Résumé
As other fruit trees, apricot tree has a complex biology due to perennially and the year over year increase of its structure. In the last decades, researches on apricot tree mainly focused on flower and fruit development. The floral biology has particularly been investigated because abnormal flower development and self-incompatibility are limiting factors for fruit production and have to be taken into account in breeding programs. However, considering fruit production as part of the whole tree development recently became a new challenge, especially with the emergence of the Integrated Fruit Production concept. At the same time, physiological processes were investigated at more detailed scales, thanks to the progress of cellular and molecular biology. This led to the emergence of a new question: how to maintain the consistency of the knowledge obtained at the different scales, from cellular or molecular scales to organs and tree scales? The present paper attempts to highlight possible point of views to deal with these issues. The focus was put on the adult tree, at two different time scales. First, the different processes that occur during an annual cycle are reviewed in order to see how they could be integrated and where are the missing points. Second, the year over year development of the trees is considered