47 votes
Accepted

Why are sugars in whole fruits not digested the same way sugars in juice are?

Sugars in 100% natural fruit juices are chemically the same as in whole fruits. They mainly include glucose, fructose and sucrose: Apple nutrition data (expand the carbohydrate section) Apple juice ...
Jan's user avatar
  • 8,069
20 votes

Is a walnut a nut or a drupe?

Short answer Walnuts are classified both as nuts and drupes ('stone fruits'). background According to University of Wisconsin - Madison, Department of Botany , hickory and walnut can be classified ...
AliceD's user avatar
  • 52.4k
19 votes
Accepted

This looks like it was somebody’s home - but who?

That looks similar to the dried fruit of Echinocystis lobata (wild cucumber), which grows throughout New York. The fruit is about the right size (~3 cm) and shape, whereas the best alternative I can ...
tyersome's user avatar
  • 5,598
13 votes
Accepted

Identity of plant bearing a cluster of bulbous, glossy red fruits (Oak Ridges Moraine)

This isn't a flower, but the cluster of shiny berries containing the seeds of a flower. My best guess is that it is a Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), but it's a bit hard to tell from the two ...
anongoodnurse's user avatar
12 votes

Is a walnut a nut or a drupe?

A true nut, botanically speaking, is a hard-shelled pod that contains both the fruit and seed of the plant, where the fruit does not open to release the seed to the world. Some examples of ...
wanderweeer's user avatar
  • 2,733
11 votes
Accepted

How does coconut water solidify into hardened coconut meat?

There are three types of endosperms encountered in botany - nuclear, heliobial and cellular. The endosperm of Cocos nucifera is both special and interesting. Initially, the cocunut is a nuclear ...
Polisetty's user avatar
  • 3,687
11 votes
Accepted

Identify this unusually-shaped, orange-colored fruit that grows in pairs?

The seed pods reminded me of the Apocynaceae, so I searched for "apocynaceae china" and found this University of Hawaii page where it is identified as Stemmadenia litoralis. However, a little more ...
Bryan Hanson's user avatar
  • 1,547
10 votes
Accepted

Can anyone help to identify this fruit?

I think this looks a lot like a pale variety of Solanum Muricatum or Pepino dulce/melon/pear. It's native to South America, but I think that it would be able to be cultivated in India as well.
Alex's user avatar
  • 984
9 votes
Accepted

Plant growing inside a fruit

That is a papaya seed showing vivipary, or premature sprouting. The plant is getting all the sugar it needs from the nutrients stored in the seed so it does not photosynthesize. If it were to run out, ...
Jerry's user avatar
  • 106
9 votes

Can someone help me to identify what kind of pear is this?

Plu Code 4413 is a bosc pear (a cultivar of Pyrus communis). From the PLU search tool available via the International Federation for Produce Standards FYI: take a close look at the pear you're ...
theforestecologist's user avatar
8 votes
Accepted

What fruit did I just accidentally buy?

Looks like a papaya that isn't ripe yet. Being said, if you already cut it in half it probably isn't going to ripen any further. A ripe papaya has pink/orange flesh and the seeds turn black.
CKM's user avatar
  • 8,111
8 votes

What makes cherry blossoms so delicious? Does this delicious molecule (or molecules) have some function in the blossom? Does saliva activate it?

There actually is a study in the Nature magazine identifying the volatile (in the sense that they easily evaporate, as most aromatic substances do) organic compounds in cherry flower essential oils (...
KGM's user avatar
  • 313
7 votes

What is this fruit

Considering how many of them I’ve seen growing on the ground where I live in PA, it’s likely a mock strawberry. The plants grow on runners on the ground and have yellow flowers with five petals that ...
Laurel's user avatar
  • 793
7 votes

Why does this plum/apricot hybrid look like brains?

