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(stony), as in blackberries, or achenes (that is, one-seeded, dry fruits attached to the receptacle at a single point), as in strawberries. In the strawberry, the fleshy edible portion is the receptacle.

Multiple fruits.—Each multiple fruit is derived from many separate but closely clustered flowers. Familiar examples of multiple fruits are the pineapple, fig, and mulberry. The beet "seed," is really a multiple fruit.

The seed

A seed is a miniature plant in an arrested state of development. Most seeds contain a built-in food supply (the orchid seed in an exception). Structurally the seed is a matured ovule, although various parts of the ovary may be incorporated in the seed coat. The miniature plant, or embryo, develops from the union of gametes, or sex cells. By the time the seed is mature, the embryo is differentiated into a rudimentary shoot (plumule), a root (radicle), and one or two specialized seed leaves (cotyledons). A transition zone between the rudimentary root and shoot is known as the hypocotyl.

The stored food is present in seeds as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Seeds are thus a rich source of food as well as of fats and oils for industrial purposes. This stored food may be derived from a tissue called the endosperm, which is formed as a result of the fertilization process. The endosperm may produce a specialized region of the mature seed, as in corn, or it may be absorbed by the developing embryo. In the latter case, the cotyledons serve as food-storage organs (for example, as in beans and walnuts).

The following description of fruit and seed of jojoba is taken freely from an authoritative scientific research paper (Scott Gentry. 1958. The natural history of jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) and its cultural aspects. Economic Botany 12(3):261295).

The jojoba fruit is a capsule, normally dehiscent containing one of three ovules attached to the placenta at the apex of the capsule. The capsule attains nearly full size in about three months. It grows more rapidly than the ovule and within five or six weeks forms a relatively large cavity, which the growing ovule or ovules will gradually occupy. Under good conditions the ovule completely fills the cavity, molding itself to the form and in time as it matures to a well-filled seed may assist in splitting apart the three drying valves of the capsule. Usually only a single ovule develops but 2 or 3 seeded capsules may occur.

The fruit gradually turn from green to tan or brown upon maturation. Upon drying the fruit may or may not split to release the seed.

The large peanut-sized seed of jojoba contain little or no endosperm and consists mainly of the undifferentiated tissue of the cotyledon. At hypogeous germination these become swollen with moisture into large succulent subterranean organs, carrying large reserves of energy for the young plant.

Capsules and seed mature together and under proper conditions the drying capsule splits along the three sutures, the valves falling away from the calyx with any agitation of the bush, as by wind or animals. During the time of seed fall, one can observe seeds and valves in all stages of gradual fall. Frequently, the seed may be seen hanging down from the calyx on its slender placenta, as on a string and will fall at a touch when the placenta has dried. With proper dehiscence the seed falls free upon the ground among the litter of the leaves, twigs, calyces, and valves. When capsules dry prematurely they shrink and may fail to open. If this occurs late enough, the seeds may be viable or otherwise usable, but it is then necessary to crack and shell the capsules.

At maturity most seed are dark brown: size varies from 700 to 5300 seek per kilogram. Cotyledons or seed leaves make up the bulk of the seed and contain about 50% liquid wax.

In conclusion, the jojoba shrub bears a capsular fruit usually containing a single seed. The seed and not the fruit contains the liquid wax. The organ of commerce, sometimes referred to as a "bean" (refer Jerome Smith. 1982. The Super Bean of the Future Part I. Adam Smith Publishing, Metairie, Louisiana) is in fact a seed and not a fruit. The ovular tissue that makes up the fruit is often separated from the seed at harvest.

IS THE JOJOBA SEED A FRUIT IN THE HORTICULTURAL SENSE OR IN COMMON PARLANCE AND IS THE JOJOBA PLANT CONSIDERED A FRUIT CROP?

A fruit crop in the horticultural sense is cultivated either for the botanical fruit or for tissues associated with the botanical fruit as the receptacle in the case of strawberry which is consumed by humans as a food. Further, fruits are usually pulpy and tasteful and usually consumed at the beginning or end of the meal or in

between meals as a snack. Fruit plants are typically woody perennials but there are exceptions such as strawberry and banana. Trees or shrubs bearing edible seeds with a hard shall are known as nuts. For convenience nuts and fruits are often treated together but their distinction as separate kinds of crops is maintained. Thus an authoritative modern textbook (M. N. Westwood 1978 Temperate-zone pomology. W. H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco, Califoirnia) has a chapter entitled Fruit and Nut Species (p. 41) and includes a separate section as "tree nuts" which includes walnut, hickory, filbert, pistachio, and chestnut). The jojoba is not included under fruits or nuts.

