SPRING BLOSSOM IN TURKEY
Fruits offer some of the most delicious flavours
that are to be had, as well as being valuable forms of nourishment.
Since they are of such diversity, there are fruits to suit everyonyen
taste. But of whatever kind and variety they may be, fruits are
equipped to reproduce the plant which bore them. So that when they
ripen and fall to the earth, and so long as the environmental conditions
are right, an apple tree should grow from an apple and a cherry
tree from a cherry. In short a fruit is a very precious object that
contains within itself all the essential qualities of the plant.
Visually, too, they are a delight, offering an extraordinary
range of colour and form, and artists and photographers take advantage
of this in still-life pictures. But for those of us living in cities
the beauty of their blossom, which is the first stage in a frui’sm
life, is something we rarely get to see.
The blossom of most fruits, particularly those of the rose family,
covers the tree with such profusion that it is visible from afar.
In fact most of the fruits which grow in Turkey
are members of the rose family: apples, pears, plums, apricots,
zerdali (wild apricots), peaches, cherries, sour cherries, quinces,
strawberries, raspberries, rowan berries, medlars, azaroles, cornelian
cherries, rosehips, and even the almond. It is this last which heralds
spring, bedecked in luxuriant blossom from top to toe. The pink
or white flowers come out before the leaves and provide spectacular
contrast against the dark bark.
Cherry blossom, which opens on either side of the
branches in clusters of pure white, is a symbol of innocence and
aesthetic beauty. The Japanese are the great appreciators of cherry
blossom, so much so that when they signed a peace treaty with the
United States they sent some young cherry saplings to share their
beauty with the American people. The Americans planted these around
the lake in the park in Washington DC where the mausoleums of their
former presidents stand, and people flock to Washington in spring
to see the cherry blossom.
Cherry blossom, which opens on either side of the
branches in clusters of pure white, is a symbol of innocence and
aesthetic beauty. The Japanese are the great appreciators of cherry
blossom, so much so that when they signed a peace treaty with the
United States they sent some young cherry saplings to share their
beauty with the American people. The Americans planted these around
the lake in the park in Washington DC where the mausoleums of their
former presidents stand, and people flock to Washington in spring
to see the cherry blossom.
The cherry tree originally spread from the province
of Giresun in Turkey, and since this piece of botanic information
gained wide currency, groups of Japanese have been coming to Turkey
specifically to see the native home of their favourite tree. The
cherry is not the only fruit which originated in Turkey. The almond,
apricot, pomegranate, sour cherry, and fig all came from here, and
there is some evidence that the grape may have been first cultivated
in Anatolia.
The Latin names of some fruits indicate this origin,
such as Prunus cerasus (cherry) and Ficus carica (fig).
The bright pink blossom of the peach adds its own
joyful colour to the season, and the densely arrayed white flowers
of the plum can be seen everywhere, from the coasts to the high
pastures. Rowan berries, azaroles, arbutus, cornelian cherries and
wild pears have tiny clusters of white flowers. But the rosehip,
fruit of the wild rose itself, after which the entire family is
named, has blossom with the most flamboyant colours of all. While
white and pink are the most common, yellow and crimson varities
also occur in Turkey.
In apple growing areas the orchards are a mass of
white or pink blossom at the end of April. Then finally comes the
quince, whose habit of flowering last is a fact many of us know
not from experience but from a popular Turkish folk song.
fruit too large and heavy to share a stalk.
* Tansu Gürpinar is a photographer and biologist
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