Fruit Types:
There are many different types of fruits. You are not responsible to know all of those listed below. It is provided for your own interest and reference. As we proceed through the course you will be introduced to a number of fruit types pertaining to specific plant families we will be covering.
Fruits are categorized based on the parts that are consumed. For example the three main categories: simple, multiple, and aggregate refer to the participation of the ovary in what we commonly call the fruit or edible parts. It is also important to note that not all fruits are for consumption.
A. SIMPLE FRUITS: A fruits developing from one ovary
(a) Fleshy fruits:
1. BERRY: entire fruit wall fleshy. Examples: tomato, grape, cranberry, banana.
Specialized berries: hesperidium, a berry with a tough leathery rind, a citrus fruit; pepo, a one locular berry with a hard outer covering, a melon.
2. DRUPE: fruit wall (or pericarp) of 3 distinct layers, Athe outer skin‑like (exocarp), the middle fleshy (mesocarp), and the inner hard and woody (endocarp).
Examples: cherry, peach, plum. The small drupes that form the aggregate fruits of raspberries and blackberries are called drupelets.
3. POME: fruit developing from an inferior ovary, with the seeds encased within a cartilaginous core, and the fleshy part consisting largely of the adnate hypanthium and receptacle.
Examples: apple, pear.
(b) Dry indehiscent (not opening when mature), usually 1‑seeded fruits:
1. ACHENE: small, 1‑seeded fruit, developing from a simple pistil, the seed attached to the ovary wall in only one place, that is, not fused with it.
Examples: buttercup, the “seeds” of a strawberry; members of the Asteraceae (sunflower family).
2. CYPSELA: an achene‑like fruit developed from an inferior 2‑carpellate ovary as in the Asteraceae. Usually called achenes in floras and manuals.
3. UTRICLE: achene‑like, but ovary syncarpous and ovary wall corky or bladdery. Examples: beet, Rumex (dock).
4. SAMARA: a winged achene. Examples: elm, maple.
5. CARYOPSIS OR GRAIN: like an achene but ovary wall tightly fused to seed.
Example: Poaceae (grass family).
6. NUT: ovary wall hard and woody, developing from a syncarpous ovary.
Example: filbert, acorn.
7. NUTLET: a small, hard walled, single seeded “fruit” that develops from half of a carpel.
Example: Lamiaceae (mint family), Boraginaceae (bugloss family).
8. SCHIZOCARP: a fruit from a syncarpous ovary that splits into its separate but indehiscent carpels at maturity.
Example: Apiaceae (carrot family).
(c) Dry, dehiscent (opening at maturity) fruits, usually with several seeds.
1. FOLLICLE: formed from 1 carpel (a simple pistil) and dehiscing along 1 suture.
Example: columbine, delphinium.
2. LEGUME: formed from 1 carpel and dehiscing along 2 sutures.
Example: Fabaceae (pea family).
3. SILIQUE: formed from a 2‑carpellate, 2 celled ovary with 2 parietal placenta, and more than 3 times as long as wide.
Example: Brassicaceae.
4. SILICLE: a short silique, less than 3 times as long as wide.
Example: Brassicaceae (mustard family).
5. CAPSULE: dry, dehiscent fruits developing from syncarpous ovaries. They may dehisce by pores (Poricidal dehiscence), along the partitions or septa (septicidal dehiscence), directly into the locules or cavities (loculicidal dehiscence) or by a lid (circumscissile dehiscence).
B. MULTIPLE FRUITS: fruits developing from the coalescence of several ovaries from several separate flowers.
Examples: pineapple, mulberry.
C. AGGREGATE FRUITS: fruits developing from the coalescence Aseveral ovaries of one flower.
Examples: raspberry, blackberry