by Amy Lee Clark

Created on: May 26, 2009   Last Updated: May 03, 2012

A fruit is a ripened ovary of a flower.

Fruits are a result of fertilization that takes place between the pollen and the egg (present in the ovule) of a flower and which ultimately becomes the edible structure of the plant. The nectar in the fruit is rich in fructose, glucose and sucrose. This later becomes part of the fruit giving it its rich sugar and carbohydrate content making majority of the fruits, by default, sweeter than vegetables.

Any other edible vegetative part of the plant other than the fruit is a vegetable. (Leaves as in greens, spinach and mint, bulbs as in onion and garlic, tubers as in potato and tapioca, roots as in carrot and turnip, shoots as in asparagus and bamboo, etc..)

The fruit is made up of the Pericarp and the seed. The Pericarp is ideally the outermost Exocarp, the middle Mesocarp and the inner Endocarp. Their textures may vary from fruit to fruit. The seed is inside the pericarp.

Just like the non-fruit vegetative structure of a plant are divided into root, shoot, leaves, tubers, rhizomes, and corms, likewise, fruits are also divided further based on the structure of the fruit in relation to the seed.

There are two main kinds of fruits, viz. Fleshy fruits and Dry fruits. Fleshy fruits consist of Simple fruits, Aggregate fruits and Multiple fruits based on the formation of the fruit after fertilization of one or many flowers and the fleshy covering of the seed.

I) FLESHY FRUITS

a) Simple Fruit:

Simple fruits are formed from a single ovary and may contain on or many seeds depending on the number of ovules in the ovary of the flower.

* Berries: soft, edible exocarp and fleshy mesocarp.

Eg. Tomato, Banana, Grape

*Hesperidums: Exocarp is thick (rind) and mesocarp is fleshy. Seeds are inside fleshy mesocarp compartments, each compartment separated by a carpel wall.

Eg. Lime, Orange,

* Pepos: Exocarp is thick and stiff. Seeds are embedded in fleshy mesocarp.

Eg. Pumpkin, Watermelon

* Drupes or Stone: Exocarp is thin and edible, middle mesocarp is fleshy while the innermost endocarp is stone-like stiffened.

Eg. Olive, Plum, Almond, Peach

* Pomes: Exocarp is thin and edible, mesocarp is fleshy and endocarp is like a core with the seeds in the inner core.

Eg. Apple, Pear

b) Aggregate Fruit

Fruits formed from a single flower that contains many carpels and many ovaries.

Eg. Strawberries, blackberries

c) Multiple Fruit

Fruits formed from the fusion of many flowers. Flowers in turn may consist of one to many ovaries.

Eg. Pineapple, Figs

II) DRY FRUITS

These fruits have a leathery or a woody seed coat. Pericarp layers may be fused or layered. Depending on whether the pericarp opens spontaneously or not to release the seeds they dry fruits are divided into Dry Dehiscent (split along one or both sides) and Dry Indehiscent (does not split open)

a) Dry Dehiscent Fruit:

These are fruits which do not have a fleshy mesocarp and the perianth is fused, The fruit is thin and long and the periant opens on either one side as in Follicle or on either side as in Legume / Pod (green beans and Green peas). Both follicle and legumes are formed from a single carpel. When the fruit is formed from multiple carpels, has a dry perianth wall and sutures open on both sides it is called a Silique (mustard).

b) Dry Indehiscent Fruit:

These are fruits which have a dry hard perianth and do not open upon ripening. The perianth may or may not be fused to the seed. They may or may not contain wings to aid in dispersal.

Achene : eg. Sunflower seed in the husk, Strawberry seed in the Aggregate Strawberry fruit.

Nut : eg. Hazelnut

Nutlet: eg. Hornbean

Calybium: eg. Acorn

Caryopsis: Wheat, Rice, Corn

Samaras: Maple fruit

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