The Story of Avocado

This is Persea americana, a Lauraceae tree. Kew maps Central Mexico to Costa Rica.

How it was found

Kew maps Persea americana from Central Mexico to Costa Rica. Native to: Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, and Nicaragua. USDA-ARS GRIN also prints native in northern and southern Mexico and Central America, plus Other: origin Mesoamerica. Jepson eFlora: native to mountains of Central America.

GRIN lists Venezuela as a possible native area that still requires confirmation.

UC ANR Topics in Subtropics (UCR): indigenous civilizations in Mesoamerica were selecting superior forms for thousands of years; archaeological evidence of selection as far back as 8,000 years before present in Puebla State, Mexico. At European contact, three distinct types already existed (West Indian, Guatemalan, Mexican botanical races), each from a separate geographic center of origin.

How people used it

Kew use classes include food, fuel, medicine, poison, animal food, environmental uses, and social uses. Jepson: widely cultivated for fruits. GRIN economic uses include human food (fruit).

Kew also lists the species as a medicine.

Timeline

1. About 8,000 years before present

   Selection in Puebla

   UC ANR / UCR Topics in Subtropics prints evidence of selection by human hand as far back as 8,000 years before present, preserved in archaeological sites in Puebla State, Mexico.

   UC ANR Topics in Subtropics

2. At European contact / 15th–16th centuries

   Three races already in place

   UC ANR writes that three botanical races already existed at European contact. Worldwide distribution of (mostly West Indian race) avocados followed 15th- and 16th-century explorations, reaching Spain in the early 17th century.

   UC ANR Topics in Subtropics

3. 1768

   Named in the Gardeners Dictionary

   Kew: Persea americana Mill. first published in Gardeners Dictionary, ed. 8 (1768). Accepted species, family Lauraceae; tree of the seasonally dry tropical biome.

   Kew POWO

4. Mid- to late 19th century United States

   Florida 1833, California 1856

   UC ANR Topics in Subtropics: the three races found their way to the United States, primarily Florida and California, in the mid- to late 19th century. UC Fruit & Nut Research avocado fact sheet prints first U.S. plantings in Florida 1833 and in California 1856. That is the U.S. arrival, centuries after Puebla selection.

   UC ANR Topics in Subtropics; UC ANR Fruit & Nut Research

Cool to know

Growing notes for this plant live on the Plant Wiki.