Miyerkules, Agosto 10, 2011
Insecticide
An insecticide is a pesticide used against insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against the eggs and larvae of insects respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and the household. The use of insecticides is believed to be one of the major factors behind the increase in agricultural productivity in the 20th century.[1] Nearly all insecticides have the potential to significantly alter ecosystems; many are toxic to humans; and others are concentrated in the food chain.[citation needed]
Classes of agricultural insecticides
The classification of insecticides is done in several different ways:[citation needed]
Systemic insecticides are incorporated by treated plants. Insects ingest the insecticide while feeding on the plants.
Contact insecticides are toxic to insects brought into direct contact. Efficacy is often related to the quality of pesticide application, with small droplets (such as aerosols) often improving performance.[2]
Natural insecticides, such as nicotine, pyrethrum and neem extracts are made by plants as defenses against insects. Nicotine based insecticides have been barred in the U.S. since 2001 to prevent residues from contaminating foods.[3]
Plant-Incorporated Protectants (PIP) are insecticidal substances produced by plants after genetic modification. For instance, a gene that codes for a specific Baccilus thuringiensis biocidal protein is introduced into a crop plant's genetic material. Then, the plant manufactures the protein. Since the biocide is incorporated into the plant, additional applications at least of the same compound, are not required.
Inorganic insecticides are manufactured with metals and include arsenates, copper compounds and fluorine compounds, which are now seldom used, and sulfur, which is commonly used.
Organic insecticides are synthetic chemicals which comprise the largest numbers of pesticides available for use today.
Mode of action—how the pesticide kills or inactivates a pest—is another way of classifying insecticides. Mode of action is important in predicting whether an insecticide will be toxic to unrelated species, such as fish, birds and mammals.
Heavy metals, e.g. arsenic have been used as insecticides; they are poisonous and very rarely used now by farmers.
green house
A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse) is a building where plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings. A miniature greenhouse is known as a cold frame.
A greenhouse is a structure with different types of covering materials, such as a glass or plastic roof and frequently glass or plastic walls; it heats up because incoming visible solar radiation (for which the glass is transparent) from the sun is absorbed by plants, soil, and other things inside the building. Air warmed by the heat from hot interior surfaces is retained in the building by the roof and wall. In addition, the warmed structures and plants inside the greenhouse re-radiate some of their thermal energy in the infra-red, to which glass is partly opaque, so some of this energy is also trapped inside the glasshouse. However, this latter process is a minor player compared with the former (convective) process. Thus, the primary heating mechanism of a greenhouse is convection. This can be demonstrated by opening a small window near the roof of a greenhouse: the temperature drops considerably. This principle is the basis of the autovent automatic cooling system. Thus, the glass used for a greenhouse works as a barrier to air flow, and its effect is to trap energy within the greenhouse. The air that is warmed near the ground is prevented from rising indefinitely and flowing away.
Although there is some heat loss due to thermal conduction through the glass and other building materials, there is a net increase in energy (and therefore temperature) inside the greenhouse.
Greenhouses can be divided into glass greenhouses and plastic greenhouses. Plastics mostly used are PEfilm and multiwall sheet in PC or PMMA. Commercial glass greenhouses are often high tech production facilities for vegetables or flowers. The glass greenhouses are filled with equipment like screening installations, heating, cooling, lighting and may be automatically controlled by a computer.
Martes, Agosto 9, 2011
fruits
n broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.
The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state, such as apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, juniper berries and bananas. Seed-associated structures that do not fit these informal criteria are usually called by other names, such as vegetables, pods, nut, ears and cones.
