Pomegranate
Punica granatum
A deciduous shrub or small tree with glossy, narrow, opposite leaves and scarlet, funnel-shaped flowers on a thick fleshy tube. The fruit is round with a leathery red-brown rind and a persistent crown of dried calyx lobes at the apex; inside, hundreds of juicy arils sit packed in chambers divided by pale bitter membrane. The arils are eaten raw, pressed for juice, or reduced to molasses.
Native from Iran east to northern India and long naturalised around the Mediterranean on dry, stony ground. In Britain and Ireland it is a garden and conservatory plant only, grown against warm south-facing walls in southern England, where it flowers freely but seldom ripens fruit outdoors.
The arils and their juice are the edible part and need no preparation. Rind, bark and root are not food: they contain pelletierine alkaloids, and traditional root-bark worming preparations have caused serious poisoning. Pomegranate juice interacts with some prescribed medicines, so anyone on regular medication may want to check. Nothing comparable grows wild in Britain, and fruit on a garden tree belongs to the owner.
Always use more than one reference to confirm a plant. You are responsible for what you choose to forage.
Habit and flowers
A dense, twiggy shrub or small tree, often with short side shoots ending in a spine. The flowers are scarlet and funnel-shaped, with a thick, waxy, fleshy tube rather than the thin papery base of the hibiscus and mallow flowers it is sometimes likened to.
Fruit exterior
Round, roughly apple-sized, with a hard leathery rind ranging from yellow-green to deep red-brown. The dried calyx lobes stand up as a crown at the far end from the stalk; no other fruit grown outdoors in Britain carries that structure.
Cut interior
Cutting across reveals chambers of translucent arils, each a seed in a sac of juice, separated by pale spongy membrane. The membrane and rind are astringent and bitter and are separated out; only the arils are eaten.
Leaves
Narrow oblong and glossy, in opposite pairs or clustered on short shoots, bronze-tinted when young and turning clear yellow in autumn. Opposite arrangement separates it at a glance from the alternate-leaved apples, pears and plums it may stand beside in a garden.
Updated 2026-08-07T20:57:55.560Z · Part of the shared Foragers Log catalogue · Fruit