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Fruit

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Food and agriculture

   Fruit stall in Barcelona, Spain.
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   Fruit stall in Barcelona, Spain.

   The term fruit has different meanings depending on context. In botany,
   a fruit is the ripened ovary—together with seeds—of a flowering plant.
   In many species, the fruit incorporates the ripened ovary and
   surrounding tissues. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants
   disseminate seeds. In cuisine, when discussing fruit as food, the term
   usually refers to just those plant fruits that are sweet and fleshy,
   examples of which include plum, apple and orange. However, a great many
   common vegetables, as well as nuts and grains, are the fruit of the
   plant species they come from.

   No one terminology really fits the enormous variety that is found among
   plant fruits. Botanical terminology for fruits is inexact and will
   remain so. The term false fruit (pseudocarp, accessory fruit) is
   sometimes applied to a fruit like the fig (a multiple-accessory fruit;
   see below) or to a plant structure that resembles a fruit but is not
   derived from a flower or flowers. Some gymnosperms, such as yew, have
   fleshy arils that resemble fruits and some junipers have berry-like,
   fleshy cones. The term "fruit" has also been inaccurately applied to
   the seed-containing female cones of many conifers.

   With most fruits pollination is a vital part of fruit culture, and the
   lack of knowledge of pollinators and pollenizers can contribute to poor
   crops or poor quality crops. In a few species, the fruit may develop in
   the absence of pollination/fertilization, a process known as
   parthenocarpy. Such fruits are seedless. A plant that does not produce
   fruit is known as acarpous, meaning "without fruit".

Botanic fruit and culinary fruit

   Venn diagram representing the relationship between botanical and
   culinary fruit and vegetables. Many culinary vegetables are botanical
   fruit.
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   Venn diagram representing the relationship between botanical and
   culinary fruit and vegetables. Many culinary vegetables are botanical
   fruit.
   An arrangement of fruits commonly thought of as vegetables, including
   tomatoes and various squash.
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   An arrangement of fruits commonly thought of as vegetables, including
   tomatoes and various squash.

   Many foods are botanically fruit but are treated as vegetables in
   cooking. These include cucurbits (e.g., squash, pumpkin, and cucumber),
   tomato, aubergine (eggplant), and sweet pepper, spices, such as
   allspice and chillies. Occasionally, though rarely, a culinary "fruit"
   will not be a true fruit in the botanical sense. For example, rhubarb
   may be considered a fruit, though only the astringent petiole is
   edible. In the commercial world, European Union rules define carrot as
   a fruit for the purposes of measuring the proportion of "fruit"
   contained in carrot jam. In the culinary sense, a fruit is usually any
   sweet tasting plant product associated with seed(s), a vegetable is any
   savoury or less sweet plant product, and a nut any hard, oily, and
   shelled plant product.

   Although a nut is a type of fruit, it is also a popular term for edible
   seeds, such as peanut (which is actually a legume), pistachio and
   walnut. Technically, a cereal grain is a fruit termed a caryopsis.
   However, the fruit wall is very thin and fused to the seed coat so
   almost all of the edible grain is actually a seed. Therefore, cereal
   grains, such as corn, wheat and rice are better considered edible
   seeds, although some references list them as fruits. Edible gymnosperms
   seeds are often misleadingly given fruit names, e.g. pine nuts, ginkgo
   nuts, and juniper berries.

Fruit development

   A fruit is a ripened ovary. After the ovule in an ovary is fertilized
   in a process known as pollination, the ovary begins to ripen. The ovule
   develops into a seed and the ovary wall pericarp may become fleshy (as
   in berries or drupes), or form a hard outer covering (as in nuts). In
   some cases, the sepals, petals and/or stamens and style of the flower
   fall off. Fruit development continues until the seeds have matured.
   With some multiseeded fruits the extent to which the flesh develops is
   proportional to the number of fertilized ovules.

