Lecture 5: Fruits & Vegetables Flashcards
What does it mean to say “plants are autotrophs”?
- Self-nourished
- Fix carbon
- Make their own energy through photosynthesis
What does it mean to say “animals and fungi are heterotrophs”?
- “Other-nourished”
- Need to get eat carbon b/c they can’t fix it themselves like autotrophs can
How do plants carry out photosynthesis?
-Plants have green pigments called chlorophyll in their chloroplasts
-Chlorophyll captures energy from sunlight and converts it into glucose and oxygen
(CO2 + H2O + light –> glucose + O2)
Glucose cycle
Basically, after photosynthesis has occurred in plants, we consume their fruit (contains glucose) while expelling energy (ATP) and carbon dioxide
Cultivation
Planting, tending, improving, harvesting of crops/plants for human consumption and pleasure
- collecting seeds
- preparing the ground
- watering
- pruning
What are the dictionary, botanical, and culinary definitions of fruit?
- Dictionary = edible product of plant or tree, consisting of seed and its envelope (juicy, pulpy)
- Botanical = portions of a plant that house seeds (ovaries)
- Culinary = generally eaten alone or as a dessert
Pericarp
- Outer wrapping around seed
- Composed of endocarp, mesocarp, exocarp
- Can characterize fruits based on their pericarp (thick or thin components)
Fleshy fruits
All or most of the pericarp (ovary wall) is soft or fleshy at maturity
-berries, hesperidium, pepo, drupes, pomes
Dry fruits
Pericarp splits open along definite seams
-legumes, nuts
Berries
- Entire pericarp is fleshy
- May be one or many seeds
- Tomato, grape, blueberry, avocado
Hesperidium
- Berries with a leathery rind and parchment-like partitions between sections (endocarp)
- Citrus (orange, lemons, limes)
Pepo
- Berry with a hard, thick rind (exocarp) and fleshy mesocarp
- Pumpkin, cucumber, squash
Drupes
- Thin exocarp that’s flexible or dry and almost leathery
- Fleshy mesocarp with hard inner layer surrounding the seed
- Has one seed
- Endocarp = stone
- Apricot, cherries, peaches, mango, pistachios
Coconut as an example of a dry drupe
- Waterproof exocarp
- Thick, buoyant, fibrous husk (mesocarp)
- Hard, woody endocarp that surrounds seed
- Seed embryo is embedded in the coconut meat (endosperm)
- Coconut milk = liquid endosperm
Nuts
- A dry fruit with one large seed and a very hard pericarp
- Drupes in which we eat the seed inside the pit instead of the fruit
- Walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts