1. Fruit
Fruit- 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?

2. 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.

3. 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 – outside
2) 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).

4. Almond Fruit With Seeds
Almond Flowers
Almond Seeds

5. To Classify Fruits, consider the following items:
The Structure of the Flower.
Number of Ovaries in the Flower.
Number of Carpels in Each Ovary.
Is The Fruit Wall Dry or Fleshy?
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.
If Dehiscent, how the Pericarp Splits?
Role of Accessory Tissue.
See Key to Fruits on page 221 to help.

6. 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.

7. Fruits from Single Ovaries
SIMPLE
FRUITS
Fruits from Single Ovaries

8. Fruits with Dry Pericarp and are Dehiscent
The Pod (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.
Capsule is the fruit of poppy.
Follicle is the fruit of the magnolia.
Silique is the fruit of the mustard family.

9. Fruits with Dry Pericarp and are Indehiscent
The Achene 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.
Caryopsis or 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.
Samara is the fruit of elm, ash, and maple trees.

10. Fruits with Dry Pericarp and are Indehiscent
A Nut is a one-seeded indehiscent dry fruit, with a hard or stony pericarp (shell).
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.
Looking at the above acorn, where is the fruit and where is the seed?
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).

11. Pericarp Fleshy
Fleshy 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 Drupe 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).
Peach
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).
Tomato
A Berry 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.

12. Pericarp Fleshy (Hesperidium: A type of Berry) Orange Flower and Fruit
Hesperidium 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 endocarp is thick juicy, pulp segments, composed of several wedge-shaped locules.
The rind is made up of the exocarp and mesocarp, and numerous oil cavities.

13. Pericarp Fleshy (Pepo: A type of Berry) Cucumber Flower and Fruit
Pepo 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.

14. Pericarp Fleshy (Pome)
Pome 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.
Apple Flower and Fruit
Mesocarp
The actual ovary or core is usually not eaten. Pome is from the rose family (Rosaceae) Example of pomes include apple and pear.
Exocarp (Skin)

15. Fruits from Several Ovaries
Compound Fruits
Fruits from Several Ovaries
Raspberry

16. Compound Fruits Develop From Several Ovaries
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.

17. Compound Fruits: Aggregate
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.
Strawberry
Blackberry
Note: An achene is a simple dry fruit. Achenes are imbedded in an enlarged fleshy receptacle. The entire strawberry is an aggregate fruit.

18. Compound Fruits: Multiple
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.
Pineapple 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.
Fig Flowers and Fruit

19. Not All Fruits Have Seeds
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.

20. Adaptations For Seed Dispersal
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.
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.

21. BIO 141 Botany with Laboratory
This product is sponsored by a grant awarded under the President’s Community-Based Job Training Grants as implemented by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. The information contained in this product was created by a grantee organization and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. All references to non-governmental companies or organizations, their services, products, or resources are offered for informational purposes and should not be construed as an endorsement by the Department of Labor. This product is copyrighted by the institution that created it and is intended for individual organizational, non-commercial use only.