According to a new study, watermelons come from Northeast Africa

By: Trademagazin editor Date: 2021. 05. 26. 11:12

Examining the DNA of watermelon species and hundreds of varieties of greenhouse-grown plants, researchers have discovered that watermelons are most likely derived from ancient plants that lived in the wild in Northeast Africa.

A study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Sciences (PNAS) corrects a 90-year mistake that watermelons are native to South Africa.
Genetic research is in line with Egyptian tomb drawings that indicate that watermelons have been consumed as desserts in the Nile Valley for more than four thousand years, the Science Daily science news portal.

Researchers, including Susanne S. Renner, an honorary professor at the University of Washington at St. Louis, the lead author of the study, found that the Sudanese variety of watermelon, the cordophane melon, is the closest relative of the localized watermelon. (MTI)