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CULTURAL AND WILD PLANTS
Date palm (date). Legends, myths, symbolism, description, cultivation, methods of application
Directory / Cultivated and wild plants Content
Date palm (date), Phoenix. Photos of the plant, basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism
Basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism Sort by: Phoenix Family: Palm (Arecaceae). Origin: Africa and Asia. Area: Date palms grow in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America. Chemical composition: Dates contain many nutrients, including carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and phytochemicals. They are also rich in antioxidants. Economic value: Dates are used in the food industry for the production of sweets, bread, cakes, syrups, drinks and other products. They are also used in medicine, cosmetology and oil production. In some regions, date leaves have been used to make carpets and other products. In addition, date palms are grown in landscaping and as plants for ornamental purposes. Legends, myths, symbolism: In ancient Greek mythology, the date palm is associated with the phoenix, a mythical bird that is reborn from its own ashes. It is said that the phoenix builds its nests on the branches of date palms and, after its death, is reborn from eggs left in the ashes. The date palm was also a symbol of eternal life and immortality. In Jewish tradition, the date palm is associated with the holiday of Sukkot. It is said that during this holiday, Jews must build a sukkah - a temporary dwelling from the branches of a date palm. In Islamic tradition, the date palm also has a special meaning. It is said that the Prophet Muhammad used dates regularly in his food and encouraged his followers to do the same. In modern culture, the date palm is associated with tropical countries, warm climates and relaxing on the beach. It can also be used as a symbol of abundance and wealth.
Date palm (date), Phoenix. Description, illustrations of the plant Date palm. Myths, traditions, symbolism
The Judeo-Christian symbolism of the palm tree is primarily based on one of the psalms: "The righteous one blooms like a palm tree ..," (Ps 91:13). In 1675, Baron W. X. Hochberg wrote poetry: "The palm tree in itself will not give anything that would not be useful; // There is milk, butter, wood, bark, foliage, fruits, sap and wool. // So a pious person is inclined to serve. / Because God's custom must be followed by good deeds. For obvious reasons, the date palm was highly valued in the arid regions of the southern Mediterranean. Considered sacred; above the palm crown, the Assyrian 6og of the Sun was often depicted. The Egyptians put palm fans on coffins and mummies; Jesus was also greeted with palm branches at the entrance to Jerusalem. In the Christian celebration of palm Sunday, "palm earrings" take their place; among the Slavs this day is called Palm Sunday, respectively - "willow buds". From the time of early Christianity, the “palm tree” of the martyr (meaning this spiritual victory) and the green palm tree of the expected paradise at the end of earthly life are often depicted, also in a stylized connection with lily and vine motifs.
The Greek name of the palm "Phoinix" hints at the association with the Sun and Helios-Apollo. The goddess of victory Nike (lat. Victoria) was often depicted with a palm branch; in Egypt, the sky goddess Hathor was the "mistress of the date palm." In general, due to its slender, straight trunk and lush crown, it is considered an indication of rise, victory and rebirth. In the Baroque era, the palm tree also served as the emblem of the "Fructifying Society" poetic association (to which the Baron von Hochberg cited above belonged) with the motto "Everything is for good." From the legend, according to which the palm tree grows under the burden placed on it, comes the motto of the Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont "The palm tree grows under weight", the meaning of which is that difficulties only make it even stronger: "The palm tree will not succumb to the weight that has fallen. // Victory remains for It also bears sweet fruit. // Who relies on God and is capable of true prayer. // Angels serve him in all difficulties" (Hochberg). Author: Biedermann G.
