POME FRUITS
The pome fruits are
the varieties that includes the following
type of fruits:
Apple
Apples have been a very important
food in all cooler climates, and are
probably the earliest tree to be cultivated.
To a greater degree than other tree
fruit, except possibly citrus, apples
store for months while still retains
much of their nutritive value. Winter
apples, picked in late autumn and
stored just as above freezing, have
been an important food in the Asia
and Europe for millennia, and the
United States since the arrival of
Europeans.
Chokeberry or Cooking Apple
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The Chokeberries (Aroma) are two species
of deciduous shrubs in the family
called Rosaceous, native to eastern
North America. The two species are
readily distinguished by their fruit
colour, from that the common names
derive. The leaves are alternate,
very simple, and with crenate margins;
in autumn the leaves turn a bold red
colour. The flowers are quite small,
with 5 petals, and also produced in
corymbs of 10-25 together. The fruit
is a small Pome, with a very astringent,
bitter flavor; it is eaten by birds
(birds do not taste astringency and
feed on them readily), which then
disperse the seeds in their droppings.
The name "chokeberry" comes
from the astringency of the fruit,
which are inedible raw.
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Red Chokeberry are, Aronia arbutifolia,
grows to 2-4 m tall, rarely up to
6 m, with leaves 5-8 cm long. The
flowers are white or also with pale
pink, 1 cm diameter, and the fruit
red, 4-7 mm diameter.
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Black Chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa,
tends to be the smaller, rarely exceeding
1 m tall, rarely 3 m, and spreads
readily by root sprouts. The leaves
are very smaller, not more than 6
cm long. The flowers are white, 1.5
cm diameter, and the fruit black,
6-9 mm diameter.
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The two species can hybridize, giving
the Purple Chokeberry, Aronia x prunifolia.
It is intermediate between the parents,
having purple berries.
Chokecherry
The Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana)
is a species of bird cherry (Prunus
subgenus Padus) native to North America,
where it is fould almost throughout
the continent except for the Deep
South and the far north. It is a suckering
shrub or small tree growing to 5 m
tall. The leaves are oval, 3-10 cm
long, with a coarsely serrated margin.
The flowers are produced in racemes
of 15-30 in late spring (well after
leaf emergence). The fruit are about
1 cm diameter, bright red, with a
very astringent and sour taste.
There are two varieties,
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Common Chokecherry Prunus virginiana
var. virginiana. Eastern North America.
Leaves are hairless, underneath or
downy only in the vein axils.
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Western Chokecherry Prunus virginiana
var. demissa. Western North America.
Leaves are downy underneath.
Hawthorn
Hawthorn is the name of a large group
of shrubs and very small trees in
the genus Cartages, family Rosaceous,
characterized by their small, apple-like
fruits and thorny branches. The fruits
are sometimes known as 'haws', from
which the name derived. The original
name was applied to the species native
to northern Europe, especially the
Common Hawthorn, C. monogyny, but
is now applied to the entire genus.
They are native to the temperate northern
hemisphere. The number of species
in the group could extend to a thousand
or more, though some botanists would
reduce the number of species considerably.
Juneberry or Saskatoon
The June berry (Amelanchier Anatolia)
is a serviceberry found in western
North America. Large numbers of small
white flowers appear in spring. The
small purple berries, actually pomes,
ripen in June and July. This large
perennial shrub may grow up to 5 meters
in height; it is often found in clusters.
The June berry is also known as the
Saskatoon berry, from the Cree word
"misaskwatomin". The city
of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is named
after this plant. The Native American
food pemmican was flavored by Serviceberry
fruits in combination with dried meats,
and the stems were made into arrow
shafts.
Pear, European and Asian species
Pears are trees of the genus Pyrus
and the fruit of that tree, edible
in some species. Pears are native
to temperate regiona of the Old World,
from Western Europe and north Africa
east right across Asia. They are medium
sized trees, reaching 10-17 m tall,
often with a tall, narrow crown; a
few species are shrubby. The leaves
are alternately arranged, simple,
2-12 cm long, glossy green on some
species, densely silvery-hairy in
some others; leaf shape varies from
broad oval to narrow lanceolate. Most
pears are deciduous, but one or two
species in Southeast Asia are evergreen.
There are about 30 species of pears.
Three are important for edible fruit
production, the European Pear Pyrus
communist cultivated mainly in Europe
and North America, the Ya Pear Pyrus
bretschneideri, and the Nashi Pear
Pyrus pyrifolia (also known as Asian
Pear or Apple Pear), both grown mainly
in eastern Asia. There are thousands
of cultivars of these three species.
Quince
The Quince Cydonia oblonga, the sole
member of the genus Cydonia, is a
small to medium size tree native to
warm-temperate southwest Asia in the
Caucasus region. It is a fruit tree
related to apples and pears, and like
them has a pome fruit, which is bright
golden yellow when mature, pear-shaped,
7-12 cm long and 6-9 cm broad; the
fruit flesh is hard, and strongly
perfumed. The immature fruit are green,
with dense grey-white pubescence which
mostly (but not all) rubs off before
maturity. The leaves are alternately
arranged, simple, 6-11 cm long, with
an entire margin and densely pubescent
with fine white hairs. The flowers,
produced in spring after the leaves,
are white or pink, 5 cm across, with
five petals.
Service Tree
The genus Sorbus, or the Whitebeams,
Rowans, and Service Trees, is a genus
of about 100-200 species trees and
shrubs in the subfamily Maloideae
of the Rose family Rosaceae. Service
tree bears a fruit known as a sorb
or sorb apple.The exact number of
species is disputed considerably between
different authorities, due to the
number of apomictic microspecies,
treated by some as distinct species,
by others grouped in a much smaller
number of variable species.
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The stone fruits
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The berry fruits
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