Almond, << AH muhnd or AHL muhnd, >> is a delicious nut. The nuts are the seeds of the beautiful almond tree. Each nut grows in a thin shell that looks somewhat like a peach stone. A green leathery hull covers the shell. The hull splits open when the almond is ripe.
Some almond trees produce sweet nuts; others have bitter ones. Sweet almonds are a popular delicacy when toasted, salted, and eaten whole, or added to candies and rich pastries. Bitter almonds are not edible. Growers cultivate bitter almond trees only for the almond’s oil, although people also extract oil from the sweet nuts. Oil of bitter almonds contains the poisonous hydrocyanic (prussic) acid (see Prussic acid). After the acid is removed, the oil is used in flavoring extracts.
The almond tree is native to southwestern Asia. But today it is widely grown in the countries that border the Mediterranean Sea. The trees also thrive in California, where commercial groves produce large annual crops of almond nuts.
Almond trees are well-proportioned and may grow 40 feet (12 meters) high. They have long, pointed leaves that curl and showy pink blossoms that reach about 11/2 inches (3.8 centimeters) across. The blossoms open early in spring, long before the leaves appear. For this reason, almonds are grown commercially only in regions that do not have early spring frosts. In other regions, people grow the trees as ornamentals.
