Northern Ontario Plant Database

General Fruit and Seed Terminology

Fruit Terminology

• fruit - a mature ovary.
• pericarp - the fruit (ovary) wall, composed of 3 layers.
• exocarp - the outermost layer of the pericarp.
• mesocarp - the middle layer of the pericarp.
• endocarp - the inner layer of the pericarp.
• funiculus - the seed stalk - the stalk that attaches an ovule to the placenta in the ovary or fruit.
• seed - a mature ovule. See D10 for terminology relating to seeds.
• infructescence - a cluster of fruits, the persistent fruits of an inflorescence.

Seed Terminology

• arillate seed - a seed with a fleshy outgrowth from the funiculus or integuments, the latter forming a fleshy seed coat.
• endosperm - triploid food reserve in a seed derived from fusion of the polar nuclei with a sperm nucleus.
• perisperm - diploid food reserve in a seed derived from the nucellus or integuments.
• funiculus - the seed stalk - the stalk that attaches a seed to the fruit.
• hilum - the scar on a seed left by the funiculus.
• seed coat - the mature integuments of an ovule.
• comose - a seed with a coma (tuft of hairs) at the apex, e.g., milkweed (Asclepias, Apocynaceae).
• triquetrous - three-angled, characteristic seed shape of many knotweeds (Polygonaceae).