The Probert Encyclopaedia of Nature

APRICOT

The apricot (Prunus armeniaca) is a species of the plum division of the Rosaceae. It is a native of China, brought to England from Italy in 1652. It is a hardy tree bearing stone fruit closely related to the peach. The leaves are broad and roundish with a pointed apex, finely serrated and petiole, about two centimetres long. The flowers are sessile, white, tinged with a dusky red. The fruit ripens around the end of July, to the middle of August and is a drupe like the plum with a thin, downy outer-skin enclosing the yellow flesh surrounding a woody, large, smooth compressed stone. The oil of the stone is used in cosmetics as a skin softener.
Research Apricot