likely the case with other species such as the 'Hachiya' persimmon variety.
E. japonica was again described in Europe by Carl Peter Thunberg, as Mespilus japonica in 1780, and was relocated to the genus Eriobotrya (from Greek εριο "wool" and βοτρυών "cluster") by John Lindley, who published these changes in 1821.
The most common variety in Portugal is the late-ripening 'Tanaka', where it is popular in gardens and backyards, but not commercially produced. In northern Portugal, it is also popularly called magnório or magnólio, probably having to do with French botanist Pierre Magnol. In Spain, the fruits are similarly called nísperos and are commercially exploited, Spain being the second-largest producer worldwide, after China, with 41,487 t annually, half of which is destined to export markets