In our previous article, Everything you need to know about fruits, we saw that the fertilized flower becomes a fruit to nourish and protect the seeds, as well as to ensure the reproduction of the plant.
In nature, the ultimate reproductive goal of the fruit is to detach itself from the plant and to fall onto the soil, where it rots, enabling the seeds to sprout and to take root in a nearby location.
When the fruit is interrupted in its complete lifecycle, it is eaten by animals or gathered by human beings. Thus, in our conception of its nutritional function and in our everyday language, fruit generally refers to the plant organ that we eat for dessert.
However, if you talk to a botanist, he or she will explain that a fruit we consume may refer to its flesh, the seed itself or the surrounding parts or protection of the seeds. Let’s look at what fruits are made up of and how they evolve.
To begin with, just after fertilization, the outer lining of the ovary transforms itself to become the pericarp, which contains a seed or seeds. Starting from the inside of the fruit and going outwards, the following elements can be found in different proportions and forms:
- The seed or seeds
- The endocarp lignified or woody, such as the pit or stone
- The mesocarp is the flesh or the pulp
- The epicarp is the skin of the fruit.
If the mesocarp is full or contains reserves, the fruit is considered fleshy. This the case of drupes, where there is a single seed encased in a pit or stone (e.g. cherry, peach apricot). This is also the case for berries, where several pips are freely present in the pulp (e.g. grapes, redcurrants, oranges).
If the mesocarp is dry, without any pulp, then the fruit is known as a nut. These fruits can be in the form of pods, like peas, or siliques or siliqua, such as ‘money fruit’. It’s also possible to consume the pulp surrounding the seeds, as in the case of tamarin.
Some other nuts or berries do not open up when ripe and form what are known as achenes. In the case of strawberries, it’s not the fruit that we consume and appreciate, but the carpophore, the flesh that bears the achenes, the small seeds on the surface of the berry. This flesh grows considerably and so, from a botanical standpoint, the achenes are the actual fruit! In fact, the part of the strawberry we consume is a false fruit!
In the case of pineapples, we eat only the juicy flesh located below the skin, which nourishes the small fruits located in the scales on the surface, which we peel off. We also distinguish between complex fruits, such as blackberries or raspberries, which are made up of several drupes (or berries) that are clustered together.
Finally, there are complex fruits such as apples, where the botanical fruit itself is the core, while we eat the conceptacle, i.e. the part that previously bore the flower.
As we’ve seen, things aren’t as simple as they appear.
Fruits not only grace our gardens and nourish us, but also provide us with some food for thought. John F. Kennedy once famously said that “Forbidden fruit tastes sweet, but its aftertaste is bitter.” We also talk about bearing the fruit of our labor or our efforts or we refer to easy wins as “picking low-hanging fruit”. William Shakespeare put it, as one would expect, more poetically: “The weakest kind of fruit drops earliest to the ground”. We also talk about fruitful discussions or seeds for thought or seed money. So don’t run out of juice and, if you’re drinking (especially during the holidays), make sure you don’t get juiced!
Here’s some food for thought. Did you ever hear of the following fruits and do you know exactly what we eat in these plants?
It seems it’s also known as chicken poop in certain Central American countries, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. It has a chocolaty flavor and color and is consumed in very different ways, mixed with milk or orange juice to intensify the cacao aromas, but is also eaten as a fruit. It is most commonly used in mousses or cakes instead of chocolate.
So, do any of these fruits tickle your fancy?