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Berry (botany)

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**Botanical Fruit Types:**

– Berries:
– Fleshy fruit without a stone, from a single flower with one ovary
– Examples: grapes, currants, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, persimmons, bananas
– Entire outer layer of ovary wall ripens into edible pericarp
– Formed from one or more carpels from the same flower
– Some exceptions like Capsicum species with air around seeds

– Drupes:
– Fleshy fruits with a hard woody layer around the seed
– Examples: peaches, plums, cherries, olives, coconut, dates
– Some definitions require an internally differentiated endocarp
– Sea-buckthorn is a drupe-like fruit with a single seed lacking stony endocarp

– Pomes:
– Fruits like apples and pears with tough tissue separating seeds from pericarp
– Amelanchier pomes resemble blueberries when soft
– Share some similarities with berries but not botanical berries

– Aggregate Fruits:
– Contain seeds from different ovaries of a single flower
– Examples: blackberries, raspberries
– Not botanical berries; soursop is a large aggregate fruit not usually called a berry

– Multiple Fruits:
– Result of two or more flowers merged closely together
– Example: mulberry
– Develop from a cluster of tiny separate flowers compressed into fruit

**Fruit Classification and Terminology:**

– History of Terminology:
– Evolution of terms like ‘baca’ for small round fruits
– Classification by Caesalpinus and Linnaeus
– Introduction of new fruit terms by Gaertner
– Lack of universally agreed system of fruit classification

– Evolution and Phylogenetic Significance:
– Fleshy fruits appeared in the Cretaceous Period
Seed dispersal by fruit-eating vertebrates influenced fruit evolution
Fruit type useful in plant classification and phylogeny
– Transition between fleshy and dry pericarps seen in various plant families

**Culinary and Other Uses of Fruits:**

– Culinary Uses:
– Berries valuable food sources since pre-agricultural times
– Examples: bananas, blueberries, cranberries, etc.
– Rich in antioxidants; used in spices like allspice and paprika

– Other Uses:
– Pepos used as containers; true berries used as dyes
– Bottle gourd historically used as a liquid container

– History:
– Cucurbit berries among earliest domesticated plants
– Peppers domesticated in Mesoamerica
– Domestication of cucurbit berries in Americas and Asia

**Commercial Production and Trade:**

– Commercial Production:
– Top fruit crops by weight in 2013 were botanical berries
– Citrus fruits significant in world fruit production
– Bananas and citrus fruits major exports in 2012

– Top Fruit Exports:
– Dominated by bananas and citrus fruits
– Oranges a large portion of citrus fruit exports
– Prepared fruit products include frozen, preserved, and cooked fruits

**Additional Information and References:**

– Citrus fruits and bananas major in global fruit industry
– Varying categorization methods for fruits in different countries
– Prepared fruit products cover a range of processed items
– References: Berry, Merriam-Webster, botanical glossaries, specific fruit type books.

Berry (botany) (Wikipedia)

In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit without a stone (pit) produced from a single flower containing one ovary. Berries so defined include grapes, currants, and tomatoes, as well as cucumbers, eggplants (aubergines), persimmons and bananas, but exclude certain fruits that meet the culinary definition of berries, such as strawberries and raspberries. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire outer layer of the ovary wall ripens into a potentially edible "pericarp". Berries may be formed from one or more carpels from the same flower (i.e. from a simple or a compound ovary). The seeds are usually embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary, but there are some non-fleshy exceptions, such as Capsicum species, with air rather than pulp around their seeds.

Redcurrants, a type of berry derived from a simple (one-locule) inferior ovary
Kiwifruit, a berry derived from a compound (many carpellate) superior ovary

Many berries are edible, but others, such as the fruits of the potato and the deadly nightshade, are poisonous to humans.

A plant that bears berries is said to be bacciferous or baccate (from Latin bacca).

In everyday English, a "berry" is any small edible fruit. Berries are usually juicy, round, brightly coloured, sweet or sour, and do not have a stone or pit, although many small seeds may be present.


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