Fruit ― Edible, Inedible, Incredible

Fruit. The word itself conjures up mouthwatering memories of crunchy apples, luscious strawberries, sweet bananas, succulent melons, and juicy pineapples, to which we can now add the splendid cornucopia of tropical fruits that have conquered supermarket shelves around the world. They are one of nature’s most wonderful gifts, but providing us with a healthy source of food is not the reason that plants produce such delicious fruits. We all know that many fruits are not edible and that some are even poisonous. It is therefore quite legitimate to ask what fruits are, and why they exist.

Razor-sharp cross-sections reveal intricate interiors, berries and pods, nuts and other examples of botanical architecture and reproductive ingenuity. The black and white microscope images have been sumptuously colored by Rob Kesseler, highlighting the structure and functioning of the miniscule fruit and seeds?some almost invisible to the naked eye?and in so doing creating a work of art. Larger fruits, their flowers and some of their animal dispersers, have been especially photographed for this book.

Fruits are the keepers of the precious seeds that ensure our future; some are edible, other inedible, and many, quite simply, incredibly beautiful and delicious.

Wolfgang Stuppy is the Seed Morphologist at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Project, which is at the center of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, a large international plant conservation initiative. He has a doctorate in comparative seed morphology and anatomy. After joining the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1999 to work on plant conservation, he transferred to the Millennium Seed Bank in 2002. A huge global conservation project, which collects and stores seeds and fruits from all over the world, the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership offers the ideal environment for Dr. Stuppy to feed his passion for research into their astonishing diversity.

Rob Kesseler is a visual artist and Professor of Ceramic Art & Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. Collaborating with scientists, his work inhabits a territory where design, fine art and applied art overlap. From 2001?2004 he was a NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) Fellow at Kew and continues to work with Wolfgang Stuppy on an examination of microscopic plant material. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society and of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2010, the Year of Biodiversity, he was appointed Research Fellow at the Gulbenkian Science Institute. His work has been exhibited around the world.

Professor Stephen D. Hopper FLS is the Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. He lives in England.

Ken Arnold is the Head of Public Programmes of the Wellcome Trust. He lives in England.