Lecture 4 - Types of Fruit

Question 1

Classification of Fruit

Answer 1

The ovary of a flower becomes the pericarp.

Composed of one or all of the following:
exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp.

Fruit taxonomy is based on morphological features such as the consistency of the pericarp-dry and hard or soft and fleshy.

Question 2

Types of Fruit: Simple Fleshy

Answer 2

• berry
• drupe
• pomes
• pepo
• hesperidium

Question 3

Types of Fruit: Simple Dry Dehiscent

Answer 3

• legume
• follicle
• capsule
• silique
• schizocarp

Question 4

Types of Fruit: Simple Dry InDehiscent

Answer 4

• achene
• samara
• caryopsis
• nut

Question 5

What are the two other types of fruit than SIMPLE?

Answer 5

Aggregate Fruit & Multiple Fruit

Question 6

Dry Dehiscent Fruit

Answer 6

Dehiscent fruit are dry at maturity and usually contain several - to - numerous - seeds.
Dehiscent fruits break open and release seeds at maturity.

Question 7

Dry Dehiscent Fruit: Legume

Answer 7

The legume fruit is only found in the legume family.

A legume develops from a SUPERIOIR ovary that contain a single carpel (monocarpellate).

At maturity, the fruit wall (pericarp) is dry and brown, and the seeds are dehisced. However, most of us are more familliar with the immature fruit. Green beans are picked at a very early stage, before the seeds have developes.

In legume, fruits break open on BOTH SIDES to release the seeds.

Question 8

Dry Dehiscent Fruit: Follicles

Answer 8

A follicle is a dry fruit from a SUPERIOR ovary of a single carpel (apocarpous) but splits only on ONE SIDE to release the seeds

Question 9

Dry Dehiscent Fruit: Caspules

Answer 9

A capsule fruit is derived from either superior or inferior ovary and composed of two or more carpels (syncarpous).

The capsule is the most common dehiscent, simple dry fruit.

The capsule wall is dry and sclerified.

OPEN IN MANY WAYS.

Question 10

Dry Dehiscent Fruit: Silique

Answer 10

A silique fruit is a simple, dry, dehiscent, syncarpous gynoecium restricted to the mustard family.

Silique dehisce along two lines.

Question 11

Dry Dehiscent Fruit: Schizocarp

Answer 11

The compound ovary breaks into individual carpels.

Question 12

Dry Indehiscent fruits

Answer 12

Indeshicent fruit do not open at maturity to release seeds.
Typically single-seeded. The entire dry ovary abscise as a unit.

Develop from a single carpel or multiple carpels (apocarpous).

Pericarp resembles the seed coat in structure, and the fruit themselves are commonly called “seeds” even though terminology incorrect.

Question 13

Dry Indehiscent fruits: Achene

Answer 13

An achene developes from a single carpel, or a single flower.
The seed remains attached via funiculus to the pericarp.

Question 14

Dry Indehiscent fruits: Caryopsis

Answer 14

Develops from a single carpel- the pericarp and the integuments are completely fused.

e.g. corn

Question 15

Dry Indehiscent fruits: Samara

Answer 15

Similar to achene, but with winglike outgrowth of the pericarp that assists in wind-borne seed dispersal.

Question 16

Dry Indehiscent fruits: Nuts

Answer 16

Nuts develop from several carpel.
The pericarp is hard and stony, commonly called a nut.

e.g. walnut

Question 17

Fleshy Fruits

Answer 17

Are characterized by the expansion of parenchyma cells in the pericarp during fruit development and their differentiation into photosynthetic or storage tissue.

Thin-walled and highly vacuolated parenchyma cells predominate in the pericarp of fleshy fruits.

They are all indehiscent. Many green fleshy fruits are capable of significant rates of photosynthesis.

The fleshy portion of the fruit attracts frugivores, animals that eat fruit and serve solely in seed dispersal.

Question 18

Fleshy Fruit: BERRY

Answer 18

Berries possess numerous small seeds within each locule.
All the ground tissue (meso and endo) of the ovary wall expands into fleshy or juicy tissue, and the outer layer or skin is usually the exocarp.

e.g. tomato. blueberries

The seed becomes mucilaginous due to slime secreted by the epidermal layers as well as from the placenta - to avoid being damaged by grinding teeth.

Question 19

Fleshy Fruit: Drupes

Answer 19

A drupe is a single-seeded fruit derived from a single carpel.

The drupe is also called a stone fruit because it has a thick and hard endocarp consisting of stone cells, a fleshy mesocarp, and a thin “skin” or exocarp.

Examples include olives, coconuts, peaches, cherries, nectarines, almonds and plums.

Question 20

Fleshy Fruits: POME

Answer 20

A pome is a multiple-seeded fruit derived from an inferior ovary of five carpels.

The bulk of the fruit is not derived from the pericarp. It derived from the fusion of the bases of the perianth segments (petals and sepals), and tissue from the receptacle.

In the pome, the thickened, fleshy part is fused with the ovary wall or core.

Since the fruit contains tissue not derived from the pericarp, it is called an accessory fruit.

Question 21

Fleshy Fruits: PEPO

Answer 21

A fleshy fruit in which the exocarp is tough, hard rind; the inner soft tissues may not be differentiated into two distinct layers.
e.g. pumpkin, squash, cantaloupe

Question 22

Fleshy Fruits: HESPERIDIUM

Answer 22

Is a multiple-seeded fruit derived from a superior ovary of about ten carpels. The exocarp, is a brightly colored rind and leathery.

The white spongy tissue underneath the rind is the mesocarp. This tissue appears white because of numerous air spaces.
E.g. the citrus family

Question 23

Aggregate Fruits

Answer 23

Formed from an apocarpous gynoecium in which each carpel remains distinct -ie they are not fused. Each ovary contains a single seed.

The receptacle enlarges and becomes fleshy. Examples of aggregate fruit include strawberries (achene), raspberry (drupes). Such fruits may be aggregates of dry indehiscent, dry dehiscent, or fleshy fruits.

Question 24

Multiple Fruits

Answer 24

Multiple fruits are derived from an inflorescence.
Individual fruits grow together during fruit maturation.

e.g. pineapple (each fruit is an accessory fruit)