{"id":85,"date":"2009-09-16T19:04:54","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T02:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/2009\/09\/16\/monday-magnoliophyte-apple\/"},"modified":"2009-09-16T19:04:54","modified_gmt":"2009-09-17T02:04:54","slug":"monday-magnoliophyte-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/2009\/09\/16\/monday-magnoliophyte-apple\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Magnoliophyte: Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apples are an example of what botanists call a pome<\/strong>: an accessory fruit produced by members of the subfamily Maloideae of the rose family. A pome’s exocarp and mesocarp are formed from the carpels and make up the fleshy part of the fruit, while the endocarp forms a leathery or stony case around the seeds, commonly called the core. The end of the fruit opposite the stem is the calyx<\/strong>, where one can often see the remains of the flower’s sepals, style, and stamens. The trees themselves are deciduous, between 10 and 40 feet tall, and produces five-petaled white and pink flowers in the spring. First being noticed in the wild at least 2500 years ago in Central Asia, there are now over 7,500 different cultivars, created over centuries of selection. Indeed, the apple tree may be the earliest domesticated tree. Part of this diversity may be due to the extreme heterozygous nature of the plants: apples grown from seed may be radically different from their parents, so that most varieties today are grown from grafting.<\/p>\n

\"Apple\"
\nEudicots; Rosales; Rosaceae; Maloideae; Malus domestica<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Perhaps due to its long history, the apple has had an interesting impact on human culture. Many pagan religions make reference to apples as mystical or forbidden fruit, though the term “apple” was used to describe all fruits as late as the 17th century. The Latin word for apple, malus<\/em>, is similar to that for evil: malum<\/em>. This may provide the Christian myth of the “forbidden, evil apple” in the Garden of Eden, and how a man’s “Adam’s apple” comes from the fruit sticking in Adam’s throat.<\/p>\n

Short of choking to death, apples actually provide numerous health benefits, to the point that “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” It has been shown to decrease risks of lung, colon, and prostate cancer, as well decline in mental faculties. It can also help with weight loss and cholesterol levels. The seeds, however, are mildly poisonous, and should not be consumed in bulk. Their bitter flavor comes from amygdalin, the same cyanide compound found in bitter nuts. The fruits can be used in a wide number of culinary applications, from its juice (and ciders, sprits, and vinegars) to apple cakes, pies, crumbles, crisps, butters, jellies and sauces. They can be served spiced, caramelized, in salads, or just eaten raw (my favorite). So indulge in this “sinful(?)” fruit and enjoy it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apples are an example of what botanists call a pome: an accessory fruit produced by members of the subfamily Maloideae of the rose family. A pome’s exocarp and mesocarp are formed from the carpels and make up the fleshy part of the fruit, while the endocarp forms a leathery or stony case around the seeds, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum-immortal.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}