Botany · Ch 10 — Economically Useful Plants & Entrepreneurial Botany
Fruits
Fruits
Edible fruits are fleshy structures prized for their pleasant aroma and flavour, and they supply potassium, dietary fibre, folic acid and vitamins. Fruit crops are broadly split by climate into temperate fruits — apple, pear, plum — and tropical fruits — mango, jack, banana — and this chapter focuses on the latter group. Mango (Mangifera indica, family Anacardiaceae), India's National Fruit, is native to Southern Asia, especially Burma and Eastern India, and is grown extensively in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Karnataka, with Salem, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri as Tamil Nadu's major producing districts, growing well-known cultivars such as Alphonsa, Banganapalli, Neelam and Malgova; rich in beta-carotene, it is eaten fresh, canned, dried, made into pickles and chutneys from the sour unripe fruit, turned into jelly, and processed into a very popular fruit-juice soft drink. Banana (Musa x paradisiaca, family Musaceae), domesticated in South East Asia, has Tamil Nadu as the world's leading producer, grown across Theni, Trichy, Erode, Thoothukudi, Coimbatore, Kanyakumari, Thanjavur and Dindigul in cultivars like Chevazhai, Nentheran, Karpooravalli, Poovan and Peyan; loaded with potassium and vitamins, it is eaten raw or cooked in many ways and processed into flour or fermented into banana juice, beer, vinegar and wine. Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus, family Moraceae), the state fruit of Tamil Nadu, originated in the Western Ghats and is grown chiefly in Cuddalore, Kanyakumari, Dindigul, Pudukottai, Namakkal, Tirunelveli and the Nilgiris, with Panruti and Coimbatore as major marketing centres; it is eaten raw or coo …
What this figure shows. A photograph of ripe mango fruit, Mangifera indica, shown either still attached to the tree branch amid its dark green lance-shaped leaves or as harvested fruit, illustrating the fruit's characteristic oval-to-kidney shape, smooth skin that turns yellow-orange with a reddish blush as it ripens, and the single large woody stone inside typical of a drupe. The image accompanies the text's description of Mango as the National Fruit of India, grown widely in …
What this figure shows. A photograph of the banana plant, Musa x paradisiaca, showing a hanging bunch (comb) of curved, finger-shaped fruits still green or ripening on the plant, with the plant's characteristically large, broad, paddle-shaped leaves visible in the background. The image illustrates why Tamil Nadu — named in the text as the world's No.1 banana producer, grown across Theni, Trichy, Erode, Thoothukudi, Coimbatore, Kanyakumari, Thanjavur and Dindigul — depends on this crop; it also implicitly shows the many-fingered bunch structure that underlies the range of cultiva …
What this figure shows. A photograph of the jackfruit, Artocarpus heterophyllus, showing the enormous, oblong, spiny-skinned fruit — the largest tree-borne fruit in the world — typically hanging directly from the trunk or a thick branch (cauliflory) rather than from a slender twig. The rough, knobbly green rind covered in short conical spines is clearly visible, illustrating the fruit that the text names as the State Fruit of Tamil Nadu, with major cultivation in Cuddalore, Kanyakumari, Dindi …