BOT 102: Introductory Botany
Taiye R. Fasola Ph.D
Professor of Botany
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Types or kinds of fruit
Dried fruit Coat becomes dry
Drupe Hard inner wall
Berry Juicy inner wall
Hesperidium Leathery rind
Pome Accessory fleshy fruit
Aggregate fruit Formed from many pistils
Multiple fruit Formed from many flowers
Simple fruit Formed from 1 pistil
Dehiscent fruit Opens to shed seeds
Indehiscent fruit Does not open
Fleshy fruit Wall becomes soft
Pepo Hard rind
FRUITS
Fruits may be defined as the product of a ripened ovary, pistil/gynoecium of a flower.
It is the seed containing organ of a plant.
The ovules in the ovary develop into seeds.
Fruits generally provide very reliable xters in the delimation of general and of
families. Hence they are useful in the classification and identification.
Fruits are classified on the basis of their descriptive features rather than on their
descriptive features rather than on their comparative morphology and anatomy.
A fruit is a product of the ovary
A fruit developed solely from the ovary and its contents is known as a true
A fruit developed from the ovary and its contents plus additional parts of the
flower such as the receptacle, petals, and sepals is known as an accessory
fruit (e.g. pineapple)
The following is a common classification of fruit types:
Simple Fruits - When only one fruit develops from the single ovary of a
flower which without accessory part, it is said to be a simple fruit.
Aggregate Fruit - A fruit formed by the development of a number of pistils
from the same flower. The individual units may be berries or other specific
Multiple Fruit - A fruit formed by the development of a number of pistils often
with accessory parts, the pistils being from a number of flowers. (mulberry).
The aggregate or group of fruits from a single flower is known as an etaerio. They may be
eiaerio of achenes, as in Naravelia (B. Chagalbati), etaerio of berries, as in Artabotrys (B.
Kantali champa, Fig. 111).
Due to the stimulus of fertilisation often the whole
of inflorescence develops into a single fruit. These
types of fruits are multiple.
(a)Sorosis is a multiple fruit from an inflorescence spadix with fleshy axis, e.g. pine-apple (Fig. 112), jack
fruit.
(b) Syconus develops from the special inflorescence, hypanthodium with fleshy hollow receptacle, e.g. fig.
•Simple Fruits
develops from a single ovary containing one or more carpels
Fruits formed from 1 pistil.
They may be either true or accessory fruits
a simple fruit is either
1. fleshy fruits
2. dry fruits
1. Fleshy Fruits
A fruit in which the wall becomes soft and fleshy as it matures.
Types of Fleshy Fruits
A. Drupe
B. Berry
C. Pome
A one-seeded simple fruit developed from a superior ovary
the innermost portion of the wall (endocarp) becomes hard
and stony,
the outermost part (exocarp) becomes a relatively thin skin,
the middle portion between the skin and the stone (mesocarp)
becomes either fleshy or fibrous. (cherry)
A. Drupe
If a fruit is fleshy and it has a hard stony pit containing a seed it is
classified as a drupe .
Drupes are covered by a thin skin derived from the outer tissue layer of
the ovary .
The soft fleshy tissue below the skin is derived from the middle layer of the
ovary and the hard stony pit is derived from the inner tissue layer of the
ovary.
Cracking the pit open reveals a single seed formed from an ovule
contained within the ovary of the flower.
Coconuts have fibrous walls instead of the fleshy walls found in most drupes
•B. The Berry
A simple fruit in which the ovary wall or at least its inner
portions become enlarged and usually juicy. (grape, banana,
gooseberry).Two special types of berry-like fruits may be
singled out for special consideration.
Two special types of berries:
b.1. hesperidium
b.2. pepo
•Common berries
•Hesperidium
This is a special type of berry in which a leathery rind forms
the interior of the fruit divided by septa, indicating the number
of carpels.
•Pepo
Berry with a relatively hard rind (watermelon, gourds,
squash).
