Date Palm

date palm, (Phoenix dactylifera), tree of the palm family (Arecaceae) cultivated for its sweet edible fruits. The date palm has been prized from remotest antiquity and may have originated in what is now Iraq. The fruit has been the staple food and chief source of wealth in the irrigable deserts of North Africa and the Middle East. Spanish missionaries carried the tree to the New World in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Date palms are grown in the Canary Islands, northern Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, India, Mexico, and the U.S. state of California.

dried dates

Dates have a long shelf life, and many varieties, including the common deglet noor, are often sold dried and processed. The dried fruit is more than 50 percent sugar by weight and contains about 2 percent each of protein, fat, and mineral matter. Other types of dates, such as the medjool, are eaten as fresh produce and gradually shrink and wrinkle as they age.