chapter 20

follicle fruit

Fruit simple and dry. Fruit dehiscent at maturity. Fruit from a single carpel. Seed(s) release from one suture (seam)

legume

Fruit simple and dry. Fruit dehiscent at maturity. Fruit from a single carpel. Seed(s) release two sutures (seams)

capsule

Fruit simple and dry. Fruit dehiscent at maturity. Fruit from two or more carpels, splitting in various ways

achene

Fruit simple and dry. Fruit indehiscent at maturity. Fruit from a single carpel. Fruit wings absent.

samara

Fruit simple and dry. Fruit indehiscent at maturity. Fruit from a single carpel. Seed attachment along only one point of fruit wall. Fruit wings present

grain

Fruit simple and dry. Fruit indehiscent at maturity. Fruit from a single carpel; pericarp firm, but not hard and stony. seed attachment along entire fruit wall (fusion).

nut

Fruit simple and dry. Fruit indehiscent at maturity. Fruit from multiple carpels; fruit wall stony

pome

Fruit simple and fleshy. Flesh from ovary and, at least in part, from accessory tissue

berry

Fruit simple and fleshy. Flesh from ovary only, accessory tissue absent. Excocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp soft, pit absent

drupe

Fruit simple and fleshy. Flesh from ovary only, accessory tissue absent. The exocarp and mesocarp soft, endocarp hard, pit present

Tomatoes are often referred to as vegetables. Does this make sense botanically?

No. Tomatoes are the ripened ovaries of the tomato plant, and thus are true fruits (berries, actually). In common parlance, "fruit" often refers to the more or less sweet products on the produce shelves, such as apples, cherries, oranges, and bananas. Tomatoes are not typically sweet (high in sugar content), so many people think of them as vegetables. Botanically, however, there is no ambiguity—tomatoes are fruits.

In many flowers, pollen is produced either well before or considerably after the carpels mature and develop an embryo sac. What is the advantage to the plant of this kind of shift in maturation times?

The described situation is one means to discourage self-pollination. Because any given flower is not producing pollen when its embryo sacs are mature, the pollen must come from other, nearby individuals.

In ordinary English, we use the word fruit to mean something sweet and juicy. But the following things are fruits: peanut shells, pea pods, bell peppers and chili peppers. What is the character that lets us know these really are fruits even though they are not sweet? In contrast, bananas are fruits that do not have this character (they are sterile and must be grown from buds or suckers that sprout near the base of the plant)

They all (except for sterile bananas) contain seeds.

In an apple, what is the fleshy part that we eat, and what is the core that we throw away

false fruit composed of enlarged bases of sepals and petals; the core is the true fruit.