In the sweet-sour and sour varieties, on the other hand, citric acid is always the dominant acid. The sweet-sour varieties are less interesting from a commercial point of view, although their fruit may be useful in the future for obtaining derived products. Pomegranate is a small tree, measuring less than 4 m when cultivated, although it can reach 7 m in the wild. Some trees may live longer than 100 years. The root is knotty, consistent and reddish, well developed and extremely absorbent in saline soils.
Numerous suckers grow beside the trunk and have to be eliminated occasionally.
The bark, known as pomegranate bark, has traditionally been used for the alkaloids it contains although the trunk and bark of the branches contain similar quantities of the same. The trunk is more or less round, erect, ramified, with alternate open branches, sometimes prickly at the apex. The ageing bark shows cracks and takes on a greyish colour. It appears knotted ant twisted. The tree itself varies in appearance from drooping to erect.