Date palm, Phoenix dactylifera L. Botanical description, history of origin, nutritional value, cultivation, use in cooking, medicine, industry
Plant up to 30 m high. Pinnate leaves, up to 6 m long, located in the upper part of the trunk. The flowers are numerous (up to 2000), yellow, collected in a complex inflorescence, surrounded by a veil. The fruit is a one-seeded, fleshy oblong drupe with an amber-red pericarp. Blooms in May-June. The plant is native to North Africa. It is assumed that cultural forms originated from the wild dates of the forest or rejected several thousand years BC in the territory of Southern Iran and Afghanistan. Currently, over 5000 varieties are known, cultivated in North Africa, Southern Europe, Asia Minor and southern North America. The life of the peoples inhabiting the territories west of the Indus (including the Arabian Desert, North Africa and the Sahara) to the Atlantic Ocean is entirely associated with the date palm. The date palm reproduces by seeds and root offspring. It is distinguished by high heat tolerance, salt tolerance, but at the same time it needs a shallow groundwater. Where this tree grows, oases arise, the culture of cereals becomes possible, vegetable and melon plants, grapes, olives, almonds, etc. grow. The palm tree lives up to 100 years. Among the numerous varieties there are "soft" ones, containing a small percentage of sugar. They are eaten fresh when ripe. The greatest number of varieties are dried in the sun. These are well-known "dry" and "semi-dry" dates that go to the world market. Dried fruits contain a large amount of sugars, fatty oils and protein. In addition, dates are rich in fiber, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus and iron. In terms of calories, they surpass all other fruits. The fruits of the date palm serve as medicine for people. Due to potassium, they are used in diseases of the cardiovascular system. Dates are recommended for overwork, exhaustion of the body and with increased physical activity as a very high-calorie product. It is noticed that dates are useful for paralysis, especially of the facial nerve, for pain in the lower back and joints. The fruits of the date palm are the most important food product for people inhabiting the desert oases. They even replace bread with them. Jelly, jam, drinks are made from dates. Sweet juice from the trunk is drunk fresh. Date palm leaves serve as food for camels and horses. In addition, they are a material for obtaining fibers from which ropes, baskets, and ship gear are made. Wood is used as a building material and fuel. Authors: Kretsu L.G., Domashenko L.G., Sokolov M.D.
Date palm, Phoenix dactylifera. Methods of application, origin of the plant, range, botanical description, cultivation
The date palm is the most important fruit crop in dry tropical and hot subtropical deserts and semi-deserts Unknown in the wild. Abandoned and run wild date palms, as a rule, turn out to be male. In the deserts of Arabia and North Africa, dates are the main food product, they replace bread. Palm wood is used as a building material, leaves - for weaving various products. Sometimes palm cutting is used to obtain sugary juice. The history of date palm cultivation is connected with the ancient peoples of Asia Minor, the inhabitants of Sumer, Assyria, and Egypt. There are a number of versions about the origin of the date palm. According to P. M. Zhukovsky, the ancient relatives of the date palm were found in the remains of the Upper and Middle Eocene; in Italy and in the north of Western Europe, remains have been found in Oligocene deposits; in the Miocene they were found in Switzerland and France. On the coast of the Aegean Sea, in the Pleistocene deposits, a form close to the modern date was found. During this era, the date palm appears to have been endemic to southern Europe. Seeds and fruit imprint found in America (Texian Tertiary deposits). Date palm relatives in America have become extinct. There is a version about the African origin of the date palm, but it is not confirmed by archeological and ethnographic data. The date palm belongs to the genus Phoenix L. of the Areceacee family. In the genus Phoenix L, 12 species are distinguished, distributed in the wild in subtropical and tropical Africa and Pakistan. The main date palm cultivation region is North Africa (Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco), as well as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. Leading exporting countries: Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Tunisia, Iran, China, Algeria. Cultivated date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a dioecious plant up to 30 m high, but usually 8-10 m and up to 