 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Almond blossoms offer some of the most specacular cololur to the landscape in mallorca during January and February.
The almond is a small deciduous tree, growing to between 4 and 10 metres in height, with a trunk of up to 30 centimetres in diameter. The young shoots are green at first, becoming purplish where exposed to sunlight, then grey in their second year. The leaves cm long and 1.2–4 cm broad, with a serrated margin and a 2.5 cm petiole. The flowers are white or pale pink, 3–5 cm diameter with five petals, produced singly or in pairs before the leaves in early spring.
The fruit is a drupe 3.5–6 cm long, with a downy outer coat. The outer covering or exocarp, fleshy in other members of Prunus such as the plum and cherry, is reduced to a leathery grey-green coat called the hull, which contains inside a hard shell the edible kernel, commonly called a nut in culinary terms. Generally, one kernel is present, but occasionally two. However, in botanical terms, an almond is not a true nut. In botanical parlance, the reticulated hard stony shell is called an endocarp. It is mature in the autumn, 7–8 months after flowering.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
© Images and content copyright Mallorca Property Partners 2008. If you wish to use images from this album we will be pleased to send high resolution copies with no watermarks for free provided we get a credit and link to our website from yours. This excludes re-selling the images or using them in any way that generates income from them. Created with Web Album Generator. Please enquire by email to info@mppsearch.com.
Click here to return to the Mallorca Property Partners website. For professional search and property finder services dealing solely in properties in Mallorca.