They are quite different and not very closely related to the true "Medlar" (Mespilus germanica) described in this article as forgotten: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mespilus_germanica
You might mistake them in a black-and-white photo, but otherwise are easily distinguished. Neither is well known in most of the US, but the loquat is commonly grown in California yards while the medlar is a true rarity here.
And, FWIW, pawpaws are a native tree in Pennsylvania. They're either critical or nearly so in distribution, but ... native.
Actual credit for the hero-image engraving is Crispijn van de Passe (attributed, at least), sometime between 1600–1604, currently in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Besides the misattribution, even the description is wrong: only the right drawing (label "18") is the "Mespilus germanica" the article's about—the left one is an unrelated flower, drawn on the same page. (Or however you say it, for an engraving).
It's one plate from a large collection of botanical engravings, "Hortus Floridus" (published 1614–1616) you can browse on archive.org (I link below).
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/object/Dagkoekoeksbl...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispijn_van_de_Passe_the_Youn... ("Dutch Golden Age engraver, draughtsman and publisher of prints")
https://archive.org/details/hortusfloridusin00pass/page/n248...
And the watercolor in the 6th image is by Anselmus Boëtius de Boodt (née Alamy?), also in the Rijksmuseum, dated 1596–1610.
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/object/Mispel-Mespil...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselmus_de_Boodt ("Flemish humanist naturalist, Rudolf II physician's gemologist")
The evolution of watermelon is fascinating. It happened in (relatively) recent human history and has really stark changes.
There are old paintings of watermelon from the 17th century and it looks nothing like modern watermelon. [1]
Another wild human guided evolution is the evolution of the chicken. [2] That one literally happened in the last 100 years. A modern chicken is 3x larger than a chicken from the 1950s.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermelon#/media/File:Pastequ...
[2] https://www.zmescience.com/feature-post/how-chickens-tripled...
The chicken in [2] is what you'll see when you look at a feral chicken.
And I've never heard of a feral chicken. How do they survive? And where? They are a fully domesticated species, with almost no defences. Flying 8' up to a branch is a major effort for them. My neighbor loses about half of them each year to predators, and they are kept in a coop at night.
I'd like to see a feral chicken too. Maybe they exist in regions with no natural predators. If mine aren't well-protected, I lose them to foxes during the day or coons at night.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pug#/media/File:Henry_Bernard_...
Some breeders are trying to breed these traits back in, yielding the "Retro Pug" unofficial breed. Even the old pug is quite a heavy hand we've exerted on dog evolution.
Don't use your money to promote breeding of animals that will predictably suffer due to inbred qualities.
To be clear, you do not let the medlar "rot" before eating.
Rotting involves decay by microorganisms -- fungi, bacteria, yeasts.
What the medlar does is totally different. It has an enzyme within it that continues to break down the fruit, so it goes from rock hard to soft and edible.
Because this is a different chemical process from traditional ripening, someone gave this the name "bletting". But it's definitely not "rotting".
There's an evolutionary theory that by delaying when the fruit could be eaten, it could attract animals in the winter that would be more likely to eat it (since other fruits were no longer available) and potentially transport its seeds longer distances.
Would you say a fruit is ripe, rotted… bletted? Blet?
> "In Notes on a Cellar-Book, the great English oenophile George Saintsbury called bletted medlars the "ideal fruit to accompany wine."
Here's a full copy of the paper if this intrigues you: https://sci-hub.se/10.1007/BF02858732
Since then, I've confirmed that it actually exists. I've even tasted the fruit. It's... OK. It's a reasonably tasty spiced brown apple/pear sauce with a grainy texture, but with the spices already built in. I've got my own tree planted---more for the novelty than desire for the fruit---and hope I'll finally get a few of my own this year.
Edit: If you are looking for more bizarre ways the Medlar pops up in strange places, here's a page about its traditional use in Basque culture as a symbol of authority: https://alberdimakila.com/en/medlar-tree-wood-basque-walking...
Considering the importance of the spice trade and the cost of spices, this would have been a huge deal at the time.
Medlar is one I’ve been meaning to add for a couple of years and I think I’ll finally do it next spring.
The American variety, Stern's Medlar only has a couple observations in Arkansas (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1368643-Crataegus---canesce...)
Japanese / Chinese Medlar or Loquat are apparently distantly related, yet still have a lot of similarity and edible food (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/76949-Eriobotrya-japonica)
If its included in Crataegus (as Crataegus germanica) then it has a bunch of relations like Hawthorn (also edible, https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/51147-Crataegus-monogyna) and Azaroles (also edible, Haws, https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/191019-Crataegus-azarolus)
Seems to get heavily mixed in naming with the genus Vangueria in the family Rubiaceae, since they're frequently named Medlar, and have edible fruit, just happen to be mostly from Africa. Really confusing, since they look similar, have similar food, yet apparently different genus, family, and order. Don't cross over until they get all the way up to Clade: Eudicots. Apparently they're attached to bad luck and misfortune, so maybe they got a cursed botanical classification.
Wild-Medlar (Vangueria infausta, Africa) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/340324-Vangueria-infausta
Mountain Medlar (Vangueria parvifolia, Africa) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/595967-Vangueria-parvifolia
Velvet Wild-Medlar (Vangueria infausta ssp. infausta, Africa) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/601546-Vangueria-infausta-i...
Bush Medlar (Vangueria madagascariensis, Africa, S. America) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/466936-Vangueria-madagascar...
Natal Medlar (Vangueria lasiantha, Africa) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/341606-Vangueria-lasiantha
Waterberg Crowned-Medlar (Vangueria triflora, Africa) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/595971-Vangueria-triflora
Forest Crowned-Medlar (Vangueria bowkeri, Africa) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/595965-Vangueria-bowkeri
> The English word "avocado" comes from the Spanish word aguacate, which comes from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word ahuacatl. This Nahuatl word translates to "testicle". The name was likely given to the fruit by the indigenous Nahua people because of its suggestive shape, and the fruit's reputation as an aphrodisiac.
> In Molina's Nahuatl dictionary "auacatl" is given also as the translation for compañón "testicle", and this has been taken up in popular culture where a frequent claim is that testicle was the word's original meaning. This is not the case, as the original meaning can be reconstructed as "avocado" – rather the word seems to have been used in Nahuatl as a euphemism for "testicle".
It is indeed a good accompaniement to cheese and wine.
There's a grower in Kentucky that sells saplings.
pavel_lishin•5mo ago
> for the best part of 900 years, the fruit was called the "open-arse" – thought to be a reference to the appearance of its own large "calyx" or bottom. The medlar's aliases abroad were hardly more flattering. In France, it was variously known as "la partie postérieure de ce quadrupede" (the posterior part of this quadruped), "cu d'singe" (monkey's bottom), "cu d'ane" (donkey's bottom), and cul de chien (dog's bottom)… you get the idea.
JohnFen•5mo ago
> The polite, socially acceptable name by which it's currently known is the medlar.
gjm11•5mo ago