Phoenix dactylifera - The date palm is primarily cultivated for the fruit it provides. The date palm is a dioecious plant; it is either male or female. Male date palms do not produce fruit and are only viable as pollinators. In the wild, pollination is achieved by the wind and in cultivated settings, it is often pollinated manually. Date palms are an important food source, but a typical tree needs at least 4 to 8 years before bearing its first fruit and reaches a maximum yield capacity between 7 and 10 years.
- - - - -
What had once been four separate regions under the control of local chiefs, emirs, and sharifs. The regions Hejaz, Najd, Al-Hasa, and 'Asir, were unified into one state through the conquest of Ibn Saud in 1932. His dynastic line continues to rule Saudi Arabia. The new kingdom seemed irrelevant in its first few years of existence, but when huge deposits of oil and gas were discovered in 1938, Saudi Arabia emerged as a leading exporter of fossil fuels.
