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Why do Fruits Contain Juice?

  1. Apr 17, 2013 #1
    If a tree wants to reproduce like other organisms, does the juice somehow aid in this process? I understand juice is mostly composed of water, but I'm certain the plant wouldn't expend the energy to create the juice if it was purposeless. Thanks.

    I know this is probably a very basic question, by the way.
  2. jcsd
  3. Apr 17, 2013 #2


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    I think you're mainly asking the question: why are fruits so sweet? The answer is probably that the fruit evolved in such a way to be an attractive, high nutrient food source to aid in seed dispersal via animal ingestion (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_dispersal#Dispersal_by_animals).
  4. Apr 17, 2013 #3


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    Welcome to PF!

    Hi Captain Morgan! Welcome to PF! :smile:

    Yes, there wouldn't be fruit if there weren't animals to eat them.

    Similarly, there wouldn't be flowers without animals, and there wouldn't be any colour (other than green).

    (I remember a Star Trek episode in which they landed on a planet with beautiful flowers, and strangely came to the conclusion that there were no animals on the planet. :rolleyes:)
  5. Apr 17, 2013 #4


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    I always suspected that some part of Star Trek was not realistic! Glad I know now which part that was.
  6. Apr 17, 2013 #5
    Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the reply all.

    On an unrelated note, about how often are the "Medical Sciences" section of the forums used? I'm rather interesting in medical biology, so it would seem I'm going to be using both parts of these forums quite a bit. Thanks again.
  7. May 15, 2013 #6
    are flowers the end result of fruits, or is it 2 different things
  8. May 15, 2013 #7


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    When the flower of a fruit tree is pollinated, it will produce a fruit, the flower petals will fall off. Is that what you were asking? Or are you asking if the fruit ripens and produces seeds, that then sprout and grow into trees that eventually produce blooms, which if pollinated, produce fruit?
  9. May 17, 2013 #8
    yeah that cleared things up for me thanks

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