Ber and other Jujubes monograph.pdf - Crops for the Future

Asia by 2000-3000 BP (de Candolle, 1886). It was taken, according to Pliny,
from the Levantine Coast to Europe in the time of Augustus by the Consul
Sextus Popinus. It is thought to have been spread along the North African coast
in the seventh century AD.
In relation to West Asia a number of excavations have found remains of jujube
fruits linked to numerous Neolithic and Bronze Age sites (Zohary & Hopf,
1988); Egypt 4000 BC (Montet cited by Munier, 1973); also from shell
middens near Muscat, Oman from the fourth millennium BC (Biagi and Nisbet,
1992). It is most likely these gathered fruits were of Z. spina-christi or Z. lotus.
Chinese jujube has however developed a secondary centre of diversity in West
Asia and is naturalised in many areas such as along the Black Sea Coast (Tutin,
1968).
Chinese jujuba was first introduced from Europe to USA in 1837 by Robert
Chisholm and planted in Beaufort, South Carolina and introduced to California
and neighbouring states from southern France by Rixford in 1876, (Rixford,
1917). By 1901 jujube had escaped from cultivation in Alabama (Mohr, 1901)
and is now naturalised along the Gulf Coast from Alabama to Louisiana
(Bonner and Rudolf, 1971).
All of the early jujube introductions into the United States were seedlings from
Europe, and it was not until 1908 that the much superior Chinese cultivars
began to be introduced (Lyrene, 1979). In that year Frank Meyer, a US
Department of Agriculture plant explorer, introduced Lang and other Chinese
cultivars (Lanham, 1926; Meyer, 1911). A second group of cultivars introduced
in 1914 included Li, which produced the largest fruit he had seen in China
(Lanham, 1926). In recent years Russian cultivars have been introduced to
boost an improvement programme at the Alabama ADM University.
In the twentieth century superior Chinese materials were introduced to Japan,
and also to North Africa by French scientists.
The Chinese jujube (Z. jujube) has been introduced into more than 30 countries
(Liu et al., 2003a) and is becoming increasingly popular for its wide
adaptations, easy management, early bearing, rich nutrition and multiple uses.
Z. jujuba (Z. mauritiana) was brought to the non-French West Indies from
India and Indonesia during the colonial period (Barbeau, 1994). In 1993, 160
seeds of the leading varieties of tomentose jujube (Z. mauritiana) grown in
Burma (Myanmar) were introduced to China. Plants were vigorous and
matured very early. Two promising varieties were selected, the fruits of which
are crisp, tender, sweet and of very good eating quality (Liub, 1997).
The introduction of Z. mauritiana to the Negev desert of Israel has been found
most promising (Nerd et al., 1990). ‘Taiwan Cuizao’ was introduced in 1997
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