Question: Why does fruit only grow on some trees?

Sarah Martin answered on 21 Jun 2012:

Hi meg!

Oh, lots of reasons! Some trees have male and female ones, so the males won’t carry fruit. Some trees are bred not to have fruit or nuts, and we propagate them with cuttings and roots. And others have fruit or nuts but we’d never call them fruit, because we don’t eat them as fruit – acorns on oaks, nuts on birches, poisonous red berries on yew trees…

On the other hand things we think of as fruit trees are quite surprising – apple trees for example are more closely related to roses than any other tree!

🙂 Sarah