Original video: https://youtu.be/OWeHyduCReU
Delivered on: 27 DECEMBER 2022
All flowers become fruits.
This may be surprising at first, as what we culturally refer to as a fruit is a bit different than the botanical definition.
Many of the "vegetables" and other plant products (e.g. grains, legumes, and nuts) that you get from the store are actually fruits!
The term angiosperm refers to the fruit: angio- means vessel and sperm refers to the seed; fruits are the vessel that houses the seed or seeds. Fruits are a development of the ovary wall and sometimes other flower parts.
As seeds mature, they release the hormone auxin, which stimulates the wall of the ovary to develop into the fruit. In fact, commercial fruit growers may stimulate fruit development in unpollinated flowers by applying synthetic auxin to the flower
Pericarp
After ripening, the ovarian wall changes into a pericarp. This pericarp may be thick and fleshy or thick and hard or thin and soft. The pericarp has 3 layers. They are
Outermost layer: Epicarp
Middle layer: Mesocarp
Innermost layer: Endocarp
Now we move on to know more about the various types of fruits.
True Fruit
A true fruit is one that develops only from the ovary. Examples are Mango, Coconut, Zizyphus, etc.
False Fruit or Pseudocarp
In some fruits, it is not the ovary that forms the fruit. In fact, some other parts of the flower, like the thalamus, inflorescence, calyx are modified to become a part of the fruit. These types of fruit are called false fruits. Examples are Apple, Strawberry, etc.
Types of Fruits
Simple
Aggregate
Composite
Simple fruit
These fruits develop from the monocarpellary ovary or multicarpellary syncarpous ovary. Only one fruit is formed by the gynoecium. Simple fruits are of two types
Fleshy Fruits: In fleshy fruits, the fruit wall is differentiated into epicarp, mesocarp, and endocarp. These fruits develop from superior or inferior syncarpous gynoecium.
Dry Fruits: The pericarp of simple dry fruits is usually quite dry and hard. It is not differentiated into the three layers of epicarp, mesocarp, and endocarp. In some dry fruits, this pericarp is broken down and the seeds are scattered or dispersed. These fruits are dehiscent fruits.
In some fruits, the pericarp is further arranged into one or more seeded segments. Such fruits are schizocarpic fruits. In some fruits, the pericarp is not observed to be dehisced even after maturing/ripening. Such fruits are indehiscent Fruits.
Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 - Creative Commons
Comments