The English name for the walnut is Persian walnut. A Chinese natural history text records that Zhang Qian brought the walnut from the Western Regions during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, about 2,000 years ago. Judging by both its name and its history, we can infer that the walnut was native to a region centered around Iran.
Zhang Qian’s Two Journeys
Zhang Qian traveled to the Western Regions twice. During his first journey, he was captured by the Xiongnu and spent 10 years with them; only two of the more than 100 members of his entourage returned. It is unlikely that he brought back walnut trees at that time. Since there are no records of major losses during his second journey, in 119 BCE, we can speculate that walnuts were introduced around then.
Afterward, the Silk Road opened: Chinese silk traveled to Rome, while horses, walnuts, pepper, and sesame from the Western Regions entered China.
To the Korean Peninsula
After Gojoseon fell, the Lelang Commandery was established as a hub for trade between the Han dynasty and the Korean Peninsula. If goods from the Western Regions that had entered China along the Silk Road reached the Korean Peninsula via Lelang, walnut trees may have followed the same route.
Unless a time machine is developed, history is a matter of inference based on the records left by our ancestors.
As Europeans crossed into the Americas, walnut trees traveled with them. Whether eastward or westward, walnut trees moved alongside people.
Black WalnutExotic hardwoodsChocolate brown
Claro WalnutExotic hardwoodsBrown to violet-brown
Manchurian WalnutKorean woodsGolden-brown to brownManuscript: Woodway Wood Department Store, Wood Study, “Walnut” (November 2021).