   The wall of the fruit, developed from the ovary wall of the flower, is
   called the pericarp. The pericarp is often differentiated into two or
   three distinct layers called the exocarp (outer layer - also called
   epicarp), mesocarp (middle layer), and endocarp (inner layer). In some
   fruits, especially simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary, other
   parts of the flower (such as the floral tube, including the petals,
   sepals, and stamens), fuse with the ovary and ripen with it. The plant
   hormone Ethylene causes ripening. When such other floral parts are a
   significant part of the fruit, it is called an accessory fruit. Since
   other parts of the flower may contribute to the structure of the fruit,
   it is important to study flower structure to understand how a
   particular fruit forms.

   Fruits are so varied in form and development, that it is difficult to
   devise a classification scheme that includes all known fruits. It will
   also be seen that many common terms for seeds and fruit are incorrectly
   applied, a fact that complicates understanding of the terminology.
   Seeds are ripened ovules; fruits are the ripened ovaries or carpels
   that contain the seeds. To these two basic definitions can be added the
   clarification that in botanical terminology, a nut is a type of fruit
   and not another term for seed.

   There are three basic types of fruits:
    1. Simple fruit
    2. Aggregate fruit
    3. Multiple fruit

Simple fruit

   Simple fruits can be either dry or fleshy and result from the ripening
   of a simple or compound ovary with only one pistil. Dry fruits may be
   either dehiscent (opening to discharge seeds), or indehiscent (not
   opening to discharge seeds). Types of dry, simple fruits (with
   examples) are:
     * achene - ( buttercup)
     * capsule - ( Brazil nut)
     * caryopsis - (wheat)
     * fibrous drupe - (coconut, walnut)
     * follicle - ( milkweed)
     * legume - (pea, bean, peanut)
     * loment
     * nut - ( hazelnut, beech, oak acorn)
     * samara - ( elm, ash, maple key)
     * schizocarp - (carrot)
     * silique - (radish)
     * silicle - ( shepherd's purse)
     * utricle - (beet)

   Fruits in which part or all of the pericarp (fruit wall) is fleshy at
   maturity are simple fleshy fruits. Types of fleshy, simple fruits (with
   examples) are:
     * berry - ( tomato, avocado)
     * Stone fruit drupe (plum, cherry, peach, olive)
     * false berry - accessory fruits (banana, cranberry)
     * pome - accessory fruits (apple, pear, rosehip)

Aggregate fruit

   Dewberry flowers. Note the multiple pistils, each of which will produce
   a druplet. Each flower will become a blackberry-like aggregate fruit.
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   Dewberry flowers. Note the multiple pistils, each of which will produce
   a druplet. Each flower will become a blackberry-like aggregate fruit.

   An aggregate fruit, or etaerio, develops from a flower with numerous
   simple pistils. An example is the raspberry, whose simple fruits are
   termed drupelets because each is like a small drupe attached to the
   receptacle. In some bramble fruits (such as blackberry) the receptacle
   is elongate and part of the ripe fruit, making the blackberry an
   aggregate-accessory fruit. The strawberry is also an
   aggregate-accessory fruit, only one in which the seeds are contained in
   achenes. In all these examples, the fruit develops from a single flower
   with numerous pistils.

Multiple fruit

   A multiple fruit is one formed from a cluster of flowers (called an
   inflorescence). Each flower produces a fruit, but these mature into a
   single mass. Examples are the pineapple, edible fig, mulberry,
   osage-orange, and breadfruit.
   In some plants, such as this noni, flowers are produced regularly along
   the stem and it is possible to see together examples of flowering,
   fruit development, and fruit ripening
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   In some plants, such as this noni, flowers are produced regularly along
   the stem and it is possible to see together examples of flowering,
   fruit development, and fruit ripening

   In the photograph on the right, stages of flowering and fruit
   development in the noni or Indian mulberry (Morinda citrifolia) can be
   observed on a single branch. First an inflorescence of white flowers
   called a head is produced. After fertilization, each flower develops
   into a drupe, and as the drupes expand, they become connate (merge)
   into a multiple fleshy fruit called a syncarpet.

   There are also many dry multiple fruits, e.g.
     * Tuliptree, multiple of samaras.
     * Sweet gum, multiple of capsules.
     * Sycamore and teasel, multiple of achenes.
     * Magnolia, multiple of follicles.

