Berry (botany)
In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit without a stone (pit) produced from a single flower containing one ovary.
The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire outer layer of the ovary wall ripens into a potentially edible "pericarp".
Berries are usually juicy, round, brightly coloured, sweet or sour, and do not have a stone or pit, although many small seeds may be present.
[1] In botanical language, a berry is a simple fruit having seeds and fleshy pulp (the pericarp) produced from the ovary of a single flower.
This distinguishes, for example, a Vaccinium or Solanum berry from an Adansonia (baobab) amphisarca, which has a dry, more rigid and self-supporting skin.
[11] The fruit of citrus, such as the orange, kumquat and lemon, is a berry with a thick rind and a very juicy interior divided into segments by septa, that is given the special name "hesperidium".
[11] A specialized term, pepo, is also used for fruits of the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae, which are modified to have a hard outer rind, but are not internally divided by septa.
Drupes are fleshy fruits produced from a (usually) single-seeded ovary with a hard woody layer (called the endocarp) surrounding the seed.
Familiar examples include the stonefruits of the genus Prunus (peaches, plums and cherries), olives, coconut, dates, bayberry and Persea species.
[4] The term "drupaceous" is used to describe fruits that have the general structure and texture of a drupe,[13] without necessarily meeting the full definition.
Other drupe-like fruits with a single seed that lack the stony endocarp include sea-buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides, Elaeagnaceae), which is an achene, surrounded by a swollen hypanthium that provides the fleshy layer.
[9] The pome fruits produced by plants in subtribe Pyrinae of family Rosaceae, such as apples and pears, have a structure (the core) in which tough tissue separates the seeds from the outer softer pericarp.
[17] Examples of aggregate fruits commonly called "berries" include members of the genus Rubus, such as blackberry and raspberry.
The seed cones of species in the families Podocarpaceae and Taxaceae have a bright colour when fully developed, increasing the resemblance to true berries.
[26] A bacca was defined as "pericarpium farctum evalve, semina ceteroquin nuda continens", meaning "unvalved solid pericarp, containing otherwise naked seeds".
[26] Joseph Gaertner published a two-volume work, De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum (on the fruits and seeds of plants) between 1788 and 1792.
[26] A pepo was distinguished by being a fleshy berry with the seeds distant from the axis, and so nearer the fruit wall[29] (i.e. by having "parietal placentation" in modern terminology).
The increasing importance of seed dispersal by fruit-eating vertebrates, both mammals and birds, may have driven the evolution of fleshy fruits.
Such habitats were increasingly common in the Paleogene and the associated change in fruit type may have led to the evolution of fruit-eating in mammals and birds.
One well-studied family is the Solanaceae, because of the commercial importance of fruit such as tomatoes, bell peppers, and eggplants or aubergines.
Consequently, it is not permitted to claim that foods containing plant pigments have antioxidant health value on product labels in the United States or Europe.
[39] Pepos, characterized by a hard outer rind, have also been used as containers by removing the inner flesh and seeds and then drying the remaining exocarp.
[47][48] The history of cultivated citrus fruit remains unclear, although some recent research suggests a possible origin in Papuasia rather than continental southeast Asia.
[49] According to FAOSTAT data, in 2013 four of the five top fruit crops in terms of world production by weight were botanical berries.
