FruitFruit- Matured or Ripened Ovary. This is the packaging structure around seeds of flowering plants.

Grapes

The function of the fruit is to aid in dispersal of the seeds. Fruit does not provide food for the seed. What does?

The Ovary Develops Into The Fruit.

Fruit protects a seed during development and dormancy.As the fruit ripens, the seed matures.Fruit aids in seed dispersal by being fruit being food for

animals, catching the wind, relying on animals for transport (burs cling to animal fur), or being dispersed by water.

Fruit structure helps in the classification of angiosperms (flowering plants).

The term fruit is a scientific term. The term vegetable is a culinary term. Vegetables are fruit if they contain seeds. Example of vegetables that are actually fruit are tomato, corn, cucumber, wheat, etc. The term vegetation, similar to vegetable, in a scientific sense relates to the leafy parts of the plant.

The Nature of The Ovary Determines the Structure of the Fruit.

All fruit development is initiated by fertilization of the egg.Fertilization Ovary wall develops and differentiates into the Fruit

Wall (Pericarp).

Pericarp – This is the fruit wall, which developed from the ovary wall. The pericarp is made up of 3 distinct layers:

1) Exocarp – outside2) Mesocarp – middle 3) Endocarp – inside

After the fruit is mature, you may still see remnant floral structures present. For example before eating a tomato, you often cut off the sepals (flower part).

Accessory parts can be present and are part of the fruit. Note: Fruits can be fleshy (peach) or dry (acorn).

Almond SeedsAlmond Flowers

Almond Fruit With Seeds

1) The Structure of the Flower.2) Number of Ovaries in the Flower.3) Number of Carpels in Each Ovary.4) Is The Fruit Wall Dry or Fleshy?5) If Fruit Wall Dry, is the Fruit Deshiscent or

Indehiscent?Dehiscent – Opening spontaneously when ripe, spitting into definite parts; splits open along definite seams when mature; contains several to many seeds.Indehiscent – Not opening by valves or along regular lines.

6) If Dehiscent, how the Pericarp Splits?7) Role of Accessory Tissue.

See Key to Fruits on page 221 to help.

To Classify Fruits, consider the following items:

Fruits May Be Simple or Compound

A Simple Fruit is from one ovary of one flower. However, a simple fruit may have one or more carpels within that ovary. Simple fruit examples include peach and apple.

A Compound Fruit is composed of more than one fruit. A compound fruit is either aggregate or multiple.

SIMPLE FRUITS

Fruits from

Single Ovaries

The PodPod (Legume) is the fruit of the Pea Family (Fabaceae). A single carpel gives rise to a single pod. At maturity, the

pod, generally dehisces along 2 sides.

Fruits with Dry Pericarp and are DehiscentDehiscent

Capsule Capsule is the fruit of poppy.

Silique Silique is the fruit of the mustard family.

Follicle Follicle is the fruit of the magnolia.

The AcheneAchene is a dry, one- seeded fruit. Sunflower

is an example of an achene. When you eat

sunflowers, you break off the fruit (pericarp) and

you eat the seed.

Fruits with Dry Pericarp and are Indehiscent

Caryopsis Caryopsis or Grain Grain is the fruit of corn and grass. The pericarp and seed coat are

united around embryo. Therefore, a corn

kernel is both fruit and seed together.

SamaraSamara is the fruit of elm,

ash, and maple trees.

A NutNut is a one-seeded

indehiscent dry fruit, with a hard or stony pericarp

(shell).

Fruits with Dry Pericarp and are Indehiscent

The fruit of the oak is a nut. An acorn is a nut. The cup is a fused bract. Other examples of nuts are chestnuts & walnuts.

Almonds are not nuts but drupes (fleshy fruits) & you eat the seed. See earlier almond Slide. Peanut is not a nut but a pod (legume).

Looking at the above acorn, where is the fruit and where is the seed?

Pericarp FleshyFleshy fruit wall often encases a seed with a hard seed coat. The seed usually passes through an animal after the fruit is digested. This aids in the dispersal of seeds.

A DrupeDrupe is a simple fleshy fruit derived from a single carpel, usually 1-seeded, in which the exocarp is thin (skin), the mesocarp fleshy, & the endocarp stony (seed inside).

