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).