In article , Martin Brown
writes
In message , Kay Easton
writes
In article , Neil Jones neil@the-
joneses.org.uk writes

I should add that I have assumed that fruit trees have hermaphrodite
flowers with both male and female parts. All the fruit tree in my garden
fit in to this category.

Apples aren't all fertile with each others pollen though.

Depends what you mean by fertile. When you choose apple varieties to
grow together, all you do is to make sure they flower at the same time
... which suggests that they are all fertile with each other's pollen,
but because they flower at different times, the pollen isn't always
available when needed.

The only exception would be the things which are usually expressed as
'needing two pollinators' - and that is because they don't produce
enough pollen of their own to pollinate their pollinator, so you have
to get a second pollinator to pollinate the pollinator.

If a plant is monoecious (seperate male and female flowers on the same
plant) or dioecious (seperate male and female plants) then only the
female flowers are potential fruits.

Can anyone think of examples? All I could come up with was hazelnut ;-)

I am sure you know lots more.

I was confining myself to things we grow as fruit in UK gardens!

These are a few fun ones to start off the
game:

Ginkgo, Ginko biloba - females are not normally grown as ornamentals.
The fruits are extremely smelly and its pulp can cause skin
sensitisation. The nut inside is a delicacy in Japan and the extract
sold in various herbal medicines.

shudder - I had no idea they were actually *eaten*!



Hemp, Cannabis savita - not normally grown as an ornamental ;-)

Nor specifically for the fruit. But that reminds me of hops. And, while
we're at it, maize.

Holly, Ilex sp. - cultivars are randomly named cross dressers so that if
you want berries you have to read the small print on labels *very*
carefully.

Oh, I disqualified them as their only fruit for mistle thrushes not for
humans ;-)

I was thinking -the vast majority of our fruits are in the rose family -
apples, pears, plums, quince, cherries, medlar, apricots, peaches,
strawberries, then you've got the bramble family and the currant family.
And they all have male and female parts in the same flower. Then you
have figs which are totally bizarre, and mulberries which I'm not sure
about. Oh, and vines.


--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm