Overview

Fruit. The word itself conjures up mouthwatering memories of crunchy apples, luscious strawberries, sweet bananas, succulent melons and juicy pineapples, to which we can add the splendid tropical fruits on our supermarket shelves. They are one of nature's most wonderful gifts but providing us with a healthy source of food is not the reason that plants produce such delicious fruits. It is therefore quite legitimate to ask what fruits are, and why they exist. As will be revealed, the true nature of fruits is concealed in what is buried in their core: their seeds. The key role that both play in the survival of each species explains the manifold strategies and ruses that plants have developed for the dispersal of their seeds. Whether these involve wind, water, humans, animals or the plant's own explosive triggers, they are reflected in the many colours, shapes and sizes of the fruits that protect the seeds and in the extraordinary way that some fruits have adapted to the animals that disperse their seeds, and the animals to the fruits they relish. In this pioneering collaboration, visual artist Rob Kesseler and seed morphologist Wolfgang Stuppy use scanning electronmicroscopy to obtain astonishing images of a variety of fruits and the seeds they protect. Razor-sharp cross-sections reveal intricate interiors, nuts and other examples of botanical architecture and reproductive ingenuity. The black and white microscope images have been sumptuously coloured by Rob Kesseler highlighting the structure and functioning of the minuscule fruit and seeds some almost invisible to the naked eye and in so doing creating a work of art. Larger fruits, flowers and seeds have been especially photographed. The formation, development and demise of the fruits are described their vital role in the preservation of the biodiversity of our planet explained. Fruits are the keepers of the precious seeds that ensure our future; some are edible, others inedible and many, quite simply, incredible. AUTHORS: Wolfgang Stuppy is the Seed Morphologist at Kew's Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, a large international plant conservation initiative. He has a doctorate in comparative seed morphology and anatomy. After joining the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1999 to work on plant conservation, he transferred to the Millennium Seed Bank in 2002. Rob Kesseler is a visual artist and Professor of Ceramic Art & Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. Collaborating with scientists, his work inhabits a territory where design, fine art and applied art overlap. From 2001–2004 he was NESTA Fellow at Kew and continues to work with Wolfgang Stuppy on an examination of microscopic plant material. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society and of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2010 he was appointed Research Fellow at the Gulbenkian Science Institute. His work has been exhibited around the world. SELLING POINTS: . Wolfgang Stuppy and Rob Kesseler explore the fascinating world of fruits through a unique presentation of extraordinary images from around the world accompanied by a lively explanatory text . Critically acclaimed by national and international press, in print and on TV . Will appeal to anyone interested in the natural world, artists, designers and scientists alike 264 colour, 1 b/w illustrations

Full Product Details

Author:   Wolfgang Stuppy ,  Rob Kesseler ,  Alexandra Papadakis
Publisher:   Papadakis
Imprint:   Papadakis
Edition:   Compact ed
Dimensions:   Width: 20.00cm , Height: 2.90cm , Length: 22.00cm
Weight:   1.214kg
ISBN:  

9781906506421

ISBN 10:   1906506426
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   01 June 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

Preface by Ken Arnold Foreword by Stephen D. Hopper Fruit – Edible, Inedible, Incredible What is a Fruit? What is a fruit and what is a vegetable? Angiosperms, Gymnosperms and those that copulate in secret The naked-seeded ones The non-naked-seeded ones An abominable mystery Angiosperm extremists No Flower, no Fruit? Is a pine cone a fruit? No Carpel, no Fruit? A shameless display Not quite the ovary of Eve Unwitting couriers Wind, sex and gender separation What’s in a Fruit? Babylonian confusion Enhanced female performance How to be a carpologist The true meaning of fruits Simple Fruits The truth about berries The miraculous miracle berry Golden apples Fragrant citrons Buddha’s hand Sizeable pepos Soft shell, hard core or how to be a drupe Nuts about nuts Walnuts or waldrupes? Glans quercus Two fruits in one – cashew nut and cashew apple Wheat “grain” and sunflower “seed” – caryopsis and achene Samaras – nuts gone airborne Cypselas – achenes gone airborne Pods and such like Capsules or seven ways to open a fruit Teeth, fissures, cracks and lids Follicle and coccum Pods as in “pea pods” Sweet bean pods The World’s largest bean pod Seeds in prison Inside-out drupes To be or not to be a drupe Multiple Fruits – Several fruitlets from a single flower? Schizocarpic Fruits or how to emulate the multiple experience Anthocarpous Fruits – the carpologists’ touchstone Compound Fruits – A single fruit from several flowers? The breadfruit and the Mutiny on the Bounty The largest fruit a tree can bear Figs, gnats and sycophants Angiosperms with cones? Carpological Troublemakers Bogus fruits and how to debunk them So what is a Fruit? The biological function of fruits and seeds Dispersal – the many ways to get around Wind dispersal Wings Monoplanes Flying discs Spinning cylinders Shuttlecocks Woolly travellers Love-in-a-puff and other balloon travellers Anemoballism Water dispersal Dispersal by raindrops Plants that do it for themselves Hygroscopic tension Hydraulic pressure Animal Dispersal Becoming attached The story of the sadistic Tribulus In the claws of the devil How to catch a bird Dispersal by scatter-hoarders Dispersal by ants Combining Strategies Directed Dispersal Fleshy Fruits The evolution of fleshy fruits The good, the bad and the ugly, or why fruits are poisonous Enough is as good as a feast Young and dangerous Climacteric fruits One bad apple spoils the barrel Dispersal syndromes, the sign-language of fruits The bird-dispersal syndrome How to catch the eye of a bird Fleshy seeds Flashy seeds Dangerous beauty Colourful appendages Arillate seeds and the fate of New York Dispersal by mammals The bat dispersal syndrome Monkey fruits – the primate-dispersal syndrome Monkey apple The Queen of Fruits Cacao – food of the gods The baobab Durian – the King of Fruits A big fruit needs a big mouth – the megafaunal dispersal syndrome Africa’s large mammals and their fruits Sausages that grow on trees Fruits that only elephants like When the elephants are gone The aardvark and its cucumber Mallotus nudiflorus and the Indian rhinoceros The nitre bush and emus Galápagos tomatoes and giant tortoises More inseparable couples Till death do us part The dodo and the tambalocoque – a textbook fairy tale Anachronistic fruits Size no longer matters The largest fruit of America Osage orange How can it be true? Where have all the mammoths gone? The Millennium Seed Bank Project Lusciousness – The crafted image in a digital environment Appendices Glossary Bibliography Index of Plants illustrated Footnotes Picture Credits Acknowledgments

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Author Information

Wolfgang Stuppy is the seed morphologist for the Millennium Seed Bank Project at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. At the heart of this large international project, which collects and stores seeds and fruits from all over the world, Dr. Stuppy has found the ideal environment to feed his passion for research into the astonishing diversity of seeds and fruits. Rob Kesseler is a visual artist and Professor of Ceramic Art & Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. Collaborating with scientists, his work inhabits a territory where design, fine art and applied art overlap. From 2001–2004 he was NESTA Fellow at Kew and continues to work with Wolfgang Stuppy on an examination of microscopic plant material. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society and of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2010 he was appointed Research Fellow at the Gulbenkian Science Institute. His work has been exhibited around the world.

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