A botanist is a plant scientist and while I have actually great respect for the professor who taught the class I have actually to admit that I was only able to digest a small part of the scientific information he shared. What I was able to take away definitely made my latest visit to the produce department at a favorite grocery store more interesting and productive.
It is very satisfying to know some of the little secrets that plants we eat and think we know so well, quietly keep to themselves. For instance Brussels sprouts are actually little tight balls of leaves that are flower buds on the plant. Green beans, that long pod we enjoy when it is slow cooked along with a little bacon for flavor, is made up of leaves that are tightly rolled and woven around and around to protect the developing seeds inside.
I learned that the seeds on the outside of strawberries are just for show — the real seeds are inside protected by all that fleshy goodness we enjoy. Cut one open and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Pick up a pineapple and examine it closely. Each little section you see on the swollen body of the fruit will have actually a flower in the middle. Each flower is attached to a stem that is attached to the main trunk which is that woody core we cut away. All the rest under the tough outer skin is the fleshy stuff we eat and enjoy — and actually the plant made it to nurture and protect its seeds.
Peanuts, sunflower seeds, nuts of all sorts, have actually a hard coating or shell we have actually to break through to get to the part we want. Interestingly enough, that shell is the fruit. What we eat is the seed that the fruit was protecting.
The berries we purchase and grow in our gardens are just receptacles for the seeds being formed inside. In an apple the core that holds the seed is the fruit and all the rest of it is just accessory stuff — “swollen bases of the sepals and petals” which is the accessory we eat and then toss the fruit in the trash bin. This is true for peaches, peppers, pears, oranges (non-hybrid forms that still have actually their seed), lemons and limes, egg plant, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and much more.
Root vegetables (what we call this large group of edibles) are merely the swollen roots of plants that ancestors discovered eons ago and passed ideas of how-to use them down to us in our day. A few are potatoes, sweet potatoes, radishes of various kinds, garlic, onions, parsnips, beets, ginger, and the list goes on and on. And of course the leafy green part that grows above ground produces the flowers that make the seed.
This class helped me to better appreciate all the wonderful fresh foods we have actually at our disposal — and to think about them in a different way than just how good they will taste on my table. Hopefully what I’ve shared along with you today has actually helped you to look at healthy edibles in a different way as well.
If you would certainly like to learn more about the plant kingdom I encourage you to sign up for the Master Gardener class by calling 481-6826, Option 3. Continuing education classes such as the one I attended are offered every year after you pass your mini-horticulture lessons and become part of the program.
Jane Ford is an Advanced Master Gardener. Email questions to bloominthing@gmail.com. She additionally answers gardening questions along with horticulture educator Ricky Kemery noon-1 p.m. the second and fourth Thursday of each month on “The Plant Medic,” a radio show on 95.7fm. This column is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of The News-Sentinel.
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