Fruit Types:

“Fleshy Pericarp”
Simple, Aggregate, or Multiple Fruits

Simple Fruits
Develop from an single ovary

Berry
• Entire pericarp is soft and fleshy
– Examples: grape, elderberry, tomato

Drupe
• Exocarp and Mesocarp is fleshy
– Endocarp is hard
• Examples: peach, plum, cherry, mango

Pome
• Hypanthium forms most of fleshy
tissue
– Examples: apple, pear

Pepo
• A berry with a hard rind for an exocarp
– Examples - Cucumber, pumpkin

Hesperidium
• A berry with a hard, leathery rind for
an exocarp
• “Citrus fruits”
– Lemon, lime, orange

AGGREGATE FRUITS
• Multiple ovaries on the SAME flower
– Strawberry, rose

MULTIPLE FRUITS
• Formed from more than one pistil of
MANY flowers
– Examples, pineapple, osage orange

“DRY” Pericarp
• Dehiscent- splitting when dry

Dehiscent-Legume
• Pod dehiscing along 2 sides
– Example - pea

Dehiscent-Follicle
• Pod dehiscing along 1 side
– Example - milkweed

Dehiscent- Capsule
• Fruit formed from more than one pistil
and dehiscing in many ways
– Example - impatiens, jewelweed

“Dry” Pericarp
• Indehiscent- not splitting when dry

Indehiscent - Achene
• Seed tightly enclosed by a dry pericarp
– Example - sunflower

Indehiscent - Nut
• Developed from one pistil (more than
one are present)
– Example - oaks

Indehiscent - Samara
• A winged achene
– Example - maple, ash, elm

Indehiscent - Schizocarp
• Achene which splits into two parts
– Example - wild carrot

Indehiscent- Capsule
• Has “chambers” that dehise in many
ways
– Example - lily, yucca, poppy

Indehiscent- Silique
• Has 2 narrow pieces separated by a
partition
– Example -mustard, FAST PLANTS