While visiting a friend’s home, I noticed they had a pear tree. I instantly had a flashback to a botany lesson from an old biology course. Pears have a peculiar texture, one that is often described as “gritty”. This texture is caused by the stone cells present in the fruit’s flesh.

I sliced a thin section of the fruit and immediately found clusters of these stone cells throughout. Notice that there are faint but distinct “tunnels” running from the stone cells to the periphery.