The Jujube, Chinese Date, or Tsao (Simplified Chinese: 枣; Traditional Chinese: 棗; pinyin: zǎo) is a small deciduous tree or shrub in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. Its scientific name is Ziziphus zizyphus, synonym Z. jujuba. It is thought to be native to North Africa and Syria, but moved east through India to China, where it has been cultivated for over 4,000 years. The tree can reach a height of 5 to 12 m, is ornamental, with shiny-green leaves, and sometimes thorns. The many inconspicuous flowers are small, greenish or white, and produce an olive-sized fruit that is a drupe. The Indian Jujube, Zizyphus mauritiana, is more tropical in nature and has a lower sugar content than other varieties. Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Hepatophyta - liverworts Anthocerophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants Adiantum pedatum (a fern... Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants (also angiosperms or Magnoliophyta) are one of the major groups of modern plants, comprising those that produce seeds in specialized reproductive organs called flowers, where the ovulary or carpel is enclosed. ... Orders see text Dicotyledons or dicots are flowering plants whose seed contains two embryonic leaves or cotyledons. ... Families Rosaceae (rose family) Elaeagnaceae Rhamnaceae (buckthorn family) Ulmaceae (elm family) Celtidaceae Moraceae (mulberry family) Urticaceae (nettle family) Cecropiaceae Cannabaceae (hemp family) Barbeyaceae Dirachmaceae Rosales is an order of flowering plants, including the rose family, Rosaceae. ... Genera See text Rhamnaceae, the Buckthorn family, is a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs and some vines. ... Species About 40, including Ziziphus glabarrima Ziziphus lotus Ziziphus mauritanica Ziziphus spinachristi Ziziphus zizyphus Jujube, Chinese Date, or Tsao(棗) is a small deciduous tree or shrub in the Buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae). ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is a standard convention used for naming species. ... A painting of Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné (   listen?), and who wrote under the Latinized name Carolus Linnaeus (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of taxonomy. ... Gustav Karl Wilhelm Hermann Karsten (1817-1908) was a German botanist and geologist. ... Simplified Chinese characters (Simplified Chinese: 简体字; Traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: jiÇŽntǐzì; also called 简化字/簡化字, jiÇŽnhuàzì) are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Traditional Chinese characters are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Pinyin (拼音, pÄ«nyÄ«n) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to HànyÇ” PÄ«nyÄ«n (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration to roman script) for Standard Mandarin. ... Deciduous means temporary or tending to fall off (deriving from the Latin word decidere, to fall off). ... The coniferous Coast Redwood, the tallest tree species on earth A tree can be defined as a large, perennial, woody plant. ... A willow shrub A shrub or bush is a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 6 m tall. ... Scientific classification or biological classification refers to how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Genera See text Rhamnaceae, the Buckthorn family, is a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs and some vines. ... North Africa is a region generally considered to include: Algeria Egypt Libya Mauritania Morocco Sudan Tunisia Western Sahara The Canary Islands, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Azores and Madeira are sometimes considered to be a part of North Africa, though they do not share a common culture with North Africa. ... The peach is a typical drupe (stone fruit) In botany, a drupe is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp or skin and mesocarp or flesh) surrounds a shell (the pit or stone) of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. ...

The early-picked fruit is smooth-green, and resembles the consistency and taste of an apple, but as it matures more, the color darkens to purplish-black and it becomes quite wrinkled, when it tastes like a date, hence the name Chinese date. There is a single hard stone, similar to an olive stone. In Persian cuisine, the dried drupes are known as annab. Persian cuisine is the most widely-featured ethnic cuisine of Iran. ...

The tree tolerates a wide range of temperatures, though it requires hot summers for good fruiting. Unlike most of the other species in the genus, it tolerates fairly cold winters, surviving temperatures down to about -15°C.

Ziziphin, a compound in the leaves of the jujube, suppresses the ability to perceive sweet taste in humans.

References

• Fruits in Warm Climates. J. F. Morton, Miami, FL: 1987.