1,2 m in trunk diameter (usually up to 80 cm). The mother plant is surrounded by numerous offspring. The crown of a palm tree consists of 40-60 large pinnate leaves 4-6m long. The leaves are wind and dust resistant. Male plants form 6-8 male multi-flowered panicles in the leaf axils; female plants - powerful inflorescences - panicles with female flowers. The fruit is a date, a one-seeded berry up to 7,5 cm long and 3,5 cm across, oval or spherical, amber, reddish or dark in color. It is used by the population in fresh and dry form. From 3-6 to 20 large bunches of fruits are simultaneously formed on a palm tree, on each of which a crop of 7 to 18 kg is formed and an average of 250 kg of dates per tree. Dates imported from Iran and neighboring countries contain: water - 20%, proteins - 2,5, total carbohydrates - 72,1, including mono- and disaccharides - 68,5, fiber - 3,6, ash - 1,5, 100%, minerals (in mg / 32 g): sodium - 37, potassium - 65, calcium - 69, magnesium - 56, phosphorus - 1,5, iron - 100; vitamins (in mg / 0,05 g): beta-carotene - traces, B, - 0,05, BP - 0,6, PP - 0,3, C-281; calorie content is higher than all other fruits - 340-100 kcal / XNUMX g. The content of seeds in mature dried dates is about 10%. The durability of the palm tree is about 100 years or more, there are cases of fruiting 200-year-old plants. The date palm is exceptionally hardy to daily hot solar radiation. However, in direct sunlight, the cells of the growth cone of the stem do not divide, growth resumes at night. The palm tree is drought-resistant, heat-tolerant, and also salt-tolerant, and therefore it is common in saline deserts, but it needs irrigation. Irrigation during the period of growth and ripening of fruits increases the yield. Plants develop a powerful root system and are able to take moisture from deep soil horizons. Precipitation in the form of rain and fog during flowering and fruiting is badly reflected in the crop. Palm is a wind-pollinated plant that produces a huge amount of pollen. The longevity of the pollen is exceptional: if properly stored, it retains its fertilizing capacity for 10 years. In humid air, the pollen bursts, and the fruits become mucilaginous. The palm tree is able to tolerate rare short-term cold snaps and has poor frost resistance, since the entire trunk is covered with a thick cover of dead bases of leaf petioles; the growth cone of the stem, offspring and future inflorescences is securely covered. Intraspecific diversity due to dioecy and 100% heterozygosity with frequent seed reproduction is enormous. The total number of varieties exceeds 5000. They are combined into 2 groups: with juicy and dry fruits. Dry dates are weakly cutinized and after harvest are semi-dry; Juicy dates have a thin skin, protected from evaporation, so the pulp of the fruit retains a syrupy and jelly-like consistency for a long time. The consistency of the pulp is determined by the content of moisture and sugars. In this regard, varieties are distinguished soft, semi-dry and dry. Most of the varieties are of local importance, but some, such as Degle-nur, are cultivated almost throughout the palm distribution area. This is a semi-dry variety, its homeland is Algeria. The fruits are sensitive to rain and high humidity, and withstand storage well.
The most common variety in the Middle East is Hillavi. It occupies an intermediate position between soft and semi-dry varieties. Resistant to rain and high humidity, and therefore promising for humid tropical regions (India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, etc.). The fruits are suitable for consumption when unripe. In addition to those named, the most important varieties are Hadravi, Zaydi, Hayani. Since the male and female inflorescences of the date palm develop on different trees, one male tree per 20-100 female trees is planted to ensure cross-pollination. The date palm is characterized by intersterility and interfertility, so the selection of appropriate pollinators determines the yield in quantitative and qualitative terms. The main method of propagation of the date palm is by developed offspring, weighing about 15 kg, separated along with their root system from mother plants. Seed propagation is unsuitable for creating large commercial plantations due to the large variety of offspring. Plants are planted in the garden, in a permanent place with feeding areas of 8 x 8 or 10 x 10 m, depending on the variety and soil conditions. The palm begins to bear fruit from the 4-5th year of life. An important technique for increasing the yield of dates is artificial pollination or additional pollination of female inflorescences. For these purposes, even ancient gardeners stocked male inflorescences in case of unfavorable years for flowering and stored them for several years in linen bags. Artificial pollination is carried out by cutting off male inflorescences after opening the wrapper and shaking off pollen from them over flowering female panicles; you can also hang male inflorescences in the crowns of female trees. The date palm consumes relatively a lot of nutrients. The annual removal per plantation area of 1 ha is: nitrogen - 76 kg, P2O5 - 11, K2O - 87 kg. The palm tree is responsive to fertilization, but in the main crop areas they are rarely used. In the northern hemisphere, dates ripen between May and December. On the Arabian Peninsula, early varieties ripen in May, the fruits of which are consumed fresh. The maximum collection of dates in Algeria falls on September - early October, in Southern Iran - in September, in Egypt - in August, in the western regions of Saudi Arabia - in July. Dates are harvested by cutting off the inflorescences, for which stairs are used. Since the fruits ripen unevenly even within the same brush, when harvesting they are sorted according to the degree of maturity and given directions for use: kimri, or gandora, are almost developed fruits that still retain the green color of the skin; halal, or doka, - fruits that have fully reached the required size, with a skin, respectively, red or yellow; rutab, or dang, - with signs of ripening in the form of softening of the pulp at the end, remote from the stalk; tamer, or pind, are fully ripened fruits capable of long-term storage. For long-term storage and export, the fruits are dried in the sun or in dryers. Date juice is produced from the fruit. Dates are stored at 2,2-3,3 ° C from 2 to 14 months (depending on the variety). Authors: Baranov V.D., Ustimenko G.V.
Barefoot on dates. Featured article
A clear sky is required for a date. No clouds. To the sun from morning to evening. Hell Arabian! No wonder the Arabs even put together a saying, which translates something like this: "A date has its feet in the water, and its head is on fire!" Another translation sounds no less definite: "A date has its feet in heaven, and its head is in hell!" However, why the palm tree needs such amazing heat, no one really knows. We noticed something else: as soon as the disk of the daylight appears above the horizon, the date immediately stops growing. And it doesn't grow all day. But overnight makes up for everything lost. For all that, the palm tree does not leave the cloudless brazier and does not dare to appear in the land of clouds and clouds, in the humid tropics, except perhaps individual varieties ... Fruits especially suffer from rains. If it rains, they will crack, turn sour, and then completely rot on the tree. In order not to lose the harvest, paper bags are put on bunches of fruits. And it's hard and expensive. In the dry desert, the date is the only tree that does not need an umbrella. All others need and survive only under the crown of the guardian of the deserts. And lemon, and orange, and pomegranate. Above them, a tall date rises like a pine in a clearing. It happens 20 meters high, and even all 30! And in such unbearable heat it lasts for a hundred years. People also enjoy a hospitable shade. The warriors of Richard the Lionheart, having fallen ill with malaria, survived only by escaping under the shade of dates. True, young palm trees, like all young creatures, are somewhat more sensitive to heat. When they are planted in the hot sand of the desert, some of the leaves are cut off, and the rest are tied in a bunch and wrapped in old newspapers. And they stand for long days in chains, like strange sheaves in the stubble. In the Arab East, dates are like bread. They are pressed into loaves, after removing the bones, and cut into slices for dinner. They say that a good housewife can cook a new dish from dates every day. And so the whole month! In reality, however, this rarely happens. Arabs are reserved in food and often eat just a few dates with a fresh flatbread, washed down with cold water. Of course, any unusual food needs a habit. The French traveler D. Palgreve, having entered the borders of Arabia, tried to switch to Arabic food, but at first he was tired of the sugary dish. However, he gradually got involved and then could no longer do without these gifts of the desert. It happened that for several days he could not buy dates anywhere. In his notes, he admitted that he could not stand the temptation and in one of the oases he climbed into someone else's garden after them, jumping over the fence. There he was overtaken by the owner, but, having learned what was the matter, he let him go in peace, providing him with a sufficient amount of provisions.
