Purple Pomegranate Varieties

History

• Pomegranates are though to originate in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan and were introduced later to the Mediterranean regions and India. It was brought to the Americas by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century when missionaries were colonizing the continents. The plant is thought to be the fruit that Eve ate in the Garden of Eden and has a long and ancient history of cultivation and use. Pomegranates can commonly live for 100 years and there are a few known trees that are over 200. They are truly trees that have seen the passage of ages.

Fruits

• The fruit of the pomegranate is a thick hard shelled orb. The globe shaped fruits are normally 2.5 to 5 inches wide but some cultivars are larger. The shell or rind may be yellow or light green generously overlaid with red, pink or purple overtones when ripe. Inside the fruit are pithy white walls that separate compartments of the fleshy seeds. They are called aril and are seed pearl shaped with juicy pulp clinging to them that can be sucked off or crushed.

Purple Skinned Varieties

• Pomegranates ripen in fall and should be harvested when they reach peak color. To do this you need to know what color your cultivar will be. Wonderful is one of the most commonly cultivated varieties in both Florida and Texas. It is a heavy bearing tree with deep purple-red fruit and a medium thick rind. There is also an Early Wonderful which ripens two weeks before Wonderful and has the same deep purple skin. Dholka has a patchy coloring of yellow, cream, red and rich tones of purple.

Purple Fleshed Varieties

• Grenada has a deep purple interior pulp that produces a grape colored juice. It is becoming popular due to the richness of the color and its extremely moist interior. Purple Seed is the most widely known variety of purple fleshed pomegranate. It has such a deep violet color that it almost looks like a different kind of fruit. The harvest yield of Purple Seed is not as high as Grenada but the fruit's unique color makes it a market favorite. Wonderful's exterior mirrors the interior with a rich purplish crimson pulp. Ambrosia has an even deeper purple interior and has fruit three times larger than Wonderful.