In biology (botany), a "fruit" is a part of a flowering plant that derives from specific tissues of the flower, mainly one or more ovaries. Taken strictly, this definition excludes many structures that are "fruits" in the common sense of the term, such as those produced by non-flowering plants (like juniper berries, which are the seed-containing female cones of conifers[1]), and fleshy fruit-like growths that develop from other plant tissues close to the fruit (accessory fruit, or more rarely false fruit or pseudocarp), such as cashew fruits. Often the botanical fruit is only part of the common fruit, or is merely adjacent to it. On the other hand, the botanical sense includes many structures that are not commonly called "fruits", such as bean pods, corn kernels, wheat grains, tomatoes, the section of a fungus that produces spores[2], and many more. However, there are several variants of the biological definition of fruit that emphasize different aspects of the enormous variety that is found among plant fruits.[3]
Fruits (in either sense of the word) are the means by which many plants disseminate seeds. Most plants bearing edible fruits, in particular, coevolved with animals in a symbiotic relationship as a means for seed dispersal and nutrition, respectively; in fact, many animals (including humans to some extent) have become dependent on fruits as a source of food.[4] Fruits account for a substantial fraction of world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings.
Botanic fruit and culinary fruit
Euler diagram representing the relationship between (culinary) vegetables and botanical fruits
Many fruits that, in a botanical sense, are true fruits are actually treated as vegetables in cooking and food preparation, because they are not particularly sweet. These culinary vegetables include cucurbits (e.g., squash, pumpkin, and cucumber), tomatoes, peas, beans, corn, eggplant, and sweet pepper. In addition, some spices, such as allspice and chilies, are fruits, botanically speaking.[5] In contrast, occasionally a culinary "fruit" is not a true fruit in the botanical sense. For example, rhubarb is often referred to as a fruit, because it is used to make sweet desserts such as pies, though only the petiole of the rhubarb plant is edible.[6] In the culinary sense of these words, a fruit is usually any sweet-tasting plant product, especially those associated with seed(s), a vegetable is any savoury or less sweet plant product, and a nut is any hard, oily, and shelled plant product.[7]
Technically, a cereal grain is also a kind of fruit, a kind which is termed a caryopsis. However, the fruit wall is very thin, and is fused to the seed coat, so almost all of the edible grain is actually a seed. Therefore, cereal grains, such as corn, wheat and rice are better considered as edible seeds, although some references do list them as fruits.[8] Edible gymnosperm seeds are often misleadingly given fruit names, e.g., pine nuts, ginkgo nuts, and juniper berries.
Fruit development
The development sequence of a typical drupe, the nectarine (Prunus persica) over a 7.5 month period, from bud formation in early winter to fruit ripening in midsummer (see image page for further information)
Main article: Fruit anatomy
A fruit results from maturation of one or more flowers, and the gynoecium of the flower(s) forms all or part of the fruit.[9]
Inside the ovary/ovaries are one or more ovules where the megagametophyte contains the mega gamete or egg cell.[10] After double fertilization, these ovules will become seeds. The ovules are fertilized in a process that starts with pollination, which involves the 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 and two sperm are transferred from the pollen to the megagametophyte. Within the megagametophyte one of the two sperm unites with the egg, forming a zygote, and the second sperm enters the central cell forming the endosperm mother cell, which completes the double fertilization process.[11][12] Later the zygote will give rise to the embryo of the seed, and the endosperm mother cell will give rise to endosperm, a nutritive tissue used by the embryo.
As the ovules develop into seeds, the ovary begins to ripen and the ovary wall, the pericarp, may become fleshy (as in berries or drupes), or form a hard outer covering (as in nuts). In some multiseeded fruits, the extent to which the flesh develops is proportional to the number of fertilized ovules.[13] The pericarp is often differentiated into two or three distinct layers called the exocarp (outer layer, also called epicarp), mesocarp (middle layer), and endocarp (inner layer). In some fruits, especially simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary, other parts of the flower (such as the floral tube, including the petals, sepals, and stamens), fuse with the ovary and ripen with it. In other cases, the sepals, petals and/or stamens and style of the flower fall off. When such other floral parts are a significant part of the fruit, it is called an accessory fruit. Since other parts of the flower may contribute to the structure of the fruit, it is important to study flower structure to understand how a particular fruit forms.[1]
Fruits are so diverse that it is difficult to devise a classification scheme that includes all known fruits. Many common terms for seeds and fruit are incorrectly applied, a fact that complicates understanding of the terminology. Seeds are ripened ovules; fruits are the ripened ovaries or carpels that contain the seeds. To these two basic definitions can be added the clarification that in botanical terminology, a nut is not a type of fruit and not another term for seed, on the contrary to common terminology.[5]
There are three general modes of fruit development:
Apocarpous fruits develop from a single flower having one or more separate carpels, and they are the simplest fruits.
