The Fruit

The fruit is the structure that develops from a flower's ovary after fertilisation has taken place, and it typically encloses and protects the seeds that are maturing inside it as the ovules develop into seeds. Because a fruit develops directly from the ovary, its own structure closely mirrors the structure of the ovary that produced it -- the number of chambers in the fruit, for instance, generally reflects the number of carpels and the placentation type of the parent flower, which is why fruit structure and floral structure are always studied together.

In some fruits, only the ovary develops into the fruit, and such a fruit is called a true fruit. In others, additional floral parts besides the ovary -- most often the thalamus (receptacle) -- also take part in fruit formation, and such a fruit is called a false fruit; the apple is a well-known example, where the fleshy edible part develops mainly from the thalamus rather than from the ovary itself.

Fruits are broadly divided by texture and behaviour into fleshy and dry types. Fleshy fruits remain soft and often juicy at maturity, and typically do not split open to release their seeds; instead, the seeds are usually released when an animal eats the fruit. A berry, such as tomato or brinjal, is a common fleshy fruit type, with a thin outer skin (epicarp), a fleshy middle and inner region, and typically numerous small seeds embedded directly within the flesh. …