Pomegranate Red - Punica granatum

The Pomegranate tree is an ornamental shrub producing fruit with a hard, leathery deep red or yellow rind. When opened the fruit exposes shimmering translucent kernels. The juicy flesh is tart-sweet and surrounds nutlike seeds that are edible and add a bit of a crunch to the overall texture. Pomegranates store extremely well in a cool dry place and continue to sweeten off the tree. The plant itself is very hardy and highly ornamental, it has large showy flowers and is suitable for use as a feature plant, for hedges and container growing, it also makes an attractive and interesting bonsai specimen. A shrub or small tree to about 4 m, the pomegranate is multi stemmed, spiny and extremely long lived. Plants are usually pruned to form a short but well defined trunk allowing 4 or 5 shoots to develop into a multi branched form. Pomegranate is not fussy about soil condition, in its native environment in Northern India and Iran it is found growing in rocky gravel.