BY CHRIS STOKEL-WALKER
A UK-based horticulturist company has developed the TomTato—a plant that can produce both tomatoes and potatoes on the same stem. But the plant is not a true hybrid. There are plenty of other combination fruit-vegetables that do exist, though, and are available in stores now.
1. Pluot
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Plums and apricots both come from the same genus—Prunus—which made crossing the two fruits relatively easy for Floyd Zaiger, a Nebraskan biologist noted for his work in fruit genetics. The pluot now has a number of different varieties, and in the 13 years since it was created it has become relatively popular amongst fruit eaters.
2. Plumcot
Zaiger wasn’t the first person to create a plum-apricot hybrid, though. Luther Burbank, a fruit producer and plant nursery owner, managed to cross the two fruits more than a century ago. The problem was that, back then, plant genetics were less advanced than they are today, and Burbank’s plumcots weren’t as hardy as they needed to be to endure the cross-country shipping that fresh produce endures before it reaches our tables and plates. Zaiger owes a debt of gratitude to Luther Burbank, however, for showing him the way.
3. Rangpur
The fruit with the closest taste and consistency to a rangpur is a lime—and in fact its binomial name (the name assigned to species) is Citrus limonia. In China the rangpur, which is named after the Bangladeshi city in which it was first found, is called a Canton lemon. Though to many western palates and eyes it may be a fringe fruit, in Costa Rica rangpurs are often more popular than lemons and limes.[…]
Read More: 11 Odd Hybrid Fruits and Vegetables
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