classification

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What usually happens when you cut up a piece of fruit to eat or to put in a salad? If it is an apple, a pear,...

Most people are familiar with the Linnean classification system used to identify living things. We use scientific names to describe and categorise living things precisely. For...

Hub's writer, Nelville Gardner, talks about our pollination resources. One of the scientists featured in the articles on pollination, Dave Kelly of the University of Canterbury,...

In this activity, students read about pollination using a three-level reading guide and use their ability to locate information to interpret the scientific information. Students apply...

In this activity, students test and compare the firmness of different apple varieties using an instrumental method adapted for the classroom. The activity forms part of...

In this activity, students conduct focus group research to generate consumer feedback on a proposed future apple variety. The activity forms part of the unit plan...

In this activity, students use industry methods to test and analyse some attributes of a variety of different apples. They use the findings to create an...

In this unit, students investigate trends and drivers and what may be possible and preferable attributes for new fruit varieties in the future. Purpose To understand...

In this activity, students relate commonly eaten foods to different parts of the flowering plant life cycle. They use an interactive or paper-based graphic organiser. By...

Position: field services manager and research assistant, University of Canterbury. Field: Ecology As part of her job as Terrestrial Ecology Technician, at the School of Biological...

Position: Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury. Field: Population ecology Professor Dave Kelly is a population ecologist who has a particular interest in pollination...

Commercialising a new apple variety can take 25–30 years from selecting the initial cultivar to market launch, and the process must be carefully managed. Managing the...

Consumer and sensory science play an integral role in developing new fruit varieties such as the red-fleshed apple. Consumer science involves understanding consumers Consumer scientists try...

Position: Head of research, Plant & Food Research. Field: Honey bees and pollination. For Dr Mark Goodwin, working with pollination has its challenges. Most crop plants...

What determines whether an apple has red flesh? Find out how researchers at Plant & Food Research discovered the genetic basis of red flesh colour. Red-fleshed...

Information about apple genetics is helping breeders at Plant & Food Research in New Zealand to breed new apple cultivars faster and more efficiently. Selectively breeding...

The genome sequence of the Golden Delicious apple was published in 2010. It sheds light on the history of the apple and should make apple breeding...

Breeding a new apple cultivar takes a long time and involves many steps. The aim is to produce high-quality fruit that consumers will like and want...

A collection of apple genetic resources, known as a germplasm collection, is maintained by Plant & Food Research at their Hawke’s Bay orchard to provide a...

The flowers and fruit of flowering plants come and go as part of their life cycle. Some flowering plants don’t even have stems and leaves all...

Plants are living: They grow and die. They produce new individuals. They are made of cells. They need energy, nutrients, air and water. They respond to...

Nikki Webb, a student at the University of Waikato, worked on a summer research scholarship collating an inventory of biodiversity for Tauranga Harbour. This was a...

Flowering plants need to get pollen from one flower to another, either within a plant for self-pollination or between plants of the same species for cross-pollination...