among them by being large and armored, or
tiny and easily spilled, or poisonous.)
So, unlike the rest of the plant, fruit is
meant to be eaten. This is why its taste, odor,
and texture are so appealing to our animal
senses. But the invitation to eat must be
delayed until the seeds are mature and viable.
This is the purpose of the changes in color,
texture, and flavor that we call ripening.
Leaves, roots, stalks can be eaten at any time,
generally the earlier the tenderer. But we must
wait for fruit to signal that it is ready to be
eaten. The details of ripening are described in
chapter 7 (p. 350).
Our Evolutionary Partners Like us, most of
our food plants are relative newcomers to the
earth. Life arose about 4 billion years ago, but
flowering plants have been around for only
about 200 million years, and dominant for the
last 50 million. An even more recent
development is the “herbaceous” habit of life.