Walmart, Where Math Is Hard But The Fruit Is 110% Delicious

Image courtesy of (Thanks to Will for the photo)

(Thanks to Will for the photo)

You might be able to figure it out from the name, but a Pluot is a hybrid between a plum and an apricot. As for what percentage of each of those fruits are represented in a Pluot, well… Walmart doesn’t seem to know.

Consumerist reader Will was shopping at his local Walmart and noticed that the percentages on this sign just don’t add up.

Having never sampled a Pluot, we did a bit of reading and found that it’s the trademarked brainchild of Floyd Zaiger, the biologist/mad scientist behind similar hybrids like the peacotum (a peach, apricot and plum hybrid) and the cherub (the result of a cherry and a plum’s naughty night out). Then there’s the Aprium, which like the Pluot, is a hybrid of apricot and plum, but with the ratio reversed in favor of more apricot.

And though the Walmart sign says that the Pluot, is 75% plum and 35% apricot, this 2009 Slate article says that because of the possible variation in each tree, it’s “Best just to say that pluots are mostly plum and leave it at that.”

Well, now you probably know more about Pluots than you did a few minutes ago. Go impress your friends this weekend.

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