On Fri, 06 Apr 2007 22:31:48 +0100, Donna Frazier wrote:
|!On Fri, 06 Apr 2007 22:05:54 +0100, Dave Fawthrop
wrote:
|!
|!On Fri, 06 Apr 2007 21:21:49 +0100, Angela Fuller wrote:
|!
|!|!Why are limes seedless and lemons not?
|!
|!They are different cultivars both of the citrus family.
|!
|!So they're hybrids? Have they (the limes) been specifically
|!cultivated to have no seeds? If so, why not do the same with
|!lemons?
Man has been deliberately selecting and breeding the animals and vegetables
which we eat for over 6000 years, in some cases more, so non of them are in
anything like a natural state, where species generally do not interbreed
and generally if they interbreed generally have infertile offspring. The
difference between species, cultivars and hybrids has been thoroughly
confused by us.
|!
|!When I last made lime marmalade the Limes had a few seeds
|!
|!Strange. I've used about 20 limes over the past month or so
|!and not one had a seed in it.
I said *cultivars* not species.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultivar
Examples of cultivars ate the dozen types of potato which you can buy
easily and *many* more which the supermarkets do not stock, these vary
widely in taste cooking quality etc. etc.
http://www.europotato.org/menu.php?
There are also many different cultivars of the orange, clematises, jaffa,
seville etc. etc. which also vary widely.
http://www.postharvest.com.au/Oranges_Cv.htm
If you buy your limes at one place, they may well have a seedless cultivar.
The plant breeders are forever working on ?improvements?
Google found me this:
http://www.uga.edu/fruit/citrus.html
Limes. ?Key' (syn. ?Mexican', ?West Indian') and ?Tahiti' (syn. Persian)
are the major cultivars. ?Key' limes are small, round, and seedy, and turn
yellow under Mediterranean conditions. ?Tahiti' limes are larger, green,
and shaped like lemons.
Lemons. The main cultivars are 'Lisbon' (oval to round, more pronounced
stylar end furrow and point) and 'Eureka' (oval, less pronounced stylar
end). 'Meyer' is a cold hardy, larger fruited cultivar used as an
ornamental or containerized plant, and is probably a lemon hybrid.
?Femminello' and ?Verna' are the major cultivars in Italy and Spain,
respectively.
--
Dave Fawthrop sf hyphenologist.co.uk 165 *Free* SF ebooks.
165 Sci Fi books on CDROM, from Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page Completely Free to any
address in the UK. Contact me on the *above* email address.