About Iran Date

The Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is grown throughout the arid and semiarid regions of the world, particularly in West Asia and North Africa. It is well adapted to the desert environment, where a dry and warm climate is important for fruit maturity and ripening. Although date palms are mostly cultivated in arid regions; they can also be grown in many other countries such as the Americas, southern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia for food or as an ornamental plant. The date palm, is an angiosperm, a monocotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Arecaceae. This family has 200 genera, of which Phoenix contains 12 of the 1500 species. Date palm is a dioeciously plant that female and male flowers are born on two separate palms. Pollination involves manually inserting the male strands into the female inflorescence. In order to have high quality yield of date palm, it is extremely important to select suitable male palm for pollination due to the mutagenic effect of date palm pollen on fruit quality & maturity. There are thousands of male and female cultivars distributed throughout date palm-growing countries. Phoenix height can exceed 20 m and trees survive over a hundred years. Leaves of date palm remain intact to act as heat insulators, so under cultivation old leaves have to be removed manually. Date palms can survive under harsh conditions such as extended drought, high salinity levels and heat Date fruits are oval-cylindrical, 3–7 cm (1.2–2.8 in) long, and 2–3 cm (0.79–1.18 in) diameter, and when ripe, range from bright red to bright yellow in color, depending on variety.