The fruit Prunus armeniaca gained its name from the beliefs of Pliny the Elder, a Roman historian and scientist of the 1st century, who maintained that the apricot was a kind of a plum, and had originally come from Armenia.[1] Armenian sources support their claims by referring to a 6,000-year-old apricot pit found in an archaeological site near Yerevan.[1] Other historians point that Mesopotamia as a clue to the Latin name. Apricots were cultivated in Mesopotamia, and it was known as armanu in the Akkadian language.
Plums are now the second most cultivated fruit in the world, second only to apples.