Description :

 

The pomegranate is a small tree, not exceeding 5 meters, and sometimes a deciduous, thorny shrub reaching 1-1.5 meters in height. Its leaves are oval and glossy green. Its flowers are large and red in color. Pomegranates are found in various forms, the main ones being sour fruits and sweet fruits. It is a durable tree, rarely affected by pests. 

Its fruit, the pomegranate, consists of the peel, juice and many small seeds. The fruit is large in size, spherical in shape and the colour of its, extremely hard skin, when ripe, is red. Inside each pomegranate are more than 600 small seeds with a sweet or sour taste and sometimes a slight astringency. Its fruits ripen in autumn and are collected before the rains begin.

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Usage & History:

 

The domestication and cultivation of the pomegranate began simultaneously in various regions of both the fertile Eastern Crescent and South East Europe. In various cultures since ancient times, it acquired a symbolic dimension, which is also related to the healing properties of its juice.

The Hebrew name of the pomegranate (rimmon) and the Arabic (rumman), come from the words "fruit of paradise", revealing the great appreciation of the people, in this fruit. In Islam its consumption is considered to free believers from the ills of human nature. 

The pomegranate symbolizes fertility and abundance. In Greece from ancient times to the present day, breaking a pomegranate ensures good luck and fertility in a newly built house. According to its mythology, after the abduction of her daughter, Persephone, by Pluto, god of the underworld, due to her distress, the goddess of fertility and fruitfulness, Demeter, lost all of her powers. Pluto, seeing his beloved Persephone in despair, gave her a pomegranate to eat. The goddess regained her fertility and divided her fruitfulness by staying, half of the year in the world of the living (springtime) and the other half in the under world (wintertime).