The Avocado (Persea Americana, Lauraceae) Crop in Mesoamerica: 10,000 Years of History

Sustainable Horticultural Systems

“…The more easily-pronounced name of avocado is attributed to Sir Henry Sloane, who created it in 1669. The word itself first appeared in American print in 1697 (Galindo-Tovar et al 2007). Early Spanish explorers discovered the Aztecs enjoying avocados, but it was long considered a tasteless food.…”

“…Sahagún ([1570] 2002) also described three different types of avocado: the ahuacatl or ahuacacahuitl has dark green leaves and the fruit is black in the outside and white and green in the inside; the tlacazolahuacatl is like the former but bigger; and the quilahuacatl is green in the outside and very good to eat. Other chroniclers not only described the different avocado types but situated them geographically (Galindo-Tovar et al 2007). Friar José Acosta, in 1590, in his "Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias" differentiated between the Mexican avocado and the one from Peru.…”

“…Mexican center, Guatemalan center and the hot and humid lowlands of Central or northern South America center (Popenoe 1934;Storey et al 1986;Galindo-Tovar et al 2007;Chen et al 2009). …”

“…Seed remains found in ancient human settlements in the Tehuacan Valley suggest that the avocado could have been used as early as 8000-7000 BC and possibly domesticated at least 5000 BC by Mesoamerican groups (Smith1966, 1969. The most ancient evidence of the use of the avocado tree ( Persea Americana; Lauraceae) in Mesoamerica is about 10,000 years ago, in Coaxcatlan, Puebla (Mexico) (Knight 2002;Galindo-Tovar et al 2007;Landon 2009). …”

Biodiversity and Edible Plants of Mexico

“…The diversity of avocado was known since Prehispanic times, the Florentine Codex describing three types corresponding to the above-mentioned races or variet- [ 72 ], respectively: aoacatl or ahuacatl , in Nahuatl meaning avocado, and fi guratively, testicle; quilahuacatl , meaning green avocado, and considered as the best to eat; and tlacazolahuacatl , translated from Nahuatl as gluttony avocado, described as being larger than the aoacatl [ 73 ]. Morphological studies show a closer relation between the West Indian and Guatemalan races.…”