A fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the mechanism by which angiosperms disseminate seeds.
Fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world’s agricultural output.
Some fruits have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings.
Fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of a plant.
Fruit may be sweet or sour, and edible in the raw state: apples, bananas, grapes, lemons, oranges, and strawberries.
According to botanical usage, fruit includes many structures that are not commonly called fruits, such as bean pods, corn kernels, tomatoes, and wheat grains.
Many common terms for seeds and fruit do not correspond to the botanical classifications.
Culinary definition of a fruit: any sweet-tasting plant part, especially a botanical fruit; a nut is any hard, oily, and shelled plant product; and a vegetable is any savory or less sweet plant product.
In botanical terms a fruit is the ripened ovary that contains seeds, a nut is a type of fruit and not a seed, and a seed is a ripened ovule.
Culinary vegetables and nuts that are botanically fruit include corn, cucumber, pumpkin, and squash, eggplant, legumes (beans, peanuts, and peas),
sweet pepper, and tomato.
Some spices, such as allspice and chili pepper, are fruits, botanically speaking.
Rhubarb is often referred to as a fruit, because it is used to make sweet desserts such as pies, though only its leaf stalk is edible.
Edible seeds are often given fruit names-ginkgo nuts and pine nuts.
Botanically, a cereal grain, such as corn, rice, or wheat, is a kind of fruit, termed a caryopsis.
The fruit wall is very thin and is fused to the seed coat, so almost all of the edible grain is actually a seed.
The outer, often edible layer of a fruit, is the pericarp, formed from the ovary and surrounding the seeds.
The pericarp has three layers from outer to inner, the epicarp, mesocarp and endocarp.
Inside the ovary/ovaries are one or more ovules containing the egg cell.[11] After double fertilization, these ovules will become seeds.
The ovules are fertilized in a process that starts with pollination: movement of pollen from the stamens to the stigma of flowers.
After pollination, a tube grows from the pollen through the stigma into the ovary to the ovule.
The ovules develop into seeds, and the ovary wall ripens as the pericarp, become fleshy: berries or form a hard outer covering as in nuts.
Fruits area grouped into three main groups, simple fruits, aggregate fruits, and composite or multiple fruits.
Seed dissemination can be achieved by animals, explosive dehiscence, water, or wind.
Some fruits have coats covered with spikes or hooked burrs, to prevent themselves from being eaten by animals, or to stick to the feathers, hairs, or legs of animals, using them as dispersal agents.
The sweet flesh of many allows seeds held within to be eaten and carried away and defecated at a distance from the parent.
Fruits that are elongated and flattened becoming thin allow increases dispersal via wind.
Eind-dispersed fruit have tiny parachute like findings: dandelion, milkweed.
Coconut fruits can float thousands of miles in the ocean to spread seeds.
Some other fruits that can dispersed via water.
Some fruits fling seeds substantial distances via explosive dehiscence or other mechanisms.
Many hundreds of fruits are commercially valuable as human food, eaten both fresh and as jams, marmalade and other preserves.
Fruits are also used in cakes, cookies, ice cream, muffins, or yogurt, beverages, such as fruit juices, and alcoholic beverages.
Many vegetables in culinary speak are botanical fruits, and include: bell pepper, cucumber, eggplant, green bean, okra, pumpkin, squash, tomato, zucchini, and
olive.
Spices: allspice, black pepper, paprika, and vanilla are derived from berries.
Many fruits, have the plant hormone ethylene, which causes ripening.
Maintaining most fruits in a cold environment is optimal for storage, with the aim of extending and ensuring shelf life.
It is in fact difficult to get excessive amounts of sugar from fruits as they also contain fibers, water and have significant chewing resistance.
Fruits are often very satisfying, contain fibers that promote satiety, and help lose weight, and have cholesterol-lowering effects.
Fresh fruits are generally high in fiber, vitamin C, and water.
Regular consumption of fruit is associated with reduced risks of several diseases and functional declines associated with aging.
Fresh fruits and vegetables should be carefully selected; should not be damaged or bruised; and precut pieces should be refrigerated or surrounded by ice.
All fruits and vegetables should be rinsed before eating, even produce with rinds or skins that are not eaten, to avoid premature spoilage.
Fruits and vegetables should be kept separate from raw foods, like meat, and utensils that have come in contact with raw foods.
Fruits and vegetables that are not going to be cooked should be discarded if they have touched raw meat, poultry, seafood, or eggs.
All cut, peeled, or cooked fruits and vegetables should be refrigerated within two hours, as harmful bacteria may grow on them and increase the risk of foodborne illness.
Fruit allergies make up about 10 percent of all food related allergies.
Fruit flies lay their eggs in the flesh of fruit.
The pupae then consume the fruit before maturing into adult flies.
Fruit flies cause significant damage to fruit crops.