Syncarpous fruits develop from a single gynoecium having two or more carpels fused together.
Multiple fruits form from many different flowers.
Plant scientists have grouped fruits into three main groups, simple fruits, aggregate fruits, and composite or multiple fruits.[14] The groupings are not evolutionarily relevant, since many diverse plant taxa may be in the same group, but reflect how the flower organs are arranged and how the fruits develop.
Simple fruit
Epigynous berries are simple fleshy fruit. Clockwise from top right: cranberries, lingonberries, blueberries red huckleberries
Simple fruits can be either dry or fleshy, and result from the ripening of a simple or compound ovary in a flower with only one pistil. Dry fruits may be either dehiscent (opening to discharge seeds), or indehiscent (not opening to discharge seeds).[15] Types of dry, simple fruits, with examples of each, are:
achene - Most commonly seen in aggregate fruits (e.g. strawberry)
capsule – (Brazil nut)
caryopsis – (wheat)
Cypsela - An achene-like fruit derived from the individual florets in a capitulum (e.g. dandelion).
fibrous drupe – (coconut, walnut)
follicle – is formed from a single carpel, and opens by one suture (e.g. milkweed). More commonly seen in aggregate fruits (e.g. magnolia)
legume – (pea, bean, peanut)
loment - a type of indehiscent legume
nut – (hazelnut, beech, oak acorn)
samara – (elm, ash, maple key)
schizocarp – (carrot seed)
silique – (radish seed)
silicle – (shepherd's purse)
utricle – (beet)
Lilium unripe capsule fruit
Fruits in which part or all of the pericarp (fruit wall) is fleshy at maturity are simple fleshy fruits. Types of fleshy, simple fruits (with examples) are:
berry – (redcurrant, gooseberry, tomato, cranberry)
stone fruit or drupe (plum, cherry, peach, apricot, olive)
Dewberry flowers. Note the multiple pistils, each of which will produce a drupelet. Each flower will become a blackberry-like aggregate fruit.
An aggregate fruit, or etaerio, develops from a single flower with numerous simple pistils.[16]
Magnolia and Peony, collection of follicles developing from one flower.
Sweet gum, collection of capsules.
Sycamore, collection of achenes.
Teasel, collection of cypsellas
Tuliptree, collection of samaras.
The pome fruits of the family Rosaceae, (including apples, pears, rosehips, and saskatoon berry) are a syncarpous fleshy fruit, a simple fruit, developing from a half-inferior ovary.[17]
Schizocarp fruits form from a syncarpous ovary and do not really dehisce, but split into segments with one or more seeds; they include a number of different forms from a wide range of families.[14] Carrot seed is an example.
Aggregate fruit
Detail of raspberry flower.
Aggregate fruits form from single flowers that have multiple carpels which are not joined together, i.e. each pistil contains one carpel. Each pistil forms a fruitlet, and collectively the fruitlets are called an etaerio. Four types of aggregate fruits include etaerios of achenes, follicles, drupelets, and berries. Ranunculaceae species, including Clematis and Ranunculus have an etaerio of achenes, Calotropis has an etaerio of follicles, and Rubus species like raspberry, have an etaerio of drupelets. Annona have Etaerio of berries.[18][19]
The raspberry, whose pistils are termed drupelets because each is like a small drupe attached to the receptacle. In some bramble fruits (such as blackberry) the receptacle is elongated and part of the ripe fruit, making the blackberry an aggregate-accessory fruit.[20] The strawberry is also an aggregate-accessory fruit, only one in which the seeds are contained in achenes.[21] In all these examples, the fruit develops from a single flower with numerous pistils.
