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shrub

Pomegranate

Punica granatum

Climate-suitable non-native

Growing guidance

Horticultural figures below are practitioner estimates for planning, pending expert review. The botanical record further down is sourced and verifiable.

Current-climate suitability

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Future-climate resilience

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Sun

Full sun

Soil moisture

free-draining, average

Heat tolerance

Up to about 45°C

Cold tolerance

Down to about -10°C

Waterlogging tolerance

1/5

Drought tolerance

5/5

Mature size

2–4 m tall, 3 m spread

Seasonal interest

Summer flower, autumn fruit · Scarlet

Maintenance

medium

Wildlife supported

General wildlife value 3/5 (verified species relationships are shown only where structured data exists)

How to plant it

General steps for this plant. Save a garden and these become specific to your location, soil and light.

  1. Step 1When to plant

    Plant during November to March, whenever the ground is not frozen or waterlogged.

    Woody plants establish best planted while dormant, so roots grow before the first summer.

  2. Step 2Where to put it

    Choose a position in full sun for most of the day. Allow 3 m of room around it — mature spread is 3 m and mature height 2–4 m.

    Light in your garden is not answered, so this is the plant's own requirement.

  3. Step 3Preparing the ground

    Dig a hole twice as wide as the root ball and no deeper, loosen the sides, and plant so the top of the root ball is level with the surrounding soil.

    Soil is not answered. This plant grows in free-draining, average conditions.

  4. Step 4Watering while it establishes

    Water thoroughly at planting (10–15 litres), then only when the top few centimetres of soil are dry, through the first full growing season, and dry spells in the second.

    Even a drought-tolerant plant (5/5 here) only becomes drought-tolerant once established.

  5. Step 5Mulch

    Spread 5–7 cm of composted bark or garden compost around the plant, keeping it clear of the stem.

    Mulch cuts water loss and suppresses weeds through the first summer, when losses are most likely.

  6. Step 6The first year

    Check watering weekly in summer, remove competing weeds, and tidy dead growth at the end of the season.

    Maintenance level on the plant record is medium.

  7. Step 7What to watch for

    Fruit ripening needs a long hot season.

    Taken from the plant record and your measured climate figures, not from a general description.

Spacing: about 3 m apart — roughly 1 plant for every 10 m² if planted as a group.

What this guide could not use

  • No location saved, so planting times are general rather than local.
  • Soil moisture is not answered, so soil preparation is general advice.
  • Light is not answered, so the position below is the plant's own preference.
  • Whether you can water is not answered, so watering assumes hand watering.
Answer five questions to make this specific

Built by fixed rules from: Plant record for Pomegranate (last reviewed 2026-06-01). Planting guide version gf-planting-1.0.0. Timings and volumes are practitioner estimates for planning, not a substitute for local nursery advice.

Known risks or warnings

Fruit ripening needs a long hot season.

Toxicity: none

Status and jurisdiction

Climate-suitable non-native in United Kingdom (Great Britain).

Register consulted: GBIF Backbone Taxonomy distributions for Great Britain

Record review status: awaiting expert review · last reviewed 2026-06-01 · plant data version gf-plants-2026.09.18. Status claims are never inferred from climate similarity, and growing figures are estimates pending expert review.

Verified botanical record

Accepted scientific name
Punica granatum L.
Family
Lythraceae (Myrtales)
Rank and status
species · accepted
GBIF record
Taxon 5420901

Recorded as introduced in: Alabama, Albania, Algeria, Amazonia colombiana: sur del departamento del Vichada; el suroriente del Meta; todo el territorio de los departamentos de Amazonas, Caquetá, Guainía, Guaviare, Putumayo y Vaupés; la Bota Caucana; y las vertientes amazónicas de Nariño (la parte alta de los ríos Guamuez, Sucio, San Miguel y Aguarico), Andaman Is., Anguilla, Arkansas, Assam, Austria, Bahamas, Baleares, Bangladesh and 79 further regions

Ranges are exactly as recorded in the GBIF source checklists and may be incomplete for widely cultivated species.

The pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a fruit-bearing, deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows to between 1.5–5 metres (5–16 ft) tall. Rich in symbolic and mythological associations in many cultures, it originated in the region spanning the Caucasus and the Iranian plateau — including modern-day Iran, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pomegranate was first domesticated by ancient Iranians in the Iranian plateau and nearby regions about 5,000 years ago. It is extensively cultivated for its fruit. Pomegranate was exported from the Iranian plateau to other parts of Asia including Iraq, Turkey, and India, as well as parts of Africa and Europe. It was also introduced into Spanish America in the late 16th century and into California by Spanish settlers in 1769.

Description from Wikipedia — Pomegranate (CC BY-SA), shortened and unedited in substance.

Native status and geographic context

  • United Kingdom: climate-suitable
  • United States: climate-suitable
  • Australia: climate-suitable

Native status is never inferred from climate similarity. Plants restricted or invasive in a jurisdiction are excluded from recommendations there.

What to do next

Create a Garden Profile to see whether this plant suits your conditions.

Demonstration data

These figures come from the demonstration dataset kept for testing and as a fallback when the measured climate service is unavailable. They are representative, not observed, and are never presented as validated live data.