apples and pears

[Leroy]

Might be a weird question to any die hard biologist, but I was recently wondering why an apple grows the way an apple grows.

 

I also thought of a different fruit similar to that of an appel (anatomically) and thought of a pear. And again my previous question arose in my little head as to why a pear grows the way a pear grows.

 

Can anyone elaborate??

 

or any fruit for that matter

[MolecularMan14]

years and years of genetic mutation and adaptation shaped the genetics of the fruits, to make the most efficient one (as of today) Its really a matter of genetics

Im no expert, but Im fairly sure about that

[coquina]

What do you mean? Do you mean how the fruit is formed or how the tree grows, or what?

 

If you're referring to the apples themselves, having the fruit on the outside encourages animals to eat them and carry them away from the parent tree. If they all sprouted under the tree they would be stunted.

 

If you're referring to how the trees grow, when you buy fruit trees from a nursery, many of them have been grafted.

 

A branch of the apple is grafted onto the root stock of another tree.

You can even graft several varieties of apples on the same root:

http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/horticulture/H-00-049.htm

 

My dad's hobby was raising fruit. There is a lot to it. You have to know how to prune them properly and you have to spray them often, to keep the tree from getting blight and/or insect infestation. (You have to spray the tree for insects when it is still blooming. The insects lay their

 

So if you are looking at an apple tree and wondering why it has the shape it does, if it is in an orchard, the natural growth has been modified.

 

In order to obtain large fruit, you want a minimum of green growth, because you don't want the tree to expend its energy making foliage, which takes nutrients away from the fruit.

 

When the tree is blooming, there is a spray you apply to make a lot of the blossoms drop off = you don't want a lot of stunted apples, but a few large ones, so again, you divert the energy to the fruit you want to keep.

 

As the apples grow, you remove any that are misformed or growing too close together.

[Leroy]

well, i actually meant the shape of the fruit. And if its all to do with conserving energy, is the shape of an apple more conserving than that of a pear?

 

I could imagine that it has something to do with the shape of the flower, but i wouldn't know for sure.

[aguy2]

What do you get when you add an apple and an orange?

 

aguy2

[coquina]

well' date=' i actually meant the shape of the fruit. And if its all to do with conserving energy, is the shape of an apple more conserving than that of a pear?

 

I could imagine that it has something to do with the shape of the flower, but i wouldn't know for sure.[/quote']

 

One thing that sets a pear apart from other fruit is that is has "stone cells" or sclereid cells. They are what give them their gritty texture. I don't know whether their presence has anything to do with the outside shape of the fruit, maybe they concentrate in the lower portion due to gravity?

 

Seems like the shape of the pear would affect which end is up when it falls from the tree. Although it's not an advantage if all the fruit sprout directly under the tree.

 

These are wild guesses on my part. I wonder what the advantage is for the pear to have the stone cells? Does anyone know?

[PersonCube]

Why are bubbles round? Because that is their most constant and perfect energy form. If a bubble was square (technically cubical since we live in a 3-D world... darn cartoonists) it would have to have more energy to maintain the bends of the cube. In an apple and pear's case you must look at EVOLUTION. Lmao! An apple has not always been what we call an apple. Apples most likely were a different type of fruit, one that was red etc etc... but we must think that apples must be they way they are so that they may be perfect in every aspect up to the point that they can be in this era and period of time, just like humans.