Multiple fruits
Main article: Multiple fruit
A multiple fruit is one formed from a cluster of flowers (called an inflorescence). Each flower produces a fruit, but these mature into a single mass.[22] Examples are the pineapple, fig, mulberry, osage-orange, and breadfruit.
In some plants, such as this noni, flowers are produced regularly along the stem and it is possible to see together examples of flowering, fruit development, and fruit ripening.
In the photograph on the right, stages of flowering and fruit development in the noni or Indian mulberry (Morinda citrifolia) can be observed on a single branch. First an inflorescence of white flowers called a head is produced. After fertilization, each flower develops into a drupe, and as the drupes expand, they become connate (merge) into a multiple fleshy fruit called a syncarpet.
Fruit chart
To summarize common types of fleshy fruit (examples follow in the table below):
Berry – simple fruit and seeds created from a single ovary
Pepo – Berries where the skin is hardened, like cucurbits
Hesperidium – Berries with a rind and a juicy interior, like most citrus fruit
Compound fruit, which includes:
Aggregate fruit – with seeds from different ovaries of a single flower
Multiple fruit – fruits of separate flowers, merged or packed closely together
Accessory fruit – where some or all of the edible part is not generated by the ovary
Types of fleshy fruits
True berry Pepo Hesperidium Aggregate fruit Multiple fruit Accessory fruit
Blackcurrant, Redcurrant, Gooseberry, Tomato, Eggplant, Guava, Lucuma, Chili pepper, Pomegranate, Kiwifruit, Grape, Cranberry, Blueberry Pumpkin, Gourd, Cucumber, Melon Orange, Lemon, Lime, Grapefruit Blackberry, Raspberry, Boysenberry Pineapple, Fig, Mulberry, Hedge apple Apple, Rose hip, Strawberry
Seedless fruits
An arrangement of fruits commonly thought of as vegetables, including tomatoes and various squash
Seedlessness is an important feature of some fruits of commerce. Commercial cultivars of bananas and pineapples are examples of seedless fruits. Some cultivars of citrus fruits (especially navel oranges), satsumas, mandarin oranges, table grapes, grapefruit, and watermelons are valued for their seedlessness. In some species, seedlessness is the result of parthenocarpy, where fruits set without fertilization. Parthenocarpic fruit set may or may not require pollination but most seedless citrus fruits require stimulus from pollination to produce fruit.
Seedless bananas and grapes are triploids, and seedlessness results from the abortion of the embryonic plant that is produced by fertilization, a phenomenon known as stenospermocarpy which requires normal pollination and fertilization.[23]
Seed dissemination
Variations in fruit structures largely depend on the mode of dispersal of the seeds they contain. This dispersal can be achieved by animals, wind, water, or explosive dehiscence.[24]
Some fruits have coats covered with spikes or hooked burrs, either to prevent themselves from being eaten by animals or to stick to the hairs, feathers or legs of animals, using them as dispersal agents. Examples include cocklebur and unicorn plant.[25][26]
The sweet flesh of many fruits is "deliberately" appealing to animals, so that the seeds held within are eaten and "unwittingly" carried away and deposited at a distance from the parent. Likewise, the nutritious, oily kernels of nuts are appealing to rodents (such as squirrels) who hoard them in the soil in order to avoid starving during the winter, thus giving those seeds that remain uneaten the chance to germinate and grow into a new plant away from their parent.[5]
Other fruits are elongated and flattened out naturally and so become thin, like wings or helicopter blades, e.g. maple, tuliptree and elm. This is an evolutionary mechanism to increase dispersal distance away from the parent via wind. Other wind-dispersed fruit have tiny parachutes, e.g. dandelion and salsify.[24]
Coconut fruits can float thousands of miles in the ocean to spread seeds. Some other fruits that can disperse via water are nipa palm and screw pine.[24]
Some fruits fling seeds substantial distances (up to 100 m in sandbox tree) via explosive dehiscence or other mechanisms, e.g. impatiens and squirting cucumber.[27]
Uses
Nectarines are one of many fruits that can be easily stewed.
