Wow, what a great article! And it links to one of my favorite botany papers every written: "The Medlar (Mespilus germanica, Rosaceae) from Antiquity to Obscur

Wow, what a great article! And it links to one of my favorite botany papers every written: "The Medlar (Mespilus germanica, Rosaceae) from Antiquity to Obscurity" by John R. Baird and John W. Thieret, Economic Botany Vol. 43, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1989), pp. 328-372 (45 pages) https://www.jstor.org/stable/4255177 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4255177 https://sci-hub.do/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4255177 https://sci-hub.do/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4255177 I read this by chance when it came out, and for a long while couldn't figure out whether it was a parody or a real scientific article. The whole story seemed so vastly improbable: a vulgar fruit central to Shakespeare that we've mostly forgotten about today, unable to be eaten until it's been rotted in sawdust for a few months --- pull the other one! Anyway, if the BBC article whets your interest in the medlar, you should definitely check out the full article. It's a gem.