In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Many common language terms used for fruit and seeds differ from botanical classifications. Fruit beer name, the fruit wall is thin and fused to the seed coat, so almost all the edible grain-fruit is actually a seed. The outer layer, often edible, of most fruits is called the pericarp.
The pericarp may be described in three layers from outer to inner, i. Fruit that bears a prominent pointed terminal projection is said to be beaked. A fruit results from the fertilizing and maturing of one or more flowers. Two sperm are transferred from the pollen to a megagametophyte. In some multiseeded fruits, the extent to which a fleshy structure develops is proportional to the number of fertilized ovules.
However, for simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary —i. Because several parts of the flower besides the ovary may contribute to the structure of a fruit, it is important to study flower structure to understand how a particular fruit forms. Multiple fruits form from many flowers —i. The parts of a flower, showing the stigma-style-ovary system. An apple is a simple fleshy fruit. In the noni, flowers are produced in time-sequence along the stem.
It is possible to see a progression of flowering, fruit development, and fruit ripening. Note the multiple pistils, each of which will produce a drupelet. Each flower will become a blackberry-like aggregate fruit. While the section of a fungus that produces spores is called a fruiting body, fungi are members of the fungi kingdom and not of the plant kingdom. Simple fruits are the result of the ripening-to-fruit of a simple or compound ovary in a single flower with a single pistil.
To distribute their seeds, dry fruits may split open and discharge their seeds to the winds, which is called dehiscence. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit. The pome fruits: apples, pears, rosehips, saskatoon berry, et al. Strawberry, showing achenes attached to surface. The fruit of this flower is an aggregation of follicles.