A BerryBerry is a simple fleshy fruit, the ovary wall fleshy and including one or more carpels and seeds; compound ovary; usually many seeds. Example include grape, tomato, papaya, pomegranate, and persimmon.

Peach

Tomato

Examples include Cherry, Almond, Peach, Apricot, and many others from the rose family (Rosaceae) (Not all members of rose family are drupes and not all are simple fruits).

Pericarp Fleshy (Hesperidium: A type of Berry)HesperidiumHesperidium is a type of berry with a thick leathery rind and parchment-like partitions between sections. Hesperidium is a typical fruit of the citrus family (Rutaceae). Hesperidum examples include oranges, lemon, grapefruit and lime.

Orange Flower and Fruit

The rind is made up of the exocarp and mesocarp, and numerous oil cavities.

The endocarp is thick juicy, pulp segments, composed of several wedge-shaped locules.

Pericarp Fleshy (Pepo: A type of Berry)PepoPepo is a type of berry; possess rind; fruits of plants in the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae). Examples include watermelon, squash and cucumber, cantaloupe and pumpkin.

Cucumber Flower and Fruit

Pepo rind is a receptacle tissue fused with the exocarp. The fleshy fruit is made of mesocarp and endocarp.

Pericarp Fleshy (Pome)PomePome is a simple, fleshy fruit, the outer portion of which is formed by the floral parts that surround the ovary, which becomes a fleshy receptacle tissue (fleshy receptacle tissue).

Flower has inferior ovary and hypanthium present (See Flower Chapter). Apple Core is from ovary.

The actual ovary or core is usually not eaten. Pome is from the rose family (Rosaceae) Example of pomes include apple and pear.

Apple Flower and Fruit

Mesocarp

Exocarp (Skin)

Compound Fruits

Fruits from

Several Ovaries

Raspberry

A Compound Fruit is composed of more than one fruit. A compound fruit is made up of simple fruits joined together. The fruit types we learned from simple fruits are the same in compound fruits, just grouped together. The individual fruits found in compound fruits can be drupes, berries, achenes, etc.

A compound fruit is either aggregate or multiple.

Compound Fruits Develop From Several Ovaries

Aggregate Fruits are a type of compound fruit made up of many separate ovaries of a single flower. These are many simple fruits together attached to a fleshy receptacle. In the case of blackberry and raspberry, the individual fruit is a drupe. In the case of strawberry, the fruit is an achene. Another aggregate fruit example is rose.

Note: An achene is a simple dry fruit. Achenes are imbedded in an enlarged fleshy receptacle. The entire strawberry is an aggregate fruit.

Compound Fruits: Aggregate

Blackberry

Strawberry

Multiple Fruits are a type of compound fruit made up the ovaries of several different flowers clumped together. Examples include fig (a drupe), pineapple (a berry). Like in aggregate fruits, multiple fruits are composed of many individual simple fruits joined together.

Compound Fruits: Multiple

Fig Flowers and Fruit Pineapple is an example, which itself is the enlarged ovaries of several flowers grown together in a single mass.

Many flowers here.

Pineapple Flowers and Fruit

Parthenocarpic fruits are those that develop without fertilization. Consequently, these fruits are seedless. Parthenocarpy simply means seedless fruits.

Banana, a type of berry, for the most part is seedless. In the wild, some bananas have large hard seeds. So how do we get new banana plants? By removing and transporting part of the underground stem, the corm. This is asexual reproduction.

Don’t confuse with parthenocarpic with parthenogenesis – the development of seeds without fertilization.

Not All Fruits Have Seeds

The Role of Ripe Fruit is

1) to aid in seed dispersal.

2) to deter inappropriate seed-dispersing animals from taking the fruit or seed.

3) to protect seeds from seed-eaters.

Seeds or germinating seedlings do not use energy stored in fruit but only the food in endosperm and cotyledons.

Wind and Water (abiotic vectors) and animals (biotic vectors) aid in the transport and dispersement of seeds. Common biotic vectors include ants, birds, bats, rodents, ruminants, & primates.

Adaptations For Seed Dispersal

Coconut is dispersed by water. The coconut fruit, or husk, is fibrous and the seed within is large and buoyant, capable of floating hundreds or thousands of miles in seawater to germinate on another beach.

Germinating Coconut on a

Tropical Beach.

BIO 141 Botany with Laboratory

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