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Malus sieversii, a major ancestor of cultivated apples, still grows in Central Asian mountain forests. Its fruit varies widely, giving breeders a reservoir of traits beyond familiar supermarket varieties. The orchard's future can depend on preserving its much messier family tree.
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The ornamental fruit shipped from Zentsuji is grown inside rigid containers that impose its shape. These melons have little sweetness and are sold as…
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Genome research identifies lemons as hybrids of citron and sour orange. Sour orange itself has mandarin and pomelo ancestry, making the familiar yellow fruit…
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In warm climates, ripe oranges can stay green because the peel’s chlorophyll doesn’t break down. Some growers use ethylene to remove the green color, since…
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Trees grown from apple seeds do not reliably reproduce the sweet fruit they came from. Many of the resulting apples were better suited to pressing and…
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Gardeners buried asparagus in steaming manure to coax it up before spring. The aristocratic shortcut was to turn a farmyard heap into an early-season hotbed.
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Wild, uncultivated apples could be so bitter that people spat them out, earning the nickname “spitters.”
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