Apple Cross-section

Our first foray into studying trees was to look at an apple. The Handbook of Nature Study had some interesting observations. I read through the section on my own (pages 667 to 670) one evening, and then when it was time to work on our nature notebook I was ready.

The thing that I like the most about the Handbook of Nature Study is that it has interesting tidbits of information that are things that I have just never thought of before. In the case of the apple, it mentions that "The carpels, or seed cells, are five in number, and when the fruit is cut across through the center these carpels show as a pretty, five-pointed star; in them the seeds lie, all pointing toward the stem." (pg. 668). I always cut my apples in the other direction, and thus have never noticed that the seeds in the apple are always in a five pointed star. Intrigued, I sliced open an apple and lo and behold, there it was!

We made a lot of interesting observations during this activity. We learned that the bottom of the apple is where the blossom used to be and is called the basin. The kids noticed that the seeds were brown on the outside but white on the inside. They discovered that each seed cell contained two seeds. They drew several diagrams of the apple and labeled the different parts.

We examined only one type of apple, but it would be interesting to extend this activity by comparing different varieties of apples. There is more in the Handbook of Nature Study about apple varities, picking and storing apples, and the structure of the apple.

Update:

The following week we tried the same activity with some pears we had in the fridge. The pear we cut open also had five carpels, although two of them had not been successfully pollinated. It was very similar in structure to the apple. The Nuthatch noticed all the tiny spots in the skin of the pear.