Almond trees - first flowers show up in the sunshine

Sunday, 05 March 2017 10:33
Written by Portal Editor

The first intensified solar rays in Thessalonica not only lure people back out of the houses and onto the promenades next to the White Tower of Thessalonica, but nature also shows first reactions: almond trees push their buds out and show their first blossoms.

The almond tree probably originates from Southwest Asia; Its natural sites are bushes on sunny slopes on rocky soils at a height of 700 to 1700 m. The original wilds range from the Levant over Northern and Eastern Anatolia, South Caucasus, Northern Iraq, Iran to Southern Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. However, today the distinction between wild and degenerate occurrences is very difficult, since the almond tree has been cultivated for around 4,000 years.

The main distribution area of the almond tree in Europe is the entire Mediterranean area. Scientists assume that the Romans have brought the almond tree to Western and Northern Europe similar to the wine and have systematically spread and cultivated the wine and almonds there. It is documented that in the sixteenth century, the bishop of Speyer cultivated almond trees as the most important fruit tree species. Even today, a lot of place names like Gimmeldinger Mandelgarten, Maikammerer Almelhöhe, Edesheimer Mandelhang or Birkweiler Mandelberg testify to the long tradition of almond cultivation. Today the cultivated varieties are dominated by the pink-blossoming "Pearl of the Wine Route", as well as the white-blossoming "Dürkheimer Krachmandel".

The first flowers of the almond trees can already appear at the end of February, but the weather and temperature-dependent main flowering season is mostly in March and April. After the crazy winter days, at least for Thessalonica with the huge amounts of snow more than unusual, the promenades around the White Tower are revived. Even if you can not be sure about the temperatures, it is very beneficial for your own well-being to move under warming sun rays again.

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