Verification of the international introduction history of cultivated loquats

Abstract: China is the native habitat of loquats (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.). The history of loquat cultivationhas been recorded for more than 2 000 years. Now the loquat has been distributed to more than30 countries around the world. How has the cultivated loquat spread from China to these countries formore than a thousand years? This article summarizes several viewpointsbased on the literatures fromsome countries around the world: In the 1600s when China was in Ming Dynasty and Japan was Edoera intersected, Japanese“Tang loquat”(Karabiwa, oblong fruit) was introduced from China. Subsquently,these loquats were discovered by Westerners, which led to the fact that loquat began to enterthe system of modern plant classification; and the famous‘Tanaka’cultivar was also selected from“Tang loquat”. In 1780s, France and the United Kingdom introduced the loquat from Guangzhou of Chinaand then brought to their respective colonial countries. The United Kingdom spread with the loquatsto the United States, Australia, and possibly to the South Asian subcontinent like India and Pakistan.France passed the loquats to Algeria, where several fine cultivars were bred. When‘Olivier’loquat wasintroduced to the United States and‘Algerie’to Spain, these two cultivars became the leading cultivarin Florida, United States and in Spain, respectively; the loquats of France and the United Kingdomwere finally spread throughout the Mediterranean countries. Both the United Kingdom and the UnitedStates have played a key role in the scientific and generic naming (loquat). Finally, the paper proposedthree questions that still caused complications that were mainly associated with the specific time whenthe loquats arrived exactly to their country.