Photos

Travels on the Silk Road:
what we found along the way from Rome/Italia all through to the Tien Shan mountains (Uzbekistan,Kyrgizstan, China) was this Wild damson (Rosaceae: Prunus insititia; Haferpflaume; Les sibarelles). They are wonderful to eat and are used by the locals to make conserves or brandy. The picture was taken in Voskopojë/Albania. The same species of tree comes in two varieties, either with yellow fruits or with red fruits.

We developed our own idea of how this fruit tree might have been repanded (no guarantee for accuracy!): "3000 years ago the travelers already ate the fruit in the Tien Shan were the tree is part of the forests, then spit out the stones later along the way. In ten years a new tree grown from the stone can bear fruit again. 300 times 20 km distance makes 6000 km". There seems to be no way to check on this idea!