{"id":35,"date":"2015-02-28T05:27:56","date_gmt":"2015-02-28T05:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quisqualis.org\/AAQuisblog1\/?p=35"},"modified":"2015-03-04T17:52:19","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T17:52:19","slug":"just-what-is-rare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/quisqualis.org\/AAQuisblog1\/2015\/02\/28\/just-what-is-rare\/","title":{"rendered":"Just What Is Rare"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DurioPumLove\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just What IS a Rare Fruit<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is a rare fruit?\u201d Now this is a question I have been asked many times over the decades. In truth, there is no simple answer.<\/p>\n

Apple trees (Malus pumila, Malus domestica) <\/i>are ‘rare’ in Borneo and Kenya, while you will only see a mangosteen tree (Garcinia mangostana)<\/i> in France or Canada in a glasshouse. Thanks to our modern shipping you might find the fruit from these trees in almost any location, it having arrived by sea or air. The well known orange (Citrus<\/em> \u00d7 sinensis<\/em>) only grows unprotected in certain areas of the world \u2013 yet I would guess that all of my readers have eaten an orange, or had orange products of some sort. Meanwhile, the durian (Durio zibethinus)<\/i>, while wildly popular with many millions of people, grows only in certain tropical areas, and few outside those areas have seen the fruit in their market or tasted a product containing durian.<\/p>\n

So, is the orange ‘rare’? Is the durian? I guess it is relative.<\/p>\n

I don’t think there can be an exact definition of ‘rare’ but if we are going to discuss ‘rare’ fruit and plants there should be some general definition for us to use.<\/p>\n

To be considered rare (no more quotes for ‘rare’!) the plant should fit most of these qualifications:<\/p>\n

1 \u2013 Not easily available worldwide.<\/p>\n

2 \u2013 Not easily recognizable out of its native area.<\/p>\n

3 \u2013 Not widely consumed out of its native area.<\/p>\n

4 \u2013 Not widely grown out of its native area.<\/p>\n

5 \u2013 Not widely known as edible* out of its native area.<\/p>\n

6 \u2013 Not easy to grow out of its native area.<\/p>\n

7 \u2013 Unusual or unique in some other way.<\/p>\n

8 \u2013 Has a limited area where it can be produced.<\/p>\n

(*edible for this post includes both food and medicinal uses)<\/p>\n

Eight points that might be applied as a test to fruits and plants to help distinguish them as rare.<\/p>\n

The orange does not really meet any of the points for most people regardless of their location. Although #8 comes a bit close since without protection from cold many groves would succumb to low temperatures.<\/p>\n

The sugarapple (Annona squamosa)<\/i> meets 1, 2, 3, 4 & 8 \u2013 possibly more. Even though a close relative is widely grown in the US, Australia and elsewhere (A. cherimola)<\/i> sugar apples look just different enough that many would not recognize them as edible.<\/p>\n

Pummelo rare (<\/i>Citrus<\/i><\/em> maxima, <\/i>Citrus grandis<\/i><\/em>)<\/i>? Ignoring folks that think they are a giant grapefruit (Citrus \u00d7 paradisi)<\/i> I would say yes. It meets 1, 2, 6 & 7.<\/p>\n

Miraculous Fruit, Miracle Fruit, (<\/i>Synsepalum dulcificum<\/i><\/em>)<\/i> rare? Meets 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8. Many people have experienced the effects \u2013 through a tablet form but not all that many have held a fruit or grow the plant.<\/p>\n

What do you think dear readers? Would you change my points or add to them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just What IS a Rare Fruit \u201cWhat is a rare fruit?\u201d Now this is a question I have been asked many times over the decades. In truth, there is no simple answer. Apple trees (Malus pumila, Malus domestica) are ‘rare’ … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fruit","category-information"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5LC6O-z","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/quisqualis.org\/AAQuisblog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/quisqualis.org\/AAQuisblog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/quisqualis.org\/AAQuisblog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/quisqualis.org\/AAQuisblog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/quisqualis.org\/AAQuisblog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/quisqualis.org\/AAQuisblog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41,"href":"http:\/\/quisqualis.org\/AAQuisblog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions\/41"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/quisqualis.org\/AAQuisblog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/quisqualis.org\/AAQuisblog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/quisqualis.org\/AAQuisblog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}