In article ,
P van Rijckevorsel wrote:

Iris Cohen schreef
Apples, quince, and pears are closely related. Some authorities place them
all in the genus Malus. They are known as pome fruits because the fruits all
have the same structure, five small seeds enclosed in a hard fibrous
container inside an edible fruit.
+ + +
[regarding 'pit' fruits]
Technically the hard stuff is part of the fruit, and the actual seed is
inside the hard stuff in all cases. Just nitpicking. ;-)

Hey! I wanna nitpick too!

begin nitpick
Each of those five compartments in a cultivated apple usually has two
seeds, sometimes three, often one.
end nitpick

begin folk thing
Cut an apple horizontally to charm little kids by showing them the "star"
in the apple.
end folk thing

begin pompous handwaving
I would not be surprised if apples and pears are complicated hybrids, like
roses. People who only see the cultivated ones and think they are very
different aren't aware of the many Malus/Pyrus species tht look as much
like pears as apples. The pear domesticated in the orient is not the
same species as teh one domesticated in Europe. There are a few other
'pyrus' spp that have been crossed into one or the other of the domesticated
species to introduce cold hardiness, too. Ditto, various 'crabapples'
have been crossed into cultivated apples to make more edible crabapples,
and 'apple-crabs' for cold areas like the Canadian prairies.
end pompous handwaving

begin slightly offtopic
Hawthorns (Craetagus (sp?)) are an incredibly tar pit for taxonomists. They
clone themselves like crazy and have great variation in leaf shape and fruit
character. A friend has been trying to sort all this out for her Ph.D.
thesis. She says that hawthorn taxonomists have been know to tear their
hair out screaming "either every clone is a species or none of them are!".
end slightly offtopic