It's early autumn, and the peaches and grapes in the summer are about to end in season, which sounds a little sad, but... Isn't the fruit of autumn coming!
Today we're going to talk about pomegranates.
Pomegranate represents the taste of autumn, but pomegranate is also too difficult to peel it, if you are not careful, you will have to cut everywhere juice! Put it this way, it's as hard to peel as a chestnut, and you can experience it for yourself.
The taste of autumn is really hard to taste.
Seedless pomegranates, impossible to eat
Pomegranate, also known as An pomegranate, is cultivated in the north and south of China, but the temperate area north of the main production of the Tropic of Cancer is well known by the majority of Chinese people. However, pomegranate is not a native species of our country, it is native to Central Asia.
Pomegranates have a thin outer skin, which is formed by the healing of the peel and flower tray. Each seed of a pomegranate is connected by a pale yellow handle called a "bead handle" to a thicker peel, the thick tissue of which is the placenta.
There is no such concept as "pulp" in botany, and edible parts such as pulp, which we commonly call pulp, generally belong to the botanical "peel" or other structures.
The placenta of a pomegranate
Photography: Zeng Gang
The peel and placenta of pomegranate are bitter, but its outer coat is thick and juicy, and some varieties have a sweet taste and are an edible part of pomegranate.
The seeds of pomegranates squeeze each other during development, forming a polyhedral shape, which, when ripe, turns red, so it looks like a ruby, crystal clear and very beautiful.
Earlier we mentioned that pomegranates are very difficult to peel, in fact, there are many ways to eat pomegranates on the Internet, I chose one for you:
The peel is cut from the top ring and removed, and then the peel is cut from the diaphragm in the direction of the warp line so that the pomegranate is easily peeled into the bowl.
Efficient pomegranate peeling method
Image source network
Peel a bowl of pomegranates, you can eat it in a big mouthful, chew the juice and spit out the seeds, similar to eating sugar cane, very painful.
There are many soft seed varieties of pomegranates on the market now, and you can swallow them without even spitting out the seeds. Pomegranate seeds are also said to play a laxative role, but they have not been proven, so don't take it too seriously. Besides, are we teaching you less tricks, and is it bad to eat a mooncake?
Have you ever wondered why there are only soft-seeded pomegranates and no seedless pomegranates? If there really is a seedless pomegranate, it will be once and for all, and even the seeds will not have to be vomited.
In fact, the answer to this question is very simple, that is because:
Pomegranate eats its seed coat!! Make a seedless pomegranate, then there is no pulp, do we nibble on the skin!!
pomegranate? guava?
Pomegranate can be said to be a well-known fruit, most people recognize, but there is also a fruit called pomegranate in the south of China. As far as I know, at least some areas in Guangdong are called guavas.
Guava (also known as bale) looks very different from pomegranate
Guava is native to South America, mainly produced in China from areas with higher temperatures, so the guava sold in northern supermarkets is usually not cooked, and even some people say that it is as hard as a rock and tastes like chewing wax.
Image source: Weibo screenshot
Actually a good variety of guava, when ripe, sweet and soft, is really delicious. Some people also like to eat crunchy guava, dipped in sour plum powder, a different taste.
Many people like to eat it with guava dipped in sour plum powder
Guava and pomegranate are two plants that are particularly distantly related, and their similar names are mainly due to the similar shape of the fruit. But when guavas ripen, they are usually yellow-green, soft to the touch, and have a strong aroma. However, some people feel that the smell of ripe guava is too strong, smelling like a fox.
Both guava and pomegranate have many seeds inside the fruit, but the fruit structure is completely different.
Cut the guava, you will find that the cut surface is obviously divided into two parts, the outer circle of pulp is seed-free, the composition of this part is more complex, is the peel and the flower tray healed together to form, you can roughly understand the peel is good.
Some guava varieties have a red flesh, so they are also called red heart fruit.
The seeds of guava are buried in the flesh of the middle of the fruit, which is botanically a "fetal seat". The edible parts of guava are the peel and placenta, and the middle placenta is tends to be sweeter.
There are really not many fruits that eat seed husks
Botanically, the seed comes from the ovules, and the seed coat comes from the bead quilt, which is the layer of skin on the outside of the ovules. The seed coat is made up of many layers of cells, which tend to be divided into 2-3 layers with different textures during development. The succulent edible part of the pomegranate flesh develops from the outermost layer of the seed coat.
Shooting: Xiao Xie
In fact, there are not many fruits with seed coats as an edible part.
Fruits that eat seed coats like pomegranates include rambutan. Rambutan is a tropical fruit whose flesh and seeds grow completely together, making it difficult to nibble the flesh clean when eaten, and there are no gaps in the top of the pulp. This suggests that the edible part of rambutan, like pomegranate, is derived directly from the tissue of the outer layer of the seed coat, i.e., the fleshy outer seed coat.
This is not a lychee, it's rambutan
Rambutan looks very similar to lychee, and it is indeed relatively close to longan and lychee, but the "flesh" of longan and lychee belongs to the false seed coat.
It is called a "false seed coat" because it is not a real seed coat that is developed from beads. In the ovule stage, the precursor of this layer of pulp does not exist, and it does not wrap around the outside of the ovules, it is in the process of ovule development, gradually growing from the bead stalk, forming a barrel-shaped sleeve wrapped around the seed and growing upwards, slowly enveloping the entire seed.
Therefore, the pulp and seed of the longan and lychee are completely separated, and there is a gap in the top. We can carefully open the gaps, and without breaking the pulp, we can see the seeds wrapped inside.
Gaps in the pulp of the longan
Pomegranates can be eaten and watched
There are many varieties of pomegranates, not only edible varieties, but also some varieties with heavy petals of flowers that can be used as ornamental.
You may eat pomegranates a lot, but pay little attention to its flowers. Pomegranate flowers are usually red, but there are also white and yellow types. Wild-type flowers usually have 5-7 petals, with many stamens in the middle, and heavy-petal varieties are due to some of the stamens becoming petals, which increases the number of petals and greatly improves the ornamental value.
Pomegranate flowers
Image source: rayagarden.com
White pomegranate flowers
Image source: flickr.com
Red and white heavy petal pomegranate flowers
Image source: galvnews.com
In terms of plant shape, pomegranates have large shrubs and even tree varieties, the top of the branches becomes significantly thorny, the leaves are large, the flowers are large, and the fruits are also large; there are also small varieties, and the fruits are usually only the size of lychees, which can be used to make bonsai.
The top of the pomegranate branch becomes prickly
Red-hot pomegranate bonsai
Written by | Zeng Gang
Image | Figureworm creative
WeChat Editor | What a cool