# A question about selective breeding.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-selective-breeding/305716>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 27, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-selective-breeding/305716 "2005-05-27T03:44:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-selective-breeding/305716/1 "2005-05-27T03:44:59Z")

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Right now I’m eating a “Grapple” (grape-ul), an apple marketed because it tastes like a grape, which it kind of does (it’s really more of a natural apple meets grape soda flavor, but it’s still good). I’ve also seen websites that sell Geraniums that smell like roses, apples, coconuts, apricots, etc. And I’ve had a mint plant that smelled like lemon. In my very basic understanding of genetics, a grape vine and an apple tree don’t cross breed (wouldn’t that be like a giraffe and a gnat?), so how do plants like this come to be? Do botanists take a whiff of a plant and say “Hey this smells like lemon kind of…” and then a whiff of another plant of the same species and say “Hey this one sort of does too!” and then cross pollinate the two to get an even stronger lemon scent? Or is there some easier method?  
(Posting this in the hopes that at least an amateur botanist is a member of the board)

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**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-selective-breeding/305716/2 "2005-05-27T03:55:21Z")

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From what I’ve read on the subject, often shoots of the plant that have the desirable trait are grafted onto the stock of a genetically similar plant. Which is why you don’t want to prune back the roses too far.-+

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2005, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-selective-breeding/305716/3 "2005-05-27T04:01:48Z")

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The Grapple has nothing to do with genetics at all. From [here](http://www.cinweekly.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050202/LIFE/502020357/1068/archive)

> [@](#):
>
> Unlike other hybrid fruits, though, like say tangelos (the marriage of a mandarin orange and a grapefruit), the Grapple isn’t really a fruit hybrid. It’s more like a fruit bath. The apple is bathed in grape juice, merely masking the taste of the apple in favor of the grape.

Regarding your other examples, there are many basic plant compounds that are found in a range of different families. It is quite possible that selective breeders could enhance these chemicals to bring out a certain smell or taste that is normally only found at low levels in the original plants. In particular, the [Scented Geraniums](http://www.ann-mccormick.com/MagazineScentedGeraniums.htm) have been developed through cross-breeding and selection among a a variety of original species.