What is the difference between plums and apricots? Learn to tell them apart with ease
The plum, also known as Jiaqingzi, Bulin, plum, Yuhuang plum, or mountain plum, is a plant of the genus Prunus in the rose family. The apricot is a deciduous tree and is widely cultivated across China. Although plums and apricots look somewhat similar in appearance, they are completely different plants. Let us take a look below at what the differences between plums and apricots are!
Plums and apricots belong to different genera
1. Plum: The plum is a deciduous tree in the plant kingdom, Angiosperms, Dicotyledons, Archichlamydeae, Rosales, Rosineae, Rosaceae, Prunoideae, genus Prunus (Armeniaca).
2. Apricot: The apricot is a deciduous tree in the plant kingdom, Angiosperms, Dicotyledons, Archichlamydeae, Rosales, Rosineae, Rosaceae, Prunoideae, genus Armeniaca.
Differences in shape between plums and apricots
1. Plum: The plum tree is 9-12 m tall, with oblong-obovate to oblong-elliptic leaves, rarely oblong-ovate. Flowers usually appear 3 together, pedicels 1-2 cm, usually hairless, flowers usually appear 3 together, pedicels 1-2 cm, usually hairless, coated with a waxy bloom. The stone is ovate or oblong, wrinkled. The flowering period is April, and the fruiting period is July-August.
2. Apricot: The apricot tree is hairless, with alternate leaves that are broad-ovate or round-ovate, with blunt serrations along the edges and two glands near the top of the petiole. The pale pink flowers are solitary or 2-3 together, white or slightly red. The drupe is round, oblong, or flat-round, and the skin is mostly white, yellow to yellow-red, often with a red blush and spots on the sun-facing side. The flesh is dark yellow, sweet, and juicy. The stone surface is smooth with no pitted holes, and the stone edge is thick with grooves. The kernel is mostly bitter or sweet. The flowering period is March-April, and the fruiting period is June-July.
Differences in effects between plums and apricots
1. Plum: The plum is sweet and sour in taste, neutral in nature, and enters the liver and kidney meridians. It has the effects of promoting fluid production and quenching thirst, clearing the liver and removing heat, and promoting urination. It mainly treats conditions such as yin deficiency with internal heat, steaming bone and consumptive heat, wasting-thirst with excessive drinking, damp-heat in the liver and gallbladder, ascites, and difficult urination.
2. Apricot: The apricot is sweet and sour in taste, warm in nature, and enters the lung and large intestine meridians. It has the effects of relieving cough and calming panting, nourishing and tonifying the lungs, lowering cholesterol levels in the human body, protecting eyesight, preventing eye diseases, supplementing human nutrition, and improving disease resistance, and it has a killing effect on cancer cells.