You know, it is a truly sad state of affairs thatI clicked on the link expecting yet another story about Putin-esque influence into American politics (thinking that “almond” might be some sort of code for “sleeper agent” or something).
The reality is so much better!
P.S. rq -- does that tree bear viable fruit? Can you make anything out of them?
P. tenella yields small almond-like hairy fruits with characteristic flavor.
Mine are P. tenella, but I can’t claim to have ever noticed any fruits, but that’s on me, I haven’t gone looking. I will look this year!
rqsays
does that tree bear viable fruit?
Thus we come to what I call ‘Schrodinger’s Russian almond’ (I wonder what the espionage translation would be?), because (a) the shrub has many, many flowers every year; (b) sometime in mid-summer, I notice several (< 10) green baby-fruit hanging on various branches, and rejoice to myself; (c) by the end of summer, of those <10 baby-fruit, up to 3 have the appearance of approaching ripeness, the rest have disappeared; (d) the fruit are all gone.
I want at least one viable fruit to survive to the end of the season, but I have a feeling they're popular with birds. They're small, fuzzy, fruit -- look a lot like tiny peaches, less orange than apricots, and the one year I snagged a ready fruit off the tree, it was a very (beautiful!) bright coral-orange on the inside. But I hadn't identified the fruit at that point, so, what with the danger of poisoning (hydrogen cyanide is the one I associate with peach-like fruit), I didn't actually taste it. Since then, none have ripened (been allowed to ripen?) to the point of me having a taste. Maybe this year!
rqsays
* Note: the fruit stems seem unusually fragile, as I lost most of last year’s ‘crop’ after a severe thunderstorm.
You know, it is a truly sad state of affairs thatI clicked on the link expecting yet another story about Putin-esque influence into American politics (thinking that “almond” might be some sort of code for “sleeper agent” or something).
The reality is so much better!
P.S. rq -- does that tree bear viable fruit? Can you make anything out of them?
Love these photos. Thankyou rq &others.
Five petals of beauty times many.
“The”, according to Wiki:
Mine are P. tenella, but I can’t claim to have ever noticed any fruits, but that’s on me, I haven’t gone looking. I will look this year!
Thus we come to what I call ‘Schrodinger’s Russian almond’ (I wonder what the espionage translation would be?), because (a) the shrub has many, many flowers every year; (b) sometime in mid-summer, I notice several (< 10) green baby-fruit hanging on various branches, and rejoice to myself; (c) by the end of summer, of those <10 baby-fruit, up to 3 have the appearance of approaching ripeness, the rest have disappeared; (d) the fruit are all gone.
I want at least one viable fruit to survive to the end of the season, but I have a feeling they're popular with birds. They're small, fuzzy, fruit -- look a lot like tiny peaches, less orange than apricots, and the one year I snagged a ready fruit off the tree, it was a very (beautiful!) bright coral-orange on the inside. But I hadn't identified the fruit at that point, so, what with the danger of poisoning (hydrogen cyanide is the one I associate with peach-like fruit), I didn't actually taste it. Since then, none have ripened (been allowed to ripen?) to the point of me having a taste. Maybe this year!
* Note: the fruit stems seem unusually fragile, as I lost most of last year’s ‘crop’ after a severe thunderstorm.