What we should know about fruit
Fruit is a collection of foods exclusively of vegetable origin; it is a non-scientific classification which groups together some typically sugary / sweet foods and excludes others which, although possessing the same biological characteristics (such as tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, etc.), do not have the same taste properties.
Moreover, again in BOTANICA, seed means the organ of propagation of a category of plants known as spermatophytes which in itself constitutes the transformation of an egg after fertilization. In the food field, the most common edible seeds are legumes and cereals.
Curiosity: there are some plant forms capable of producing a seedless fruit: the partenocarpic . This rather rare "fruiting" phenomenon occurs regardless of the fertilization of the plant which, by logic (most of the botanical species), should prematurely abort the sterile flower. Some examples of parthenocarpy are manifest from the banana or fig tree .
It is clear that the entire chapter of a botanical book would not be enough to accurately describe the structure and process of fruit formation, but it is not what we intend to do with this article; rather, we will try to provide all the useful and practical information on the deepening of this apparently simple food but on the contrary so surprisingly heterogeneous.
Fruit structure
It is not easy to summarize in a few lines the structure of all types of fruit, therefore, only the terminologies essential to the general understanding of the subject will be exposed.
The fruit is the result of the fertilization of the pistil / pistils. The pistil evolves as a result of a complex series of growth processes that favor its development; when in the flower, in addition to the pistil, other structures also participate (such as the receptacle, which is originally represented by the enlargement of the peduncle) false fruits are produced (see below).
Very simply:
in the real fruit, the seed (innermost structure) is wrapped in a fleshy PERICARP which further differs in EPICARPO (more commonly called "peel"), MESOCARPO (central part) and ENDOCARPO (the innermost structure that makes contact with the seed).
In the false fruit, the whole structure is further wrapped in a fleshy receptacle.
Classification of fruit / fruits
The first distinction separates true fruits and false fruits. By true fruits we mean all those that satisfy the essential structural characteristics of a fruit, while the false fruits are characterized by an external fleshy receptacle that wraps the real fruit placed inside; to be clear, the apple and the pear (pomi) are false fruits that wrap the real fruit, or the core.
Using classical botanical differentiation (but deliberately ignoring many cataloging details) I think it is useful to divide the fruits into:
- Simple or derived from a single flower
- Aggregatio compounds having more pistils on the same receptacle
- Dough with more pistils and different fruits.
The Simple fruits are all real fruits and are further divided into:
- Dried fruits: poor parenchyma and reduced water content with sometimes hard and woody pericarp; they can be differentiated into dehiscent (legumes, poppy, tobacco etc.) and indehiscent (chestnut, hazel, etc.).
- Fleshy fruits: with parenchyma particularly rich in water; among the fleshy fruits we recognize: the berries (grapes, banana, tomato etc.), the hesperidium (citrus fruits etc.), the drupe (olive, coffee, walnut, almond, coconut, pepper etc.), the peponides (courgette, squash and cucumber), the balaustio (pomegranate), carboxide (cocoa), the dehiscent berry (nutmeg).
- As for the Aggregated or compound fruits , we mention the polidrupa (blackberry, raspberry etc.) and the conocarp (strawberry), while the Intuition include sorosio (pineapple) and siconio (fico).
These are difficult and difficult to understand topics, especially for those who do not have the essential bases for reading biology and botany in particular; however, to present a brief summary of the essential classification of fruits is a fundamental or at least desirable aspect to the composition of an essentially exhaustive specific article. It is clear that if we want to go further into the matter, just to discuss the morphological structure of the fruit, it would be essential to go over all the above categories one by one; but being able to choose, I prefer to illustrate with greater care only some of the fruits listed, or those of greater food consumption . I speak respectively of the drupes, of the esperides, of the berries and of the apples.
Drupe: the drupe is a fleshy fruit wrapped in an epicarp; it has a water-rich mesocarp which in turn surrounds a woody endocarp containing a single seed. NB the seed is protected so as to pass undamaged the gastro-intestinal tract of the animals. Drupes produce the plants of: apricot, cherry, peach, plum, almond, olive, pistachio, mango coffee, walnut and coconut.
Berries: they have a thin epicarp and a fleshy mesocarp under which there is an equally fleshy endocarp in which there are several seeds. Tomatoes, aubergines, grapes, peppers, watermelons, etc. are typical examples of berries.
Hesperide: the experiment is nothing but a variant of the berry; it has a thin epicarp rich in essential oils, a white, spongy and dry mesocarp, and an endocarp divided by segments filled with juice and seeds. Lemons, cedars, oranges, bergamot, etc. are experts.
Pomi: pomes are false fleshy fruits; they too are characterized by an outer skin that delimits a fleshy portion (receptacle) which, however, does NOT surround only the seed but all the real fruit (core). The apple, pear, medlar, etc. are also popular.
