Punica granatum Fina Tendral - Pomegranate

Punica granatum 'Fina Tendral' is a variety of pomegranate tree known for its exceptionally large fruits with excellent taste, and almost seedless. The beautiful bright orange, crumpled flowers of this small tree are also very decorative in summer, as is its golden foliage in autumn. It is a rather cold-resistant cultivar, but requires a long and hot summer to ripen its fruits, in late October or early November in warmer regions. This fruit tree can be planted all year round (except during frost), but preferably in autumn, in any deep and well-draining soil, even relatively dry.

The Fina Tendral pomegranate tree is an old cultivar possibly of Afghan origin, widely planted in Spanish orchards for large-scale fruit production. Its ancestor, the Punica granatum, is a small tree or large bush of the Lythraceae family, related to the purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) which is so common near watercourses. It originates from a vast region covering Southeastern Europe and extending eastwards to the Himalayas. It is a species with a long lifespan, capable of living up to 200 years.

'Fina Tendral' initially forms a clump of thorny and tangled branches in its youth, showing rather rapid growth until maturity, which does not occur before the age of 5-6 years. The mature plant develops at a much slower pace, forming a small tree at least 4 m (13 ft 1 in) tall and 2.50 m (8 ft 2 in) wide, with a spreading and rounded habit after a few years. From a clump, it can become a tree, if care is taken to prune the lower branches, standing on a twisted trunk reminiscent of that of olive trees.

Flowering occurs in abundance in June-July, and then more sporadically throughout the summer. The flowers measure about 4 cm (1.6 in) in diameter. They are composed of crumpled petals of a beautiful orange tinged with red, emerging from a thick, waxy-textured calyx that already evokes the future pomegranate. The pomegranates produced by this variety can weigh more than 800 g if the tree does not lack water in late summer-early autumn. Their thin skin, yellow, tinged with pink-red when ripe, contains large, juicy and sweet red kernels, with a mild flavour, containing a few small, flexible seeds that are easy to swallow. The deciduous foliage is composed of small, thick, shiny, bright green oval leaves. They emerge bronze to purple in spring and turn golden yellow before falling in autumn.

A symbol of abundance like its emblematic ancestor of ancient civilizations, the Fina Tendral pomegranate tree is a magnificent subject to plant in a warm, isolated location. Hardy down to -13 /-15°C (5 °F), it will easily grow wherever olive and fig trees can thrive in a well-sheltered location. But its superb fruits generally only reach maturity in southern regions. It can also be used in a large Mediterranean fruit hedge, associated with Osage orange, bitter orange, a small fig tree (Dalmatia, Dorée), a Japanese medlar, etc.

The city of Granada, a crossroads of Arab and Andalusian civilizations, located in southern Spain, owes its name to the presence of the pomegranate tree, brought by the Moors and widely planted in the mythical gardens of the Alhambra palace. This tree also adorned the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Romans discovered it in Carthage, naming it the Apple of Carthage.