Edible botanical fruits of herbaceous (nonwoody) plants are usually classed as vegetables. These would include tomato or cucumber. The distinction between fruit and vegetables is not amendable to precise definition but it is clear that many plants whose edible portion is the botanical fruit are considered as vegetables. Common examples are tomato, eggplant, chili peppers, or edible podded legumes as snow peas or string beans.

The distinction between a fruit in the botanical sense and a fruit in the horticultural sense may have legal implications. As a result of a question of impact duties the tomato whose edible portion is a botanical fruit was declared a "vegetable" rather than "fruit" in the common and popular acceptance of such words in the case of Nix et al. v. Hedden (Circuit Court, S.D. New York, May 14, 1889), a decision affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court (149 U.S. 304) on May 10, 1893.

Although melons are classed as vegetables by horticulturists there is confusion in the public mind if they are fruits or vegetables. The only case of a nonfruit classed as a vegetable in the public mind would be rhubarb whose edible portion is the petiole but is often mistakenly considered a "fruit" because the prepared sause is acid and pulpy as are many fruits. Pomologists, horticulturists who specialize in fruit, never consider rhubarb as a fruit plant.

The question is therefore, whether jojoba, the plant or the seed, is considered a fruit in the "common language of the people or in commerce" jojoba seed is not a fruit in the botanical sense. It is my opinion the jojoba "bean," seed, or plant, is never considered a fruit and to include it as a fruit would twist the English language beyond recognition. The reasons can be summarized as follows:

(1) The useful organ of the jojoba is not a fruit or associated tissue such as a recepticle and thus not considered a fruit in the botanical nor horticulural context. (2) Although edible, the jojoba is not found in trade in the form of an edible food by the consuming public of the United States and thus not considered a fruit or even a nut in common parlance.

(3) The jojoba is not considered a fruit by pomologists who are specialists in fruit crops in the horticultural sense.

IS THE JOJOBA PLANT A FRUIT CROP IN AN AGRICULTURAL SENSE AND SO REFERRED TO BY AGRICULTURISTS, AGRICULTURAL SCIENTISTS OR PLANT SCIENTISTS?

The National Academy of Sciences published a report entitled "Underexploited Tropical Plants with Promising Economic Value" in 1975. This report includes a study of potential new crops under agricultural groupings that include cereals, roots and tubers, vegetables, fruits, oilseeds, forage and other uses. Jojoba is included in this compilation.

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Jojoba is not listed as one of the seven species listed under the classification of fruits but is listed as one of the five crops under oilseeds. Therefore, the National Academy of Sciences, the most prestigious scientific group in this country which was chartered by Act of Congress to advise the U.S. Government, considers jojoba an oil seed crop and not a fruit crop.

In this report, the jojoba organ of value is the seed. Four citations from this report follow:

(1) Its [jojoba ] seeds contain a liquid "wax" (esters of fatty acid and alcohol) that has impressive industrial potential (p. 105).

(2) Jojoba seeds contain about 50 percent liquid wax (p. 107).

(3) The wax can be obtained in high purity by pressing or by using a solvent to extract the seeds, using conventional oil seed equipment (p. 107).

(4) After the wax has been extracted, the residual seed meal contains up to 35 percent protein (p. 107).

An illustration of jojoba seeds is shown on page 106.

CONCLUSION

In my opinion as a horticulturist and plant scientist, I conclude that the jojoba "bean" is a seed and is not a fruit in the botanical sense, the horticultural sense, the agricultural sense, or would be so considered in normal parlance or in trade. The most appropriate term is that the jojoba plant is an oilseed crop, cultivated for its oil-rich seed. Crops in this category would include soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), and tung (Aleurites fordii Hemsl.).

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE,

NORTHEASTERN REGION, BELTSVILLE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CENTER,
Beltsville, MD, March 6, 1984.

JULES JANICK,
Editor, ASHS Editorial Office,

West Lafayette, IN.

DEAR DR. JANICK: This is the answer to your inquiry about the plant commonly called jojoba.

Simmondsia chinensis (Link) called goat nut or jojoba belongs to the Buxaceae family. It is native to the frost-free region of the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. It is a horticultural substitute for the ornamental shrub Buxus in arid sites. Its seeds yield the jojoba oil, a substitute to sperm oil. It is well adapted to Arizona and California where plantations exist for oil production. This plant is not considered a fruit or nut by pomologist as the word fruit or nut is used in the horticultural usage.

There is another plant called jujube. This is Ziziphus jujuba, a small spring tree. Cultivars of this species have been selected for several thousands years in China. The fruits of jujube are candied, glanced, dried cr canned. The fruits are high in sugar and are often called Chinese dates. This species is well adapted to the hot arid valleys of California. This is a fruit tree as a fruit is defined by the horticultural usage of the word. The two plants should not be mixed up.

