If you pay attention to observe will find that the market almonds are big and small, round and flat. Although they are called almonds, but the source is really diverse. The dried, ripe seeds of mountain, Siberian, northeastern, and cultivated almonds are all used as almonds, and the native plants that produce them are classified in the genus Armeniaca.

Today, except for a few commercial almonds from cultivated sweet kernel almond trees, most are still harvested from wild almond trees, which have bitter and sweet almonds. Those bitter almonds are called north almonds, while the sweet ones are called south almonds. The north and south almonds ingredient in many Cantonese soups is actually almonds.

As for, now on the market is hot American almonds are not really almond tree out of the almond tree, this almond is actually a peach (also known as Batan apricot) seeds, in the classification of plants belonging to the genus Peach (Amygdalus) subgenus of the peach. Instead of calling American almonds, it is more accurate to call American peach kernels. The most significant difference between the two plants is that the flesh of the lentil will split in half when it ripens, while the flesh of the familiar apricot is wrapped tightly around the seed from start to finish, and will not split.

The lentil tree for American almondsThe almond tree for almonds

The lentil tree that provides American almonds (top) and the almond tree that provides almonds (bottom), there is still a noticeable difference in the shape of the fruits, with apricots being a bit rounder.