ABSTRACT

Dates are a popular dessert fruit in North Africa. They are cultivated for dried date fruits and also grown as ornamental plants in the semiarid tropics. Fully ripe dried dates are eaten fresh. Fruit is high in sugar, calcium, potas­ sium, and iron contents. Plants require high heat during growing and ripen­ ing. Date palm originated in Central Asia, particularly in Iraq and surround­ ing areas. It is cultivated predominantly in the tropics and subtropics of western Asia and North Africa. Major date-producing countries are Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, and the United States.