Punica+granatum

=Me Tree by: Miguel Rodríguez =

=**__Punica Granatum__**=

__**Common name**__: Pomegranate.
 * __Family__**: Punicaceae
 * __Place of origin__**: From the Balkans up to the Himalayas.
 * __Etymology__**: Punic, of the ancient name of the plant. Granatum, flood of grains, alluding to the multitude of seeds that possesses his fruit.
 * __Description__**: Small tree caducifolio, sometimes with freightage arbustivo, of 3-6 m of height, with the involved trunk. Madeira lasts and scaly bark of greyish color. Some sometimes thorny branches. Angular Ramillas. Widespread glass and with very much foliage. Simple, opposite leaves, generally fasciculadas, cortamente pecioladas, oblong or oval-lanceoladas, of 3-8 cm of length, some kind of coriáceas and of green glossy color. Flowers solitary or assembled in groups of 2-5 at the end of the new branches. They are big and of red color, glossy, flared, subseated, with 5-8 petals and sepals, persisting the chalice in the fruit. In some varieties the flowers are flecked and even tinted in white. It blooms in May - July, though some varieties do it later. Fruit in berry named "balausta". It is globular, of 10-15 cm of diameter, with the tough skin of yellowish to reddish and with numerous seeds wrapped in an eatable pink flesh.
 * __Culture and uses__**: It multiplies for cuttings. The multiplication for seeds though also it is possible, produces very changeable copies. Slightly demanding in soils and with slightly slow growth. Resistant to the drought but not to the intense cold. It admits very well the cut, for what it is possible to use for hedges. In gardening much is in use the variety 'Grandma', with freightage, leaves, flowers and much smaller fruits. This variety is very used in the formation of low cut away well hedges. The pomegranate is in use as fruit-bearing tree and in addition like ornamental in small gardens. There exist varieties of double flowers of white color, 'Albaplena', or red scarlet, 'Pleniflora'.