[Po-dev] Fwd: Terminology of Apple Fruit Tissues

[Chih-Wei Tung]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Martin C. Goffinet" <mcg2 at nysaes.cornell.edu>
> Date: September 6, 2007 4:49:37 PM EDT
> To: cwt6 at cornell.edu
> Cc: skb3 at nysaes.cornell.edu
> Subject: Terminology of Apple Fruit Tissues
>
> To Chih-Wei Tung:
>
> Because I am a plant anatomist with some experience in apple fruit  
> structure and development, Professor Susan Brown has forwarded your  
> email to me concerning the terminology of apple fruit tissues.   
> Below and in the attached scan of a few drawings from a 1942 paper,  
> I will try to give you my perspective on this issue.
>
> The "fruit cortex" of apple is specifically the tissue between the  
> skin and the 10 large vascular bundles as seen in an equatorial  
> cross section of the fruit.  The "pith" is that tissue inside these  
> 10 bundles but outside the horseshoe-shaped region (the carpellary  
> tissue) that surrounds each seed locule within the fruit.  We eat  
> both the cortex and pith tissues and consider them to make up the  
> flesh in mature fruit.  In general, the core is the part of the  
> fruit not eaten.  This typically contains the seeds, surrounding  
> leathery pericarp (some would say endocarp), and any adherent  
> softer tissue that may be considered pericarp, as interpreted by  
> those who claim that the pome fruit is a receptacle overarching and  
> embedding five individual carpels.  This is the view taken by the  
> authors of the information in the attached drawings, a view that  
> provides much of the terminology we most use today in describing  
> apple anatomy.  I use this terminology, although I am not a  
> disciple of this school of thought, but it does provide a common  
> language for descriptive purposes.  The two schools of thought of  
> this, for apple, are presented in the review of Charlotte Pratt  
> (C.Pratt. 1988. Apple Flower and Fruit: Morphology and Anatomy.   
> Horticultural Reviews 10: 273-308.).
>
> So, the fruit "cortex" is NOT the same as  "flesh" or "mesocarp,"  
> but is a region that makes up the flesh.  Pericarp, mesocarp,  
> endocarp, and exocarp are simple topographic, descriptive terms  
> that reference the tissue by its position within the fruit.  Cortex  
> thus is a component of the mesocarp, while the skin is described as  
> the exocarp by some authors.
>
> The placenta is a region or zone along each carpel that erupts into  
> the ovules, typically where (during floral development) the two  
> longitudinal margins of each carpel's ovarian region fold and  
> converge upon each other.  In the case of apple, each of the two  
> placental regions of each carpel will develop one ovule that, later  
> on, will develop into a mature seed.   Therefore, the description  
> of the fruit placenta as a "more or less localized region within a  
> fruit to  which seeds are attached" is correct; the placenta cannot  
> be synonymous with fruit core.  The apple fruit has one fruit core  
> but 10 enfolded carpel margins each with a placental region.
>
> I don't know if this helps or confuses you even more.  The  
> interpretation of the pome fruit remains a complicated issue and by  
> no means will there be agreement any time soon.
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
> Martin Goffinet
> Senior Research Associate
>
> -- 
> Martin C. Goffinet, Ph.D.		          Ph: 315-787-2392
> Cornell University		          Fax: 315-787-2216
> Department of Horticultural Sciences	          Web: http:// 
> www.nysaes.cornell.edu/hort/faculty/goffinet/
> New York State Agricultural Experiment Station
> 630 W. North Street
> Geneva, NY 14456
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