It is difficult to say, but it is likely due to disease. Many plant diseases have the effect of convincing plant tissues that they are some other organ than what they actually are, which leads to ...
Maximilian Press's user avatar
7 votes

Why are sugars in whole fruits not digested the same way sugars in juice are?

Drinking the juice without the fruit can easily lead to over-consumption. It is after all harder to eat four apples than drinking 500ml apple juice. As the liver breaks the fructose through ...
Pebermynte Lars's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

Fruit identification

it looks like medlar. Medlar is a fruit sized about 4cm (1 1/2 inch). it must be common medlar. You can find out more about this interesting fruit here at Wikipedia. The medlar was already being ...
hfc's user avatar
  • 560
6 votes
Accepted

Why do same type of fruits come in different sizes?

Phenotypic variance This variance in the appearance of living things is called phenotypic variance. There are a number of reasons for the existence of such phenotypic variance. In other words there ...
Remi.b's user avatar
  • 68.1k
6 votes
Accepted

What is this strange-shaped fruit?

Now I have the answer, and if you are reading this soon after eating the fruit you should probably seek medical attention. Looks like Cascabela theviata which is in the Apocynaceae and the Wikipedia ...
Bryan Hanson's user avatar
  • 1,547
6 votes

Why does this plum/apricot hybrid look like brains?

This is a guess, but perhaps the result of an infection by a fungal plant pathogen related to Taphrina deformans. T deformans infects species of the genus Prunus (i.e. the genus of prunes and apricots)...
theforestecologist's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

What is this fruit found in a market in Uyuni, Bolivia at the end of December 2019? (orange skin, 4cm, white flesh)

I found the name: it appears to be Garcinia humilis, known commonly as achachairú or achach: Garcinia humilis, known commonly as achachairú or achacha, is a small, prolifically-fruiting tree ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

What's the name of this green fruit with little pikes fallen from a city tree on the pavement?

It is horse chestnut it is very common to plant chestnut trees in public parks and a lot of people do have them around their property and by the side of many roads. What you have in your picture is ...
trond hansen's user avatar
6 votes
Accepted

Are these pineapple seeds starting to germinate?

Is it the structure from where pineapple seeds grow? Yes, these are pineapple ovules, which if properly fertilized would develop into seeds.* The structure they're attached to is the placenta, which ...
Darlingtonia's user avatar
  • 2,487
5 votes

Can anyone help to identify this fruit?

It looks like Tinda (Praecitrullus fistulosus), also known as round melon, Indian round gourd, Indian baby pumpkin, apple gourd, or Indian squash. Source: https://www.bigbasket.com/pd/10000372/fresho-...
wanderweeer's user avatar
  • 2,733
5 votes
Accepted

Banana peel bruises after a hit

Fruit is discolored in the first place because, when certain compounds are altered (oxidized), they turn brown. In a banana (and most fruit) those compounds are phenolic compounds, and ...
julianstanley's user avatar
5 votes
Accepted

What is this fruit?

Might it be Alectryon tomentosus? To me, the fruit looks the same and also the leaves have the same look. It is an Australian tree whose common name is "wooly rambutan" and is used as a street tree ...
LinuxBlanket's user avatar
  • 1,313
5 votes

Are bananas C3, C4, or CAM plants?

First of all, we have to think about the ecosystem in which banana exist. Obviously, the banana is in a rain forest. Rain forests are a very interesting ecosystem with lots of species. The climate is ...
L.Diago's user avatar
  • 1,863
5 votes
Accepted

What is this long cylindrical white fruit called?

It appears this is a Kigela (and commonly referred to as a "Sausage tree" in English). It is - as you suspected - considered inedible and even poisonous in its fresh form (but apparently it ...
JimN's user avatar
  • 1,992
4 votes

What causes plants in the prunus genus to reach anthesis?

Here’s how it works. Every morning when the sun breaks over the horizon — no matter what time of year it is — a clock starts ticking inside the trees. After a specific number of hours, the plants’ ...
Sartoaster11's user avatar

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