Richard Ashton

Richard has been testing Central Asian and other pomegranates at his Oak Creek Orchard in Texas. He is Chairman of the Pomegranate Group of the North American Fruit Explorers.

Barbara L. Baer

Barbara is the owner of Floreant Press, a Northern California publishing house. She went to Turkmenistan in search of pomegranates and Dr. Levin.  The rest is history.

David E. Silverstein

David is pomegranate consultant for the California Rare Fruit Growers and is Chairman of the San Diego, California Chapter of CRFG.

Dr. Gregory M. Levin










Dr. Gregory M. Levin, a botanist, spent close to 40 years in the Turkmen area of Central Asia, now called Turkmenistan. He spent most of that time at the Kara-Kala Experiment Station of Genetic Resources (now called Garrigala). This area of the world is the within the point of origin of the pomegranate and pomegranates still grow wild in the area.He was in charge of the pomegranate collection at the station and amassed a collection of 1,117 different cultivars of pomegranates, the world’s largest collection. With the experimentation and treks to collect plant material he is considered one of the world’s leading experts on Punica granatum.