\[ **BT: [[plants#domestication of plants]] | [[food production]] | [[history--Europe]]** ] --- # how long have melons been in Europe? ## watermelons [[A hypothesis that watermelon are descended from the South African citron melon came from a taxonomic mistake.|The hypothesis that watermelon descend from the South African citron melon came from a taxonomic mistake.]][^1] [[The Kordofan melon, from the Sudan, appears to be closest relative of domesticated watermelons—and therefore a possible progenitor.]][^2] [[By the late 1500s, watermelons were reported to be growing in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Mediterranean, Europe, and America. They didn’t look much like modern cultivar.|Watermelons were reported to be growing in Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Mediterranean, Europe, and America, in the late 1500s.]][^3] [[The modern watermelon wasn’t developed until Roman times.]][^4] ## *Cucumis melo* (sweet melons) [[In antiquity, melons were mostly grown for their young fruit (which look and taste more like cucumbers).]][^5] - [[Sweet melons (Cucumis melo) were present in Central Asia in the mid-9th Century.|Sweet melons (Cucumis melo) were present in Central Asia in the mid-9th Century.]][^6] - [[Sweet melons (Cucumis melo) were found in Khorasan and Persia by the mid-10th Century.|Sweet melons (Cucumis melo) were found in Khorasan and Persia by the mid-10th Century.]][^5] - [[Sweet melons were being cultivated in Andalusia by the second half of the 11th Century.|Sweet melons were being cultivated in Andalusia by the second half of the 11th Century.]][^7] [^1]: Susanne S. Renner et al., ‘[[Renner, et al., ‘Chromosome-Level Genome of a Kordofan Melon Illuminates the Origin of Domesticated Watermelons’, 2021|A Chromosome-Level Genome of a Kordofan Melon Illuminates the Origin of Domesticated Watermelons]]’, *Proceedings of the National Academdy of Sciences*, vol. 118, no. 23 (2001), p. 1, [https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101486118](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101486118). [^2]: Susanne S. Renner et al., ‘[[Renner, et al., ‘Chromosome-Level Genome of a Kordofan Melon Illuminates the Origin of Domesticated Watermelons’, 2021|A Chromosome-Level Genome of a Kordofan Melon Illuminates the Origin of Domesticated Watermelons]]’, *Proceedings of the National Academdy of Sciences*, vol. 118, no. 23 (2001), p. 1, [https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101486118](https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101486118). [^3]: Charles V. Hall, ‘[[Hall, ‘Watermelons as Food in the 21st Century’, 2004|Watermelons as Food in the 21st Century]]’, in *Food Security and Vegetables: A Global Perspective* (Prem Nath Agricultural Science Foundation), 2004, n.p. [^4]: Prem Nath, *[[Nath, Attaining Food and Nutrition Security in the Developing World, 2017|Attaining Food and Nutrition Security in the Developing World]]* (Prem Nath Agricultural Science Foundation, 2017), p. 19. [^5]: Harry S. Paris et al., ‘[[Paris et al., ‘Medieval Emergence of Sweet Melons’, 2012|Medieval Emergence of Sweet Melons, Cucumis melo (Cucurbitaceae)]]’, *Annals of Botany*, vol. 110, no. 1 (2012), p. 23, [https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcs098](https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcs098). [^6]: Harry S. Paris et al., ‘[[Paris et al., ‘Medieval Emergence of Sweet Melons’, 2012|Medieval Emergence of Sweet Melons, Cucumis melo (Cucurbitaceae)]]’, *Annals of Botany*, vol. 110, no. 1 (2012), p. 23, [https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcs098](https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcs098). [^7]: Harry S. Paris et al., ‘[[Paris et al., ‘Medieval Emergence of Sweet Melons’, 2012|Medieval Emergence of Sweet Melons, Cucumis melo (Cucurbitaceae)]]’, *Annals of Botany*, vol. 110, no. 1 (2012), p. 23, [https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcs098](https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcs098).