They also talk about this case. Some literate, who was invited to read the letter, could not fulfill the request - there was no lamp at hand. Resourceful owners made a vessel from dates, poured oil into it and inserted a wick. The scholar read the letter, and took a lamp as a contribution. Throwing away the wick, he drank the oil and ate the vessel! He loves dates and all kinds of animals. Pigeons and doves eat both fruits and seeds. Migratory birds would probably take the crop clean, but it helps that there are few oases and the bulk of them fly by without stopping. Ants are not indifferent to sugary fruits. From them you have to hang a precious product in pillowcases from the ceiling. An inexperienced traveler, having done so, pays for his slowness. Dates give juice. At night, he drips on a weary traveler. The dress is impregnated with sticky glue. And since the water in the desert is always tight, you have to continue the journey in candied clothes. Growing a palm tree is not easy at all. The "legs" of the palm tree, as was said, should be in the water. And she's not always there. Sometimes it's deep. We have to dig a hole and plant a palm tree on the bottom. There, and the shadow will serve her at first. You look down from the mountain at a green oasis - all the palm trees, both old and young, are sitting in holes. But the main difficulty is pollination. A date is like a willow. He has different trees. There are men's, there are women's. Two or three men are imprisoned for a hundred women. At the time of flowering, pollen is carried in clouds, but does not always fall on the stigmas of flowers. First you have to climb onto the male trunk, cut off the inflorescence, then go down, rearrange the ladder to the female palm tree and tie a useful decoration there. The owners of dates sadly joke about this: "We don't even have a day off for the holiday!" After all, there are 30 million palm trees in Iraq alone. Go and experience everything! Fate has not always been kind to the first tree of the desert. Either they bred a lot of them - and then the blessing descended on the mean Arabian land, then hordes of enemies swooped in and cut them clean (it was considered military prowess!), Then they taxed the dates with such taxes that it became pointless to keep them. By the end of the first millennium of our era, a lot of dates were bred. In 1106, the Russian traveler hegumen Daniel entered Jericho. The city was buried in trees, and it was called Palmograd. The crusaders who stormed Jerusalem would have swelled with hunger if not for the dates. It was their only food. Palm plantations stretched along the shores of the Dead Sea, and it did not look dead at all. By the beginning of the 1488th century, the trees in Palestine had thinned out, and only Jericho still basked under their feathery foliage. But now the 1833th century is coming to an end. 1866. They are already searching in vain for palm trees in Jericho. There were three trees left for the whole city, and even those without fruit. They ask a local resident: "Where would you get at least a bunch of dates?" He answers: "There was one tree eight years ago, but now it's gone..." XNUMX. Jericho has a single trunk. XNUMX Another traveler writes: “Alas, the last palm tree died out in Jericho, and its graceful crown no longer sways over the plain that gave the name to the city of Palms. Dates also disappeared along the shores of the Dead Sea, and only archaeologists, sorting through crushed limestone, find their petrified remains .. The result sounds even more sad: "And where all this splendor disappeared, it's hard to imagine." Despite all the perturbations, the date continues to live. The Arabs pass along the chain of generations: "The date is your life, take care of it!" And they protect. Connoisseurs believe that M. Yu. Lermontov was misled when he wrote his Three Palms. The caravan, which found shelter at the foot of the palm trees, could not cut them down. On the contrary, they tried to plant palm trees along the route of the caravans.