The usage of the words fruit and nut is not very clear. The usage of these words developed historically. In the development of these words, botanical, production and culinary uses are all mixed up and there is no easy way to classify them.

Botanically fruit is the edible flesh developed around the ovary of the plant from any of the tissues surrounding the ovary; nut is a dry, hard, indehiscent, one-seeded fruit.

Productional use-Fruit and nut production is historically taught or researched in departments of pomology-the science of fruit production. Apples, peaches, blueberries, pineapples and strawberries are fruits; pecans, walnuts, almonds and filberts

are nuts.

This is totally inconsistent with the culinary use which in addition to the above, classifies watermelon and cantaloupes as fruits; but cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers as vegetables and peanut as a nut. The productional use classifies watermelon, cantaloupes, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers as vegetables and peanut as an agronomic crop. The botanical term for all the above are fruit and for peanut as a seed. A nut is an edible kernel enclosed in a woody or leathery shell.

In strawberries, the edible portion is the receptacle on which many "seeds” are located. The strawberry "seed," the achene, is a dry, hard, one-seeded indehiscent fruit which makes it botanically a nut. Therefore, the edible kernel is an important

part of culinary definition and distinguishes chestnut which is edible from horse chestnut which is not.

If this terminology is carried to extremes than any plant producing edible botanical fruits should be fruits; sunflower seed or squash seed eaten as nuts should be nuts; since there is no difference botanically between peach and almond and some people eat peach seed, peach could be a nut and almond a fruit. There are obviously rediculous outtakes in the usage of the language. One cannot make rules about the useage of these words. The language has developed this way and should be accepted as such.

Returning to jojoba, it can be stated that at present it is not in the responsibility of "pomology" and not even in Horticulture. The person who is most responsible for the development of jojoba as an oil crop is Dr. D. M. Yermanos, Professor of Agronomy, Botany and Plant Science Department, University of California, Riverside, California. Within the USDA Agricultural Research Service, the overseeing of this research belongs to Dr. Quentin Jones who is the germplasm and new crop specialist and not to Dr. Howard Brooks who is the overseer of the horticultural-pomology research. It appears that the botanical terminology in this care cannot be used, and since jojoba is an oil crop, the culinary terminology clearly reflects that it is a "goatnut" and is not a "nut" for human consumption.

I am sorry that my answer is somewhat confusing but in order to give you all the details, I felt I must go into complicated reasoning.

With best regard.
Sincerely,

MIKLOS FAUST,
Chief, Fruit Laboratory,
Horticultural Science Institute.

COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE,
Internal Revenue Service,

Washington, DC.

THE JOJOBA GROWERS ASSOCIATION,
Phoenix, AZ, January 4, 1984.

DEAR SIR: We are writing in regard to proposed Internal Revenue Service Regulations on Farming Syndicate Expenditures, filed November 14, 1983, and published in the Federal Register on November 15, 1983, pp. 51936-51940.

The Jojoba Growers Association is a professional organization founded in 1980 to serve the needs and concerns of the jojoba industry. Its membership is made up of jojoba growers, processors, researchers and others interested in the progress of jojoba. The membership of the Association represents approximately 25,000 acres of the estimated 30,000 acres of jojoba under cultivation in the United States.

The proposed Internal Revenue Service Regulations on Farming Syndicate Expenditures would make changes in the meaning of the words "fruit", "orchard" and "grove" as used in Code Section 278(b) which would require jojoba farming syndicates to capitalize all preproductive costs. It is our contention that these changes, in effect, amend and expand the statute as given in the 1976 Tax Reform Act and that this action is not within the authority of the Internal Revenue Service but, rather, that of Congress.

Legislative history of code section 278

Code Section 278 was introduced in 1969 to require a taxpayer to capitalize the costs of planting, cultivation, maintenance or development of any citrus grove for four years. The Code was amended in 1971 to include almond groves.

The committee reports regarding Section 278 reveal that Congress wished to prevent taxpayers from sheltering income by taking losses against ordinary income during the developmental period of citrus and almond groves and converting ordinary income to long term capital gain upon the sale of the grove. Secondarily, Congress wished to protect these agricultural industries from the results of overproduction.

During the 1960's these were very real concerns. Many thousands of acres of citrus were developed in suburban areas lying in the path of urban expansion, particularly southern California and Florida. Taxpayers would develop groves and offset ordinary income from other sources against the developmental cost of the grove. As nearby urban areas expanded, the groves would be sold for the increased value of the land and the taxpayer would realize long term capital gain income. The crops from groves developed in this manner frequently had little economic value and the resulting overproduction was adversely affecting the market for citrus and

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