Datça Date - Turkey

[damir]

this spice is the northernmost population of dates, in Mediterranean. is somebody groving it? some more info, experience, pics...? i found some..

[damir]

[damir]

correction, it's not a spice , it should be specie written in first sentence. mistake from wikipedia.

I am not sure if it is a dactylifera or is the theophrasti which is native to turkey and greece?? i know that are some people from greece here in the forum, so please let us know. thanks!

Edited June 25, 2011 by damir

[greekpalm]

this also looks a phoenix dactylifera to me too !

I thought they also had fruit places north of that mentioned in turkey...

[damir]

this also looks a phoenix dactylifera to me too !

I thought they also had fruit places north of that mentioned in turkey...

do you know where, and what varietys ?

rgds

[newtothis]

Does anyone know what is considered to be the most comprehensive and accurate list of date palm varieties? I tried google with no luck

[mlovecan]

I don't believe the first and second trees are the same. Apparantly the true Datca is a variety of Phoenix Theophrastii ( which is what the first tree appears to be ) - though distinct from other more "wild" occurances like the ones present in Vai Beach on Crete or the ones at Golkoy that Colin stumbled upon a few yaers back:

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=1957

Clearly the Datca would have "evolved" over the years having been used in commercial date production ( the vast majority of commercial dates are propagated from suckers of other commercial trees ) . The "wild" varieties of Theophrastii would have "devolved" over the years to the non-edible form they are today ( trough natural breeding ).

It must be noted, though, all Phoenix Theophrastii are supposedly descendants of the food supply used by the Phoenican warriors as they travelled the area, trading and "making war" for about 1200 years. Certainly, the ancestors of all Theophrastii would have been quite edible.

The second tree ( I guess it's been posted since it is also growing in Datca ), though is definitely Phoenix Dactylifera - a "common" variety brought over here from Doloman, Turkey ( less than 100 km away from Datca ) for landscaping purposes ( although also quite a good yielder ). Here is mine just after "installation" in 2003:

[mlovecan]

Sorry, I must correct my last post:

The Phoenix theophrastii Colin detailed was not the Golkoy population but rather the Hisareonu Bay population ( on Datca Peninsula ) which is in fact the wild population described in Wiki as "The Northernmost date population".

This is, in fact, not true as the Golkoy theophrastii are about 55 miles Nortwest of the Hisareonu Bay theophrastii ( on Bodrum Peninsula ).

The first tree and both photos of the yellow dates are definitely varieties of P. theophrastii. The dates are not very edible - simular to those from CIDP's.

However, dates ( as well as many other fruits ) are grown in abundance on Datca Peninsula. The second tree is definitely P. dactylifera ( I assume you came across this photo while searching for Dacta dates? ).

I'm fairly certain Manoli is correct and dates are commercially grown further North in Turkey than the Daca Peninsula - but don't know as I don't go over there much ( and AFAIK no Greek dates are commercially produced ).

Regards

Maurice