•C. Pome
a pome (after the French name for an apple : pomme )
An accessory fleshy fruit formed by a group of carpels more or less firmly
united with each other and surrounded by and united to the floral tube or
receptacle. (apple, pear, mountain ash).
consists of tissue derived from the ovary and from the perianth.
For this reason it is often called an accessory fruit
A pome is an accessory fruit composed of five or more carpels in which
the exocarp forms an inconspicuous layer.
•2. Dry Fruits
Fruits in which the coat becomes dry at maturity.
T wo Major types of Dry Fruits :
A. Dehiscent Fruits - Dry fruits which at maturity open by
definite natural beans to shed the contained seeds.
B. Indehiscent fruits - Dry fruits which do not open when
mature to shed their seeds. Many of this group are one seeded
fruits.
•A. Dehiscent
Types of Dehiscent Fruits
i. Legume - A dry dehiscent fruit developed from 1 carpel and
at maturity splitting along both the dorsal and ventral sutures.
(beans,peas).
ii. Follicle - A dry dehiscent fruit developed from 1 carpel and
at maturity splitting along only one suture. (larkspur,
columbine)
iii. Capsule - A dry dehiscent fruit developed from several
carpels.
•i. Legume
The legume splits along two lines of dehiscence following
maturation and drying.
The legume type fruit is derived from a simple ovary (one
carpel) with two rows of ovules.
This type of fruit structure is characteristic of peas, beans and
peanuts.
The peanut is one of the few legumes that does not split open
when ripe. This is probably because the fruit of the peanut
develops in the soil rather than in the air.
•ii. Follicle
A dry dehiscent fruit developed from 1 carpel and at
maturity splitting along only one suture. (larkspur, columbine)
Columbine and milkweed plants produce fruit that is known as
a follicle.
Fruit of the Follicle type develop from a single ripened ovary
and split once to release their seeds.
The split is always lengthwise, along one edge of the carpel.
Legumes you remember split along two edges of the carpel.
•ii. Capsule
A dry dehiscent fruit developed from several carpels.
Unlike the legume, the capsule is composed of more than one
carpel.
Fruits like the lily split length-wise into sections corresponding
to the number of carpels.
•Types of capsules
A. Loculicidal - one which splits along the outer median line. (lilies).
Viola
•Yucca fruit.
•Datura
B. Poricidal capsule
one which opens with round holes.
(poppies)
Papaver
C. Denticidal capsule
- In a denticidal capsule, small teeth at the top of the fruit split open to release the
seeds, as in this corn cockle ( Agrostemma githago ).
D. Septicidal capsule
- one which splits along the septa and opens at top
Dutchman's pipe ( Aristolochia ),
E. Silique - a special long slender capsule of 2 carpels.
F. Silicle - a special short broad capsule of 2 carpels.
•
G. Pyxis = a capsule which has circumscissle dehiscence. (plantain)
•Indehiscent fruits
Dry fruits which do not open when mature to shed their seeds.
Many of this group are one seeded fruits.
Types of Indehiscent Fruits:
Achene d. grain
Nut e. Schizocarp
Samara
•A. Achene
A one-seeded, dry, indehiscent fruit;
the one seed is attached to the fruit wall at a single point.
(buttercups, dandelion, sunflower).
one seed which is free of the pericarp (fruit wall)
•Hepatica
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•
•Anemone
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•B. Nut
A dry, indehiscent, one seeded fruit similar to an achene but with the wall
greatly thickened and hardened.
(beech, chestnut, oak, hazel; walnut and hickory - note: because of
extrafloral bracts, or "husk", the latter two fruits are sometimes
called "drupes").
•bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa).
•
•
•C. Samara
A one- or two-seeded dry, indehiscent fruit in which part of the fruit wall
grows out into a wing. (elm, maple, ash).
an achene with a wing for wind dispersal
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•D. Grain or Caryopsis
one seed which has the seed coat fused to the pericarp
•
E. Schizocarp = from a compound pistil, splits into mericarps (pieces)
which enclose one or more seeds and resemble fruits themselves.
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