The almond has historically been a simple but lovely tree, found in Mediterranean cultures. The earliest known fossils attributable to almond tree leaves and fruit date back to the Miocene, an epoch of the Tertiary Period. The earliest evidence of almond cultivation comes from the area that is now Syria. It was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Phoenicians and the Romans and its arrival in California dates back to the 16th century; the almond was later brought in the 19th century to Australia and South Africa. | | |