F Minus by Tony Carrillo for February 03, 2023

Agreed.

Saber-toothed apples. Wooly peaches. Tyranno-cherries Rex. Bronto-bananas.

That’d be so cool

There are plenty of fruit flavors out there, but they won’t sell well in the American market. For instance, one popular fruit flavor in Britain is black currant. You rarely see it over here!

But all we ever got was cloned bananas!

That’s actually a far better idea. Carolina Gold rice would also be nice to recover.

Or we could bring back the mastodon and the giant ground sloth. They’d love to eat osage oranges, a fruit that still exists (if barely).

Just realize there is a reason those fruit plants went extinct.

Were red delicious apples ever actually delicious?

I am in favour of bringing back extinct plants. Fruits especially, we do need variety.

There is a strong link between extinct fruits and extinct large animals.

Some have been brought back from seeds found at archaeology sites. Biblical dates, Anasazi beans…

If there was more graft in grafting we might have even more choices. A banana shaped apple comes to mind.

But there ever more new varieties! Take this apple (which is very good indeed): www.rockitapple.com

Bring back the big mike banana.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gros_Michel_banana

Most fruit is bred for uniform size and color, being hard to bruise, and long shelf life. There are a large number of fruit types and many varieties of fruit that never make it to market because they don’t meet those criteria. Friends who have been to Africa, Asia, and South America have told me what a limited variety make it to US supermarkets. For instance, there are dozens of banana varieties, but only one that is commonly sold in the US.

Did grapples go extinct? I don’t see them at the Safeway anymore.

A de-extinction company known for its plans to resurrect the mammoth and Tasmanian tiger has announced it will also bring back the dodo. (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tech-company-invests-150m-to-bring-back-the-dodo/)

Some real apples would be nice.