AVOCADO

Deriving from the Aztec word "ahuacati" (literally "testicle") directly connected to the aphrodisiac properties that the Aztecs used to attribute to the fruit, the word "avocado" refers to a fascinating story. The first cultivation of avocados seems to date back to around 10,000 years BC. Even before that, in the forests of Central America, there were very similar trees that provided food for large, now extinct animals such as giant sloths. These, swallowing the fruit in one bite and expelling the large seed through the feces in ever-changing places, allowed the plant to spread from Mexico throughout Central America up to California.