 For example, the Belgian arborist Baron de Poerderlé, writing in the 1770s, asserted, ""Cet arbre tire son nom de l'Arménie, province d'Asie, d'où il est originaire et d'où il fut porté en Europe ..."" ("this tree takes its name from Armenia, province of Asia, where it is native, and whence it was brought to Europe ...").A large variety of apricots, around 50, are grown in Armenia today.According to the Soviet botanist Nikolai Vavilov, its center of origin would be the Chinese region, where the domestication of the apricot would have taken place.Apricot has been grown in China since 1000 BC.