The avocado (Persea americana) is a tree native to Mexico and Central America, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. The name "avocado" also refers to the fruit of the tree with an egg-shapped pit.
The tree grows to 20 metres (65 ft), with alternately arranged, evergreen leaves, 12–25 centimetres long. The flowers are inconspicuous, greenish-yellow, 5–10 millimetres wide. The pear-shaped fruit is botanically a drupe (this term means a fruit with a large stone in the middle), from 7 to 20 centimetres long, weighs between 100 and 1000 grams, and has a large central seed, 3 to 5 centimetres in diameter.
The word "avocado" comes from the Spanish word aguacate, which derives in turn from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word ahuacatl, meaning "testicle", because of its shape