Page 250 - Our apples - Les pommiers de chez nous

Acuminate: tapering to a prolonged point.
Acute: sharp-pointed but not long-tapering.
Aromatic: fragrant.
Blind wood: non-productive branches.
Bloom: whitish or bluish-white fine powdery coating, as
on some leaves and fruits.
Blush: a tinge of color.
Breaking: flesh which breaks into pieces.
Brisk: sharp and stimulating.
Calyx: sepals considered collectively.
Clasping: partially surrounding another structure.
Conic: cone-shaped.
Corrugated: wrinkled, furrowed.
Crab, crabapple: usually small, tart, cultivated
varieties of apple used for making jelly
and preserves.
Crisp: hard, but easily breakable.
Cultivar: a variety that has originated and persisted
under cultivation.
Depressed: pressed down.
Diploid: with a double set of chromosomes
(2n chromosomes) per cell; 34 chromosomes
for apples.
Dots: pores which are irregularly distributed over the
surface of the fruit.
Downy: with a covering of soft hairs.
Ellipsoid: with an elliptical outline.
Eye: part of the apple which includes the basin and the
calyx.
Fastigiate: parallel, clustered, and erect branches.
Fertile: capable of producing fruit; in relation to
stamens, capable of producing functional pollen.
Five crowned: occurs when the ribs form a
pronounced crown at the calyx end of the fruit.
Five pointed: see Five crowned.
Flushed: with an area of almost unbroken color.
Glossy: shining, lustrous.
Greasy: grease-like in appearance or to the touch.
Irregular: a horizontal section of an apple which appears
angular, elliptical.
Lenticels: see Dots.
Lopsided: larger, more developed on one side than on
the other.
Mottled: with light and dark areas in an irregular pattern. Waxy: covered with wax.
Mutation: heritable genetic change in a cell or plant.
Oblate: flattened at the top and bottom.
Oblique: unequal-sided at the base.
Oblong: longer than wide, with the sides nearly parallel.
Obtuse: blunt.
Ovate: egg-shaped, or like the longitudinal section of an
egg, broadest below the middle.
Partial tip bearing: fruits are produced on the tips of
shoots made the summer before and on spurs made
on older wood.
Pollen: dust-like grains produced in the anther.
Pollination: transfer of pollen from the stamen to the
stigma.
Precocious: producing fruit at an early age.
Precocity: the state, condition, or tendency of being
precocious.
Pubescent: with hairs of any kind.
Pyramidal: shaped like a pyramid.
Recurved: curved or bent backward.
Regular: a horizontal section of an apple which appears
to be nearly circular.
Ribs: a ridge; there can be up to 5 ribs going from the top
to the bottom of the fruit.
Rich: with a full taste.
Rootstock: rooted shoot to which a fruiting cultivar is
grafted to produce a commercially acceptable fruit.
Rot: softening, discoloration, and often disintegration of
succulent plant tissue as a result of fungal or
bacterial infection.
Russet: yellowish brown or reddish brown scar tissue on
the surface of fruit.
Scarf skin: thin whitish layer of skin which gives a
somewhat milky appearance.
Scion: fruiting cultivar that is grafted or budded onto a
rootstock.
Sprightly: lively taste.
Spur: a 1- to 3-cm shoot terminated with a flower cluster.
Spur bearing: fruits are produced on two year old wood
and on spurs formed on older wood.
Streaked: with long, narrow marks, smears, or bands
of color.
Striped: with alternating broad lines of color.
Subacid: slightly or moderately acid or sour.
Sucker: shoot arising from the trunk at or below
ground level.
Symmetrical: divisible into two similar parts by more
than one plane passing through the center.
Terminal: at the end, or tip of.
Tetraploid: with four sets of chromosomes
(4n chromosomes) per cell; 68 chromosomes
for apples.
Tip bearing: fruits are produced mainly on the terminal
fruit buds of shoots made the preceding year.
Triploid: with a triple set of chromosomes
(3n chromosomes) per cell; 51 chromosomes for
apples; triploid varieties tend to be more vigorous
and bear larger fruit but they produce little or no
viable pollen which can lead to pollination
problems.
Truncate: ending abruptly, as if cut off.
Vigorous: that grows very well.
Vinous: characteristic of wine.
Washed: covered with a thin layer.
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