Rosaceae family(Prunus dulcis)
Rosaceae family
Almonds are native to the Mediterranean, where wild almond trees are common. In most cases, these are escapes from abandoned cultivated orchards. Almonds, being largely cross-pollinated, will hybridize with wild trees when grown near wild almonds. Wild almonds differ from domesticated ones mainly in that the latter have a dominant gene that suppresses the formation of bitter cyanide in the seed. Almonds have since been selected from seedlings that produced larger, thinner-shelled fruit, and which had a greater tolerance for self-pollinating. Because almonds are naturally adapted to drier growing conditions, many growers now are grafting almonds onto moisture-tolerant peach rootstocks in order to produce higher yields under irrigated, high-fertility conditions.