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A fruit is the mature, ripened ovary of a flower following double fertilization in an angiosperm.Because gymnosperms do not have an ovary but reproduce through fertilization of unprotected ovules, they produce naked seeds that do not have a surrounding fruit, this meaning that juniper and yew "berries" are not fruits, but modified cones.
Dry fruits also develop from the ovary, but unlike the fleshy fruits they do not depend on the mesocarp but the endocarp for seed dispersal. [3] Dry fruits depend more on physical forces, like wind and water. Dry fruits' seeds can also perform pod shattering, which involve the seed being ejected from the seed coat by shattering it.
Many common language terms used for fruit and seeds differ from botanical classifications. For example, in botany, a fruit is a ripened ovary or carpel that contains seeds, e.g., an orange, pomegranate, tomato or a pumpkin. A nut is a type of fruit (and not a seed), and a seed is a ripened ovule. [4]
In angiosperms (flowering plants), the term locule usually refers to a chamber within an ovary (gynoecium or carpel) of the flower and fruits. Depending on the number of locules in the ovary, fruits can be classified as unilocular (uni-locular), bilocular, trilocular, or multilocular. The number of locules present in a gynoecium may be equal to ...
The ovary of the gynoecium produces one or more ovules and ultimately becomes the fruit wall. Ovules are attached to the placenta in the ovary through a stalk-like structure known as a funiculus (plural, funiculi). Different patterns of ovule attachment, or placentation, can be found among plant species, these include: [1]
The ovary wall develops to form the fruit or pericarp, whose form is closely associated with type of seed dispersal system. [68] Other parts of the flower often contribute to forming the fruit. For example, in the apple, the hypanthium forms the edible flesh, surrounding the ovaries which form the tough cases around the seeds. [69]
Gynoecium (/ ɡ aɪ ˈ n iː s i. ə m, dʒ ɪ ˈ n iː ʃ i. ə m /; from Ancient Greek γυνή (gunḗ) 'woman, female' and οἶκος (oîkos) 'house'; pl.: gynoecia) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds.
Close-up of a Schlumbergera flower, showing part of the gynoecium (specifically the stigma and part of the style) and the stamens that surround it. Plant reproductive morphology is the study of the physical form and structure (the morphology) of those parts of plants directly or indirectly concerned with sexual reproduction.