Fruits & Vegetables

 

I.             What is the difference between a fruit and a vegetable?

                A.            Definition of a fruit:  a ripened ovary of a flower

                B.            Definition of a vegetable:  edible portion of a plant which does not include the ovary;  of, or pertaining to the vegetative portion of the plant

                C.            Examples of fruits and vegetables

                                1.             Fruits:  apple, cherry, grape, string beans, eggplant, cucumbers, corn, and wheat

                                2.             Vegetables:  Celery, broccoli, cabbage, onion

II.            Fruit morphology (some terms also in seed morphology)

                A.            Sepal - outer modified whorl of leaves

                B.            Calyx - collective term for sepals

                C.            Fruit coat (wall) - outer portion of DRY "fruit"

                D.            Pericarp - fruit wall of FLESHY "fruit"

                                1.             Ectocarp - outermost layer

                                2.             Mesocarp - middle layer

                                2.             Endocarp - innermost layer

                E.            Achene - a simple, small, dry, one-seeded fruit with a thin pericarp - in strawberry

                F.            Locule - cavity where ovules are found (also used to define location of microspores in the anther)

                G.            Seed - matured ovule (contains egg and other stuff)

                H.            Placenta - tissue within the ovary to which the ovules are attached

                I.             Embryo - a young sporophytic plant

                J.             Ovule - immature seed consisting of the female gametophyte, nucellus (tissue around the gametophyte), and integuments

                K.            Ovary - female organ that produces the egg (it contains the ovules)

III.          Kinds of fruits

                A.            Simple fruits - derived from a single ovary

                                1.             Fleshy fruits - all or most of the pericarp is soft and fleshy at maturity (grape, peach, olive, cherry)

                                2.             Dry fruits - pericarp becomes dry and often hard at maturity (pea, bean, milkweed, lily, corn, wheat, oats)

                B.            Compound fruits - formed from numerous carpels of one flower

                                1.             Aggregate fruits - separate carpels of one flower stay together; a cluster of several ripened ovaries produced by ONE flower (strawberry, raspberry)

                                2.             Multiple fruits - all the fruits from a flower stay together; a cluster of several ripened ovaries produced by SEVERAL flowers (mulberry, pineapple)

                                3.             Accessory fruits - one or more ripened ovaries with tissues from some other floral part; tissue in which the "true fruit" is embedded (stem and calyx [sepals] of strawberries, apples, and pears)