Simple fruit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Simple fruits are the result of the ripening-to-fruit of a simple or compound ovary in a single flower with a single pistil.[1][2][3][4] In contrast, a single flower with numerous pistils typically produces an aggregate fruit; and the merging of several flowers, or a 'multiple' of flowers, results in a 'multiple' fruit. A simple fruit is further classified as either dry or fleshy.[5][6][7]
Dry simple fruits
- Achene – most commonly seen in aggregate fruits (e.g., strawberry).
- Capsule – (Brazil nut: botanically, it is not a nut).
- Caryopsis – (cereal grains, including wheat, rice, oats, barley).
- Cypsela – an achene-like fruit derived from the individual florets in a capitulum: (dandelion).
- Fibrous drupe – (coconut, walnut: botanically, neither is a true nut.).
- Follicle – follicles are formed from a single carpel, and opens by one suture: (milkweed); also commonly seen in aggregate fruits: (magnolia, peony).
- Legume – (bean, pea, peanut: botanically, the peanut is the seed of a legume, not a nut).
- Loment – a type of indehiscent legume: (sweet vetch or wild potato).
- Nut – (beechnut, hazelnut, acorn (of the oak): botanically, these are true nuts).
- Samara – (ash, elm, maple key).
- Schizocarp – (carrot seed).
- Silique – (radish seed).
- Silicle – (shepherd's purse).
- Utricle – (beet, Rumex).
Fruits in which part or all of the pericarp (fruit wall) is fleshy at maturity are termed fleshy simple fruits.
Fleshy simple fruits
- Berry – the berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit. The entire outer layer of the ovary wall ripens into a potentially edible "pericarp", (see below).
- Stone fruit or drupe – the definitive characteristic of a drupe is the hard, "lignified" stone (sometimes called the "pit"). It is derived from the ovary wall of the flower: apricot, cherry, olive, peach, plum, mango.
- Pome – the pome fruits: apples, pears, rosehips, saskatoon berry, etc., are a syncarpous (fused) fleshy fruit, a simple fruit, developing from a half-inferior ovary. Pomes are of the family Rosaceae