ABSTRACT
The date palm, the oldest cultivated tree, has a fascinating history. For centuries, the date palm has been an important crop in the desert regions of Asia and North Africa. Out of the 100 million date palm trees worldwide, 62 million are found in the Arab world. It has also been the basic source of survival for many ancient nomads (Mohammed et al., 1983; Morton, 1987). At present, more than 2000 cultivars of date palm are known to exist all over the world, but only a few important ones have been evaluated for their agronomic performance and fruit quality (Al-Hooti et al., 1997).