How is a palm tree planted? This is a special art. Take a shoot from an old tree. It's safer than sowing seeds. The shoot will give the same grade. It is still unknown what will come of the bone. There is one more inconvenience: if you sow seeds, half of the male and half of the female trees will grow. Where to put such a lot of men? But in Egypt, from time immemorial, seeds have been sown. In Spain too. And therefore half of the trees there do not bear fruit. Of course, palm trees are good in and of themselves - shade and beauty. But the practical Spaniards found a completely unusual use for male trunks. They arrange a holiday in honor of the date - Palm Sunday. Something like our New Year's tree. Leaves are cut from male trunks every four years and weave something resembling a Christmas tree out of them, as if connected from several wicker brooms, with which carpets are beaten. In Italy, where there is also a tiny island of date palms, Palm Sunday is also celebrated. The entire palm leaf is consumed by Rome. There are no unnecessary male trunks left. Another wonderful thing is this. The date can grow on anything: on loose sand, on dense clay and on soil covered with white salt efflorescence. And inexperienced people are mistaken when they see this beautiful tree at the edge of the salty sea. "Look," they say, "the date is not afraid of salt." And they point to the foam of the surf, which during a storm rolls over the root paws of trees. In fact, the date is also afraid of salt, but where it comes to the very shore, fresh groundwater splashes near the surface. It is she who leads newcomers to false conclusions. And they planted a date at the edge of the surf, not because they wanted to guess a riddle for beginners, but out of need. The fact is that although this plant is considered unpretentious and can grow on anything, the result is deplorable. They will plant a date on a mountain, on a hill, where it is far from groundwater, it grows, but does not give fruit. The Arabs have a saying about this: "Stupid as a palm tree on a hill!" Understanding date fruits is also an art. They can be soft like marmalade, semi-soft and dry. Dry - so hard that they rattle like stones in a tin can. The fruits of soft varieties are also hard, if they are not ripe. A connoisseur can determine by taste the country from which the fruits came. The best dates come from the south of Iraq, and in the north of the Libyan desert they do not always have time to ripen properly. Among the many varieties there is one seedless. It is grown in only one place - near the village of Kerman in Iran. The fruits are slightly smaller than usual. But in the USA a variety with large fruits, like Murom cucumbers, was bred. Yes, with bones. For shipment abroad, the dates are carefully packed so that as little air as possible remains between the fruits. It is believed that one can achieve high quality packaging only by using one's own bare feet. For this purpose, one of the packers gets into the basket, having previously taken off his shoes. The second one gradually pours the fruits, and the first one walks on them and crushes them with its weight. Bare fingers feel good where the product is loose. By the way, for harvesting, palm trees also climb barefoot on the trunk. They think that it is more accurate and safer. The bulk of the palms are in southern Iraq, along the Shatt al-Arab river. There are 14 million of them - a fifth of the world's reserves! And it is unfortunate that this is the most date-rich place on earth that causes Iraqis very great anxiety. Ali Abdel Kerim Ali, a geographer from Moscow State University, tells the following story. In the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which, merging, form the Shatt-el-Arab, the palm tree has been considered an inviolable plant in all ages. As early as one and a half millennia BC, the king of Babylon Hammurabi issued a law: whoever cuts down at least one date tree must pay a fine of 225 grams of silver. It was the world's first law on the protection of nature! But times have changed. The waters of the Tigris and Euphrates are increasingly being used for various purposes. The Shatt al-Arab is getting shallower. And the sea waters, which fill the ancient river twice a day with a tide, are no longer diluted, as before, with the fresh water of the Tigris and Euphrates. And salt water now irrigates the roots of the dates during the flood. And then the canal is being built Shatt-al-Arab - Basra. He will dump the waters of the El-Hammar swamps not into the river, but bypassing it - into the bay. Yes, and oil refineries were built along the banks. They clogged up the waterway so much that the fish disappeared. And the palm trees began to ache. Little by little they dry up. And near the cities, many groves were cut down - it is necessary to build. Yes, and the fellahs reached out to the city: it is difficult to feed on dates, the prices are low. This is how the date splendor, created over millennia, gradually collapses. Author: Smirnov A.
Date palm (date), Phoenix. Recipes for use in traditional medicine and cosmetology
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Attention! Before use, consult with a specialist!
Date palm (date), Phoenix. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing
The date palm (Phoenix) is a plant commonly associated with dates, known for their sweet and juicy fruits. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing: Cultivation:
Workpiece:
Storage:
The date palm is a beautiful and useful plant that can be grown both outdoors and in pots.
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