Oranges, bananas, pears, apples, and a watermelon
Fruit bowl containing pomegranate, pears, apples, bananas, an orange and a guava
Many hundreds of fruits, including fleshy fruits like apple, peach, pear, kiwifruit, watermelon and mango are commercially valuable as human food, eaten both fresh and as jams, marmalade and other preserves. Fruits are also in manufactured foods like cookies, muffins, yoghurt, ice cream, cakes, and many more. Many fruits are used to make beverages, such as fruit juices (orange juice, apple juice, grape juice, etc.) or alcoholic beverages, such as wine or brandy.[28] Apples are often used to make vinegar. Fruits are also used for gift giving, Fruit Basket and Fruit Bouquet are some common forms of fruit gifts.
Many vegetables are botanical fruits, including tomato, bell pepper, eggplant, okra, squash, pumpkin, green bean, cucumber and zucchini.[29] Olive fruit is pressed for olive oil. Spices like vanilla, paprika, allspice and black pepper are derived from berries.[30]
Nutritional value
Fruits are generally high in fiber, water, vitamin C and sugars, although this latter varies widely from traces as in lime, to 61% of the fresh weight of the date.[31] Fruits also contain various phytochemicals that do not yet have an RDA/RDI listing under most nutritional factsheets, and which research indicates are required for proper long-term cellular health and disease prevention. Regular consumption of fruit is associated with reduced risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease (especially coronary heart disease), stroke, Alzheimer disease, cataracts, and some of the functional declines associated with aging.[32]
Diets that include a sufficient amount of potassium from fruits and vegetables also help reduce the chance of developing kidney stones and may help reduce the effects of bone-loss. Fruits are also low in calories which would help lower one's calorie intake as part of a weight-loss diet.[33]
Nonfood uses
Because fruits have been such a major part of the human diet, different cultures have developed many different uses for various fruits that they do not depend on as being edible. Many dry fruits are used as decorations or in dried flower arrangements, such as unicorn plant, lotus, wheat, annual honesty and milkweed. Ornamental trees and shrubs are often cultivated for their colorful fruits, including holly, pyracantha, viburnum, skimmia, beautyberry and cotoneaster.[34]
Fruits of opium poppy are the source of opium which contains the drugs morphine and codeine, as well as the biologically inactive chemical theabaine from which the drug oxycodone is synthysized.[35] Osage orange fruits are used to repel cockroaches.[36] Bayberry fruits provide a wax often used to make candles.[37] Many fruits provide natural dyes, e.g. walnut, sumac, cherry and mulberry.[38] Dried gourds are used as decorations, water jugs, bird houses, musical instruments, cups and dishes. Pumpkins are carved into Jack-o'-lanterns for Halloween. The spiny fruit of burdock or cocklebur were the inspiration for the invention of Velcro.[39]
Coir is a fibre from the fruit of coconut that is used for doormats, brushes, mattresses, floortiles, sacking, insulation and as a growing medium for container plants. The shell of the coconut fruit is used to make souvenir heads, cups, bowls, musical instruments and bird houses.[40]
Fruit is often used as a subject of still life paintings.
Safety
For food safety, the CDC recommends proper fruit handling and preparation to reduce the risk of food contamination and foodborne illness. Fresh fruits and vegetables should carefully be selected. At the store, they should not be damaged or bruised and pre-cut pieces should be refrigerated or surrounded by ice. All fruits and vegetables should be rinsed before eating. This recommendation also applies to produce with rinds or skins that are not eaten. It should be done just before preparing or eating to avoid premature spoilage. Fruits and vegetables should be kept separate from raw foods like meat, poultry, and seafood, as well as utensils that have come in contact with raw foods. Fruits and vegetables, if they are not going to be cooked, should be thrown away if they have touched raw meat, poultry, seafood or eggs. All cut, peeled, or cooked fruits and vegetables should be refrigerated within two hours. After a certain time, harmful bacteria may grow on them and increase the risk of foodborne illness.[41]
The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state, such as apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, juniper berries and bananas. Seed-associated structures that do not fit these informal criteria are usually called by other names, such as vegetables, pods, nut, ears and cones.
