Realistically coloured with vegetable dyes, it is said to have originated at the Benedictine nunnery of Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio, Palermo, known as La Martorana after its foundress, when nuns decorated empty fruit trees with marzipan fruit to impress an archbishop visiting at a season when the trees were not fruiting. It is traditionally put by children's bedsides on All Souls' Day.[clarification needed][2]
