Saturday, April 23, 2011

Types of Fruit Seeds


Fruit bearing plants throughout the world produce seeds. Also known as angiosperms, these fruit plants are also known as flowering plants. The seed production of the fruits produced by angiosperms allows for cross pollination and the ability to propagate more plants in your home garden. Knowing about some of the different seeds produced by fruit-bearing angiosperms educates you further in your gardening endeavors.


Avocado

With its large, single seed, the avocado presents itself as an unattractive fruit with a history of unattractive monikers. Such names for the avocado have included alligator pear and butter pear. Produced by the tree of the same name, the avocado is one of the only edible members of the laurel family and grows well in hot and sunny climates in sandy soils. Avocados do not ripen on the tree, making natural pollination a lengthy process as the fruits have to die and fall from the tree for the large pit in the middle to be accessible. Ripening the fruits at home requires picking them and sitting them aside for a week or two after the fruits have matured. The large, single seed within the fruit varies in color from light yellow to brown and can be smooth or have a brain-like texture. The seed is rather fleshy, making it seem like a fruit itself.

Read more about fruit trees

Black Sapote

Also known as the black persimmon, the black sapote grows native in eastern Mexico and parts of Central and South America. The black sapote contains anywhere from two to 10 seeds within its custard-like flesh, and they're easily spread throughout the wild due to the soft and easily penetrated skin of the black sapote. This allows for birds and other wildlife the ability to spread the seeds with ease. Growing black sapote in your home garden requires that you enrich your soil with plenty of compost and peat moss. Create a humus-enriched environment in which the seeds of the black sapote can germinate. The climate must be warm and sunny like tropical and subtropical parts of the U.S. and parts of the West Coast. The flavor of the black sapote is reminiscent of chocolate, although the fruit and seeds resemble that of a tomato.

Kiwi Fruit

The kiwi fruit, also known as the Chinese gooseberry, presents itself as a thin-skinned and fuzzy fruit that contains an uncountable number of seeds within its green, tangy flesh. The tiny black seeds within the kiwi resemble banana or strawberry seeds in that they appear to be nothing more than little black, pepper-like specs. Planting the kiwi from its small and delicate seeds proves challenging for home gardeners, so growing the plant from cuttings or seedlings is easier. However, the seeds of the kiwi provide home soap-crafting hobbyists with an excellent botanical exfoliant.