In biology (botany), a "fruit" is a part of a flowering plant that derives from specific tissues of the flower, mainly one or more ovaries. Taken strictly, this definition excludes many structures that are "fruits" in the common sense of the term, such as those produced by non-flowering plants (like juniper berries, which are the seed-containing female cones of conifers[1]), and fleshy fruit-like growths that develop from other plant tissues close to the fruit (accessory fruit, or more rarely false fruit or pseudocarp), such as cashew fruits. Often the botanical fruit is only part of the common fruit, or is merely adjacent to it. On the other hand, the botanical sense includes many structures that are not commonly called "fruits", such as bean pods, corn kernels, wheat grains, tomatoes, the section of a fungus that produces spores[2], and many more. However, there are several variants of the biological definition of fruit that emphasize different aspects of the enormous variety that is found among plant fruits.[3]
Fruits (in either sense of the word) are the means by which many plants disseminate seeds. Most plants bearing edible fruits, in particular, coevolved with animals in a symbiotic relationship as a means for seed dispersal and nutrition, respectively; in fact, many animals (including humans to some extent) have become dependent on fruits as a source of food.[4] Fruits account for a substantial fraction of world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings.
Botanic fruit and culinary fruit
Euler diagram representing the relationship between (culinary) vegetables and botanical fruits
Many fruits that, in a botanical sense, are true fruits are actually treated as vegetables in cooking and food preparation, because they are not particularly sweet. These culinary vegetables include cucurbits (e.g., squash, pumpkin, and cucumber), tomatoes, peas, beans, corn, eggplant, and sweet pepper. In addition, some spices, such as allspice and chilies, are fruits, botanically speaking.[5] In contrast, occasionally a culinary "fruit" is not a true fruit in the botanical sense. For example, rhubarb is often referred to as a fruit, because it is used to make sweet desserts such as pies, though only the petiole of the rhubarb plant is edible.[6] In the culinary sense of these words, a fruit is usually any sweet-tasting plant product, especially those associated with seed(s), a vegetable is any savoury or less sweet plant product, and a nut is any hard, oily, and shelled plant product.[7]
Technically, a cereal grain is also a kind of fruit, a kind which is termed a caryopsis. However, the fruit wall is very thin, and is fused to the seed coat, so almost all of the edible grain is actually a seed. Therefore, cereal grains, such as corn, wheat and rice are better considered as edible seeds, although some references do list them as fruits.[8] Edible gymnosperm seeds are often misleadingly given fruit names, e.g., pine nuts, ginkgo nuts, and juniper berries.
Fruit development
The development sequence of a typical drupe, the nectarine (Prunus persica) over a 7.5 month period, from bud formation in early winter to fruit ripening in midsummer (see image page for further information)
Main article: Fruit anatomy
A fruit results from maturation of one or more flowers, and the gynoecium of the flower(s) forms all or part of the fruit.[9]
Inside the ovary/ovaries are one or more ovules where the megagametophyte contains the mega gamete or egg cell.[10] After double fertilization, these ovules will become seeds. The ovules are fertilized in a process that starts with pollination, which involves the 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 and two sperm are transferred from the pollen to the megagametophyte. Within the megagametophyte one of the two sperm unites with the egg, forming a zygote, and the second sperm enters the central cell forming the endosperm mother cell, which completes the double fertilization process.[11][12] Later the zygote will give rise to the embryo of the seed, and the endosperm mother cell will give rise to endosperm, a nutritive tissue used by the embryo.
As the ