ETYM Old Eng. appel, eppel, as. aeppel, aepl; akin to Fries. and Dutch appel, ohg, aphul, aphol, German apfel, Icel. epli, Swed. äple, Dan. aeble, Gael. ubhall, w. afal, Arm. aval, Lith. obulys, Russ. iabloko; of unknown origin.
1. Fruit with red or yellow or green skin and sweet to tart crisp whitish flesh.
2. Native Eurasian tree widely cultivated in many varieties for its firm rounded edible fruits; SYN. orchard apple tree, Malus pumila.
Fruit of Malus pumila, a tree of the family Rosaceae.
There are several hundred varieties of cultivated apples, grown all over the world, which may be divided into eating, cooking, and cider apples. All are derived from the wild crab apple.
Apple trees grow best in temperate countries with a cool climate and plenty of rain during the winter. The apple has been an important food plant in Eurasia for thousands of years.
The continents of Europe and North America (both the us and Canada) are the main sources of supply, but apples are also produced in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and some parts of Asia. Modern commercial orchards are limited to few species, with trees of “dwarf” growth (2 m/6 ft high), planted 1 meter apart, for ease and speed of picking by machine.
In 1989 the us apple industry announced it was discontinuing the use of daminozide, a chemical used to ripen apples and make them crisper. Reports indicated that the chemical caused cancer, and that 15% of all apples grown in the us contained the chemical. + prikaži više