Family Ties

I was out early this morning, having a bimble in the back yard, camera in hand. The larger of our two mini-dwarf apple trees is absolutely loaded with blossom (see extra), more than I've ever seen on it before, and I hope the local bees are ready to reap this harvest!

Intrigued by how much the tight buds look like rosebuds, I "Googled" that question, and learned that "The apple tree (Malus domestica) is a deciduous tree in the rose family best known for its sweet, pomaceous fruit, the apple. It is... the most widely grown species in the genus Malus."

Digging a bit deeper, I found an interesting article about these diverse family members on the American Rose Society website. As someone who enjoys filing (yes, I know I'm odd -- I like to alphabetize too), I was particularly taken with this excerpt: 

The family Rosaceae is divided into six subfamilies, based on flower and/or fruit structure. Species within a subfamily are more closely related to each other than they are to members of any other subfamily. Think of it as a filing system, where the family might be the filing cabinet, each drawer a subfamily, each genus a file folder, and each species an individual document within the folder. The closer two items are to being alike, the more likely they are to be "filed" close to each other.

Now for breakfast! 

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