Pomegranates have inspired writers and poets for thousands of years.
Pomegranates are nature's jewel-cases that, when opened, reveal clusters of fragrant, juicy, jewel-like sacs, or arils, packed with a tartly sweet flavored pulp, each of these containing a tiny seed in most cultivars. Pomegranates are fast becoming a mainline addition to a healthy diet, and because they contain valuable minerals and antioxidants, are already recognized within the scientific community for their extraordinary benefits in combating physical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. They truly do contain a wealth of treasures.
Pomegranate Flowers
Two or three flowers can develop on each branch, the strongest developing into a pomegranate fruit.
Depending on the particular cultivar, two to five flowers develop at the ends of the branches, the most vigorous in each cluster surviving to produce a fruit. The flowers are either cross-pollinated between other suitable cultivars or self-pollinated on the same tree or another of the same cultivar. Both methods of pollination depend on pollinators -- bees and other browsing insects, and some birds if the pomegranate variety produces nectar.
Pollination and Fertilization
Pollen on the flower's 200 to 350 anthers is transferred to the stigma by the pollinators. The pollen then usually germinates, and each time this occurs on a pomegranate flower, a tube forms and grows down into the ovary where fertilization occurs, resulting in the formation of a seed. The number of arils within the ovary represents the number of times pollination resulting in fertilization occurred during the life of the flower, and the greater the number of arils, the greater the number of fertilization events.
Fruit Development
The sepals of the pomegranate flower remain as part of the outer structure of the fruit.
Flower buds are protected by the thick calyx, or sepals of the flower, an anatomical structure common to all flowers although the pomegranate calyx is not green but red. The tight, protective calyx opens out slightly as the flower emerges and the pollination process begins. As the flowers mature and the petals drop away, the calyx stays as the distinctive pedicle on the end of the swelling ovary developing behind it, still bearing dried anthers and stigma.
Full-Grown Pomegranate
A full-grown fruit can be 2 1/2 to 5 inches in diameter.
Given the right horticultural conditions, the fruit can grow and ripen in just more than three months, resulting in the familiar globe of tough outer skin containing the internal structures that protect and nurture the juicy arils. The skin contains the highest levels of antioxidants, even more than green tea, and although it is not edible, it is used in extracts mainly within the health and skin care industries.
Internal Structure
The inner structures of the pomegranate, showing the seeds attached within the ovarian and placental tissue
The clusters, or locules, of arils develop from a pale, fibrous network of what is essentially placental tissue, arranged in particular patterns depending on the cultivar, and separated by thicker bands of pale ovarian wall tissue that thickens as the seeds grow. The seeds germinate extremely easily in the right climate, and a pomegranate bush or tree will be ready to flower within five years of growth for the cycle to start again as a parent plant.
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