Berry
This article is about the fruit. For other meanings, see Berry (disambiguation). |
Several types of "berries" from the market, but of those shown, only blueberries are true berries. |
In
botany, the
berry is the most common type of simple fleshy
fruit; a fruit in which the entire
ovary wall ripens into an edible
pericarp. The flowers of these plants have a
superior ovary and they have one or more
carpels within a thin covering and very fleshy interiors. The
seeds are embedded in the common flesh of the ovary.
In this sense, the
tomato is a berry and the
strawberry is not; rather, every strawberry on a strawberry plant makes 1 berry as a whole. Other examples of botanical berries include the
grape,
avocado,
persimmon,
eggplant,
guava,
uchuva (ground cherry) and
chile pepper. The fruit of
citrus, such as the
orange and
lemon, is a modified berry called a
hesperidium. The fruit of
cucumbers and their relatives are modified berries called "
pepoes." A plant that bears berries is referred to as
bacciferous.
In common parlance and
cuisine, the term "berry" refers generically to any small, sweet fruit; in this sense, the strawberry is a berry and the tomato is not. Other berries in this, but not the botanical, sense include
aggregate fruits such as the
blackberry, the
raspberry, and the
boysenberry.
These fruits tend to be small, sweet, juicy, and of a bright color contrasting with their background to make them more attractive to animals that
disperse them and thus scatter widely the seeds of the plant.
| Botanical parlance | | True berry | Pepo | Hesperidium | Not a berry |
|---|
| Common parlance | Berry | Currant, Cranberry, Blueberry, Gooseberry | | Strawberry, Blackberry, Raspberry, Boysenberry |
|---|
| Not a berry | Grape, Tomato, Persimmon, Eggplant, Guava, Chili pepper | Banana, Cucumber, Avocado, Squash, Pumpkin, Melon, Cantaloupe, Watermelon | Orange, Lemon, Grapefruit | Apple, Peach, Green bean, Sunflower seed |
|---|
*
List of fruits*
False berry*
The National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens - Description of berries
*
Encarta.msn.com - Differentiation between true berries, pepos, and hepseridiums
