Healthy wax apples have a light sheen to them.

Despite its name, a ripe wax apple only resembles an apple on the outside in color.

Fat Charlie had, on his first visit to Rosie's mother's place, taken a bite from one of the wax apples.

Unlike either apple or watermelon, the wax apple's flesh has a very loose weave.

Asian groceries in Southern California do occasionally carry wax apples from backyard trees.

In front of a shop in the lobby, a stuffed monkey stands guard, holding a wax apple.

It is known for its year-round warm climate, seafood restaurants and its wax apples (lembus).

One reason wax apples have not been more widely cultivated is that the fruits are highly perishable, and keep just a few days at room temperature.

Wax apple is also called wax jambu, Java apple and many other names.

Wax apple can host exotic fruit flies, so agricultural regulations prohibit its importation into the United States.

Its flavor is similar to a snow pear, and the liquid-to-flesh ratio of the wax apple is comparable to a watermelon.

Here, try a bite of this," says Piero Guerrini, holding out a Chinese wax apple.

The wax apple (Syzygium samarangense)

Some nurserymen and home gardeners say that in Southern California there are naturally two seasons for wax apples, one now and another in late fall.

The wax apple trees, protected against winter cold by surrounding walls and the cement floor, are now lush and seven feet tall, and starting to bear copiously.

At Wu's other two venues, the Pasadena Victory Park and Playhouse District farmers markets, he mostly sells wax apples.

The season is July to November, says Wu, whose surname, appropriately, is part of the Chinese term for wax apple, lian wu.

In the next room are 75-year-old sterilized waxed apples and memorabilia from Marguerite d'Youville's workroom: desk, loom, chest and mantel clock.

I know that a lot of chemicals may be necessary, but a lot of them are not; why can't we be given the choice whether we want waxed apples?

And the piles of large red polymer worms lying along the baseboards don't really help, although you might guess that they have crawled from the red wax apples nearby.

This possible exposure to NMOR derived from morpholine on waxed apples is less than the above estimated safe dose of 4.3 ng/kg bw/day.

Native to Malaysia and Southeast Asia, wax apple (Syzygium samarangense) is in the myrtle family and kin to guava, which it vaguely resembles.

A dusty gray light filtered in through the windows, falling gently on the wax apples, the clock, the very things we knew so well - so intimately - from Cezanne's work.

Recently, she has noticed people are choosing arrangements that are comforting rather than showy, such as dusty roses in glitter wrapped with lace, and waxed apples against red velvet roses.

"Wax apples are common in Taiwan, but I'm very surprised to see them sold here," said Sue Lee of San Marino, a shopper at the Temple City farmers market.