Editing Avocado (section)

=== History ===
Domestication, leading to genetically distinct cultivars, possibly originated in the [[Tehuacan Valley]]<ref name="Landon 2009">{{cite journal |last1=Landon |first1=Amanda J. |date=2009 |title=Domestication and Significance of Persea americana, the Avocado, in Mesoamerica |url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1046&context=nebanthro |journal=Nebraska Anthropologist |volume=47}}</ref> in the state of [[Puebla]], Mexico.<ref name="Harvard">{{Cite journal |author1=Galindo-Tovar, María Elena |author2=Arzate-Fernández, Amaury M. |author3=Ogata-Aguilar, Nisao |author4=Landero-Torres, Ivonne |year=2007 |title=The avocado (''Persea americana'', Lauraceae) crop in Mesoamerica: 10,000 years of history |url=http://www.uv.mx/personal/megalindo/files/2010/07/GalindoTovar_325_334_V21.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Harvard Papers in Botany |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=325–334, [325] |doi=10.3100/1043-4534(2007)12[325:TAPALC]2.0.CO;2 |jstor=41761865 |s2cid=9998040 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010145152/http://www.uv.mx/personal/megalindo/files/2010/07/GalindoTovar_325_334_V21.pdf |archive-date=10 October 2015}}</ref> There is evidence for three possible separate domestications of the avocado, resulting in the currently recognized Guatemalan (''quilaoacatl''), Mexican (''aoacatl'') and West Indian (''tlacacolaocatl'') [[landrace]]s.<ref name="Ayala SilvaLedesma2014" /><ref name="Schaffer 2013">{{cite book |last=Schaffer |first=B |title=The avocado: botany, production and uses |publisher=CABI |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-84593-701-0 |location=Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK}}{{page needed|date=June 2018}}</ref> The Guatemalan and Mexican and landraces originated in the highlands of those countries, while the West Indian landrace is a lowland variety that ranges from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador to Peru,<ref name="Ayala SilvaLedesma2014" /> achieving a wide range through human agency before the arrival of the Europeans.<ref name="Schaffer 2013" /> The three separate landraces were most likely to have already intermingled{{efn|Intermingled in a trade or cultural sense, but not necessarily a genetic one.}} in pre-Columbian America and were described in the [[Florentine Codex]].<ref name="Schaffer 2013" /> As a result of [[artificial selection]], the fruit and correspondingly the seeds of cultivated avocados became considerably larger relative to their earlier wild forebears millennia before the Columbian exchange.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=C. Earle |date=April 1966 |title=Archeological evidence for selection in avocado |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/BF02904012 |journal=Economic Botany |language=en |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=169–175 |doi=10.1007/BF02904012 |bibcode=1966EcBot..20..169S |issn=0013-0001}}</ref>

The earliest residents of northern coastal Peru were living in temporary camps in an ancient wetland and eating avocados, along with chilies, mollusks, sharks, birds, and sea lions.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dillehay |first1=Tom D |last2=Goodbred |first2=Steve |last3=Pino |first3=Mario |last4=Vásquez Sánchez |first4=Víctor F |last5=Tham |first5=Teresa Rosales |last6=Adovasio |first6=James |last7=Collins |first7=Michael B |last8=Netherly |first8=Patricia J |last9=Hastorf |first9=Christine A |last10=Chiou |first10=Katherine L |last11=Piperno |first11=Dolores |last12=Rey |first12=Isabel |last13=Velchoff |first13=Nancy |year=2017 |title=Simple technologies and diverse food strategies of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene at Huaca Prieta, Coastal Peru |journal=Science Advances |volume=3 |issue=5 |pages=e1602778 |bibcode=2017SciA....3E2778D |doi=10.1126/sciadv.1602778 |pmc=5443642 |pmid=28560337}}</ref> The oldest discovery of an avocado pit comes from [[Coxcatlan Cave]], dating from around 9,000 to 10,000 years ago.<ref name="Landon 2009" /><ref name="Schaffer 2013" /> Other caves in the [[Tehuacan Valley]] from around the same time period also show early evidence for the presence and consumption of avocado.<ref name="Landon 2009" /> There is evidence for avocado use at [[Norte Chico civilization]] sites in Peru by at least 3,200 years ago and at [[Caballo Muerto]] in Peru from around 3,800 to 4,500 years ago.<ref name="Landon 2009" />
[[File:Criollo avocados de Oaxaca.png|thumb|left|Native [[Oaxaca]] ''criollo'' avocados, the ancestral form of today's domesticated varieties]]The avocado tree also has a long history of cultivation in Central and South America, likely beginning as early as 5,000 BC.<ref name="Harvard" /> A water jar shaped like an avocado, dating to AD 900, was discovered in the pre-[[Inca]] city of [[Chan Chan]].<ref name="turtle">{{cite web |last=Barry |first=PC |date=7 April 2001 |title=Avocado: The Early Roots of Avocado History |url=http://www.turtletrack.org/Issues01/Co04072001/CO_04072001_Recipes.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071215142535/http://www.turtletrack.org/Issues01/Co04072001/CO_04072001_Recipes.htm |archive-date=15 December 2007 |access-date=29 December 2007 |url-status=usurped |publisher=Canku Ota}}</ref>

The plant was introduced to Spain in 1601, Indonesia around 1750, Mauritius in 1780, Brazil in 1809, the United States mainland in 1825, South Africa and Australia in the late 19th century, and the Ottoman Empire in 1908.<ref name="Schaffer 2013" /> In the United States, the avocado was introduced to Florida and Hawaii in 1833 and in California in 1856.<ref name="Schaffer 2013" />

The name ''avocado'' has been used in English since at least 1764, with minor spelling variants such as ''avogato'' attested even earlier.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/avocado_n |title=Oxford English Dictionary |date=1885 |publisher=Oxford University Press |chapter=''s.v.'' avocado}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Higgins |first1=J.E. |last2=Hunn |first2=C.J. |last3=Holt |first3=V.S. |date=April 1911 |title=The Avocado in Hawaii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LMRBwSgL9r8C&dq=%22avocado%22&pg=RA2-PA36 |journal=Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin |issue=24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Popenoe |first=F.W. |date=February 1911 |title=The Avocado in Southern California |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QblGAQAAMAAJ |journal=Pomona Journal of Economic Botany |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=3–24}}</ref> The avocado was commonly referred to in California as ''ahuacate'' and in Florida as ''alligator pear'' until 1915, when the [[California Avocado Society|California Avocado Association]] popularized the term ''avocado.''<ref name="Schaffer 2013" />