Berry-Like Fruit Tree Identification

The American holly is an evergreen flowering plant with bright red berries.

Although many trees, including some conifers, produce berry-like fruits, there is some scientific nomenclature that describes a true berry. To a botanist a berry is a soft-cored fruit, formed from the flesh of the ovary with one or more seeds enclosed. There is also an outer layer, called a pericarp, which is formed from the ovary wall. Using these definitions, such unlikely items as cucumbers, persimmons, avocados and cantaloupes are scientifically considered to be berries.

Conifer or Flowering Tree

There are a few conifers that produce a berry-like cone. The most notable of these are the yews, a family of shrubby evergreen conifers that produces a soft cone that contains one seed. These soft globular berries (usually red) are actually a cone that is readily consumed by birds and other wildlife. The juniper berry also resembles a cone, but it is often dark blue and not as soft as the yew berry. Birds and wild animals also consume the juniper berries with gusto.

Evergreen Flowering Plants

Berries can also be divided into whether they grow on evergreen or deciduous flowering plants. As with conifers, the subset of evergreen trees with berries is rather small. The American holly is an example of one such tree, as are some trees of the barberry family. Even though the division is small, it is a good idea to separate these two groups early in the I.D. process.

Single Flower, Single Seed

The cherry is an example of a fruit tree that produces a berry-like fleshy fruit with one large seed (commonly called a stone fruit). Scientifically speaking, other much larger fruits such as the peach, plum, apricot, mango, olive and nectarine are also stone fruits. Because of the hard pit that surrounds the seed, the fruit of these trees are not considered to be true berries.

Single Flower, Multiple Seeds

Many fruits form from one flower to produce an edible fruit with soft flesh, a soft outer skin and many seeds. Fruits that fall within this category are the grape, tomato and persimmon. These kinds of berries form from single flowers with multiple ovaries inside the ovary wall.

Tough Hide

Also within the scientific definition of a berry are fleshy fruits with tough outer skins and a fleshy core filled with many seeds. As long as the skin is derived from the ovary wall and flesh from the interior of the ovary, such seed producers as pumpkins, cantaloupes, kiwis and cucumbers fall into this category of a berry.

Not a True Berry

Another type of fruit is that formed by multiple flowers fusing together to form one soft unit. The mulberry tree, native to China, forms fruits in this manner, as do many of our own native ground berries, such as blackberries, strawberries and raspberries, which do not grow on trees. Another flowering tree that forms fruits from multiple flowers are the figs. Technically, these are not berries because they form from aggregate flowers.

Citrus Berries

Grapefruits, oranges, lemons and kumquats are true berries with a tough leathery rind or pericarp and multiple seeds that form within sections of the ovary. Since the sections form from a true ovary wall, the citrus group falls in the berry category.

References

• Waynes Word: Fruit Identification
• Wayne's Word: The Rose Family
• Reference: Definition of Berry