Seedless fruits

   Seedlessness is an important feature of some fruits of commerce.
   Commercial cultivars of bananas and pineapples are examples of seedless
   fruits. Some cultivars of citrus fruits (especially navel oranges and
   mandarin oranges), table grapes, grapefruit, and watermelons are valued
   for their seedlessness. In some species, seedlessness is the result of
   parthenocarpy, where fruits set without fertilization. Parthenocarpic
   fruit set may or may not require pollination. Most seedless citrus
   fruits require a pollination stimulus; bananas and pineapples do not.
   Seedlessness in table grapes results from the abortion of the embryonic
   plant that is produced by fertilization, a phenomenon known as
   stenospermocarpy which requires normal pollination and fertilization.

Seed dissemination

   Variations in fruit structures largely depend on the mode of dispersal
   of the seeds they contain. This dispersal can be achieved by animals,
   wind, water, or explosive dehiscence.

   Some fruits have coats covered with spikes or hooked burrs, either to
   prevent themselves from being eaten by animals or to stick to the
   hairs, feathers or legs of animals, using them as dispersal agents.
   Examples include cocklebur and unicorn plant.

   The sweet flesh of many fruits is "deliberately" appealing to animals,
   so that the seeds held within are eaten and "unwittingly" carried away
   and deposited at a distance from the parent. Likewise, the nutritious,
   oily kernels of nuts are appealing to rodents (such as squirrels) who
   hoard them in the soil in order to avoid starving during the winter,
   thus giving those seeds that remain uneaten the chance to germinate and
   grow into a new plant away from their parent.

   Other fruits are elongated and flattened out naturally and so become
   thin, like wings or helicopter blades, e.g. maple, tuliptree and elm.
   This is an evolutionary mechanism to increase dispersal distance away
   from the parent via wind. Other wind-dispersed fruit have tiny
   parachutes, e.g. dandelion and salsify.

   Coconut fruits can float thousands of miles in the ocean to spread
   seeds. Some other fruits that can disperse via water are nipa palm and
   screw pine.

   Some fruits fling seeds substantial distances (up to 100 m in sandbox
   tree) via explosive dehiscence or other mechanisms, e.g. impatiens and
   squirting cucumber.

Uses

   Nectarines are one of many fruits that can be easily stewed.
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   Nectarines are one of many fruits that can be easily stewed.

   Many hundreds of fruits, including fleshy fruits like apple, peach,
   pear, kiwifruit, watermelon and mango are commercially valuable as
   human food, eaten both fresh and as jams, marmalade and other
   preserves. Fruits are also found commonly in such manufactured foods as
   cookies, muffins, yoghurt, ice cream, cakes, and many more. Many fruits
   are used to make beverages, such as fruit juices (orange juice, apple
   juice, grape juice, etc) or alcoholic beverages, such as wine or
   brandy.

   Many vegetables are botanical fruits, including tomato, bell pepper,
   eggplant, okra, squash, pumpkin, green bean, cucumber and zucchini.
   Olive fruit is pressed for olive oil. Apples are often used to make
   vinegar. The spices vanilla, paprika, allspice and black pepper are
   made from fruits.

Nonfood uses

   Because fruits have been such a major part of the human diet, different
   cultures have developed many different uses for various fruits that
   they do not depend on as being edible. Many dry fruits are used as
   decorations or in dried flower arrangements, such as unicorn plant,
   lotus, wheat, annual honesty and milkweed. Ornamental trees and shrubs
   are often cultivated for their colorful fruits, including holly,
   pyracantha, viburnum, skimmia, beautyberry and cotoneaster.

   Fruits of opium poppy are the source of the drugs opium and morphine.
   Osage orange fruits are used to repel cockroaches. Bayberry fruits
   provide a wax often used to make candles. Many fruits provide natural
   dyes, e.g. walnut, sumac, cherry and mulberry. Dried gourds are used as
   decorations, water jugs, bird houses, musical instruments, cups and
   dishes. Pumpkins are carved into Jack-o'-lanterns for Halloween. The
   spiny fruit of burdock or cocklebur were the inspiration for the
   invention of Velcro.

   Coir is a fibre from the fruit of coconut that is used for doormats,
   brushes, mattresses, floortiles, sacking, insulation and as a growing
   medium for container plants. The shell of the coconut fruit is used to
   make souvenir heads, cups, bowls, musical instruments and bird houses.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
