In article ,
[Jeff Root] wrote...
What distinguishes fruits which taste fruity from those which
do not? For example, apples, oranges, bananas, strawberries,
and grapes usually taste fruity when ripe, while bell peppers,
tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, olives, and squash generally do not.
But those things that "do not" really don't always taste like one
another either, and your "fruity" fruits seem to have a lot
of different distinctive tastes and may share little other than
sugary sweetness.
There are edible fruits that are pretty different
from the sweet juicy flesh of the "fruity" fruits you have in
mind [e.g., avocados, plantains, eggplant]
(When anyone other than a botanist mentions "fruit", what is
meant is almost always a member of the first group, and not
the second.)
Could you give me examples of:
Parts of plants which taste fruity, but are not fruits.
(The only example I can think of is rhubarb.)
Many "fruits" are actually not strict botanical fruits [= the
further developed and ripened products of the ovaries of flowering
plants]. The small "seeds" on a strawberry are the true fruits
[achenes] of the plant; the fleshy red stuff is part of the
receptacle of the flower. A rose hip similarly isn't a fruit, but
the hard seedlike structures on the inside are the true fruits.
A fig also isn't a true fruit, but is a hollow fleshy inflorescence
[flowering stalk] with the many small seedlike true fruits from
many separate small flowers on the inside. There are also fleshy
"fruits" derived from flower stalks [cashew apples _Anacardium_];
fruits where the fleshy bits are the sepals of the flower, not
the ovaries; fruits where all the fleshy edible stuff is from
special structures [arils] attached to the seeds, and not part
of the ovary wall. Etc.
Fruits which taste fruity but are not cultivated for food.
(And maybe some indication of *why* they aren't.)
Most plants with fleshy edible fruits aren't cultivated. Many
may potentially be suitable for such use, but haven't been
adopted and selected for use by human growers. Why? Because
very few people seem dedicated to trying to domesticate entirely
new crops from wild plants?
Our domesticated fruit species are often rather modified from
their wild ancestors. Most may just be larger-fruited and perhaps
heavier-bearing, but there are examples like bananas [the
domesticated edible forms are seedless; the wild banana species
are nearly inedible, the flesh being filled with large hard seeds]
Fruits which do not taste fruity and are not cultivated for
food. (And again some indication of why they aren't.)
Why just this combination of traits? There are non-"fruity"
fruits that are still cultivated for food. And even some food
plants that aren't cultivated.
Ultimately I'd like to have several widely-familiar examples
of each.
Is this perhaps for a class assignment? If so, perhaps it would
be better to help you learn to find your own examples.
For example, try
http://www.google.com/advanced_search
and try putting varying combinations of key words such as
"fruits", "domestication", "receptacle", "ovary", "flower"
into the "with all of the words" box. You'll get a lot of
likely "hits", like I just did:
http://www.life.uiuc.edu/plantbio/263/TEMFRUIT.html
http://www.nslc.wustl.edu/courses/Bi...003/fruits.pdf
http://www.innvista.com/health/foods/fruits/intro.htm
http://www.pinkmonkey.com/studyguide...p15/b1515701.a
sp
http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/Wilson/pp/f97/fruits.htm
http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/Wilso...u98/fruits.htm
http://www.dfsc.dk/pdf/Publications/TN59.pdf
http://www.steve.gb.com/vegetable_em...t_you_eat.html
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/fruitid6.htm
Searching
http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/adv
for 'fruit and flavors and chemistry and sugars and
ripening' also seemed to find a bit.
I haven't been able to find much info about the taste
of parts of plants not normally eaten. :-)
Experimenting yourself on some species may be ill-advised.
cheers