Location and Relocation of a Tree Crop--English Walnuts in California

I The so-called walnut has spread far from its original habitat, which was not England but probably southwestern Asia. The Greek names applied to this walnut caused Pliny to infer that it originated in Persia, the best types being styled in Greek Persicum (Persian nout) and basilicon (nut of the king-the king being Basilicus of Persia). The earliest Chinese designation for the cultivated walnut is hu t'ao (peach of the Hu)-Hu being a general term for Central Asian peoples, particularly Iranians. A philological interpretation of a Chinese-Sanskrit name for Juglans regia in a twelfth century Buddhist dictionary indicates that in India the tree or fruit was suspected of Persian provenience. The common Sanskrit term for walnut (akhota, aksota, aksosa) is regarded by philologists as an Iranian loan word. There is abundant evidence that Juglans regia is extensively naturally distributed from the Mediterranean through Iran and the Himalaya as far as southern China. Vavilov states that the world's potential sources of Occidental orchard fruits are concentrated in the Near East, the home of the . . . walnut. . . . The first orchards were undoubtedly located in the Near East. (N. I. Vavilov, 'The Origin, Variation, Immunity and Breeding of Cultivated Plants, Chronica Botanica, Vol. 13, Nos. 1/6, 1949-1950, p. 35). Other authorities state that the English walnut is native from southeastern Europe to Himalaya and China, (Trees, The Yearbook of Agriculture 1949, Washington, D. C.: United States Department of Agriculture, 1949, p. 826) and occurs from the Black Sea region across Asia Minor and Persia to northern India. (Albert F. Hill, Economic Botany, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1952, p. 114). And another authority locates the English walnut's origins somewhat more exactly as Asia Minor (Clarence A. Reed and John L)avidare numerous varieties of English walnut with varied environmental adaptations and importantly different crop

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• Regional Hierarchies in California Agricultural Production

  Howard F Gregor•Annals of the Association of…•1963

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