Simple fruit
Simple fruits are the result of the ripening-to-fruit of a simple or compound ovary in a single flower with a single pistil. In contrast, a single flower with numerous pistils typically produces an aggregate fruit; and the merging of several flowers, or a 'multiple' of flowers, results in a 'multiple' fruit. A simple fruit is further classified as either dry or fleshy.
Types of simple fruits
Dry simple fruits
- Achene – most commonly seen in aggregate fruits.
- Capsule –.
- Caryopsis –.
- Cypsela – an achene-like fruit derived from the individual florets in a capitulum:.
- Fibrous drupe –.
- Follicle – follicles are formed from a single carpel, and opens by one suture: ; also commonly seen in aggregate fruits:.
- Legume –.
- Loment – a type of indehiscent legume:.
- Nut –.
- Samara –.
- Schizocarp –.
- Silique –.
- Silicle –.
- Utricle –.
Fleshy simple fruits
- Berry – the berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit. The entire outer layer of the ovary wall ripens into a potentially edible "pericarp",.
- Stone fruit or drupe – the definitive characteristic of a drupe is the hard, "lignified" stone. It is derived from the ovary wall of the flower: apricot, cherry, olive, peach, plum, mango.
- Pome – the pome fruits: apples, pears, rosehips, saskatoon berry, etc., are a syncarpous fleshy fruit, a simple fruit, developing from a half-inferior ovary. Pomes are of the family Rosaceae