What Is the Name of the Central Part of a Fruit Containing the Seeds?
We often think of fruit as a deliciously sweet food. What we might not think about as we bite into a banana or apple is that it is actually a flower's enlarged and ripened ovary. Many fruits are not sweet, or even edible, but almost all of them have a similar structure. Does this Spark an idea?
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Fruit structure
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fleshy pericarp, locule and immature seeds Most fruits consist of the outer layer, the pericarp, the seed and a space around the seed called the locule.
Types of fruits
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Fleshy fruits like apples have juicy pericarps, whereas dry fruits like acorns are characterized by a hard outer shell covering the seeds. Fleshy fruits are further grouped into categories such as berry, drupe or pome. Dry fruits include legumes, capsules and nuts.
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The seeds
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Seeds form after a flower as been pollinated. Seeds are mature ovules, and are contained within the locule. Seeds are comprised of the endosperm, the seed coat and the cotyledon.
Seed disperal
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The seeds of fleshy fruits are usually dispersed by animals, who eat the flesh and the seeds and excrete the seeds. The seeds of dry fruits are often dispersed by wind, or might attach themselves to the fur of passing animals.Some seeds are dispersed by water.
Fun facts
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Some foods we consider vegetables are actually fruits. Tomatoes and peppers are considered berries, cucumbers are categorized as pepos, and beans are categorized as legumes.
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References
- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of darwin Bell Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of viZZZual.com Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of jacki
