Unique Fruit Development of Ornamental ‘Teapot' Jujube

Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba), or chinese date, has fruit that is developed mainly from ovary plus some nectary disk tissue, and the fruit itself can appear smooth or bumpy on the surface. Teapot is an ornamental jujube cultivar with protrusions on the fruit surface and the fruit with two protrusions are dominant which makes the fruit mimic a mini teapot. The objective of this study was to investigate the source and development of those protuberances on the 'Teapot' fruit surface. Cultivar Li, Lang and Teapot were used in this study to compare the fruit development and basic fruit quality characteristics. Unlike ‘Li’ and ‘Lang’, ‘Teapot’ jujube fruit had one to five protuberances on the shoulder of the fruit and few entirely lacked protuberances. The stamens of ‘Teapot’ jujube flowers were fewer in number, misplaced in location, and deformed in shape—some stamens were anthers only while others were filament only. Deformed stamens of ‘Teapot’ jujube were always anchored in the nectary disk instead of at their normal location—near the edge of the nectary disk. After bloom, the residue of stamens, nectary disk, and ovary were all constituents of the developing fruit. The deformed stamens developed into the fleshy protuberances and equaled them in number. Fruit with only two protuberances predominated, which is how the ‘Teapot’ jujube acquired its name, but the ratio among protuberance categories varied between trees. 'Teapot' had smaller fruit and higher titratable acid content than ‘Li’ or ‘Lang’. It contained 308 mg/100 g vitamin C content and the general fruit quality was acceptable but not as good as ‘Li’ or ‘Lang’. With its unique and decorative fruit shape, and acceptable fruit quality, ‘Teapot’ jujube could be used as a backyard tree, both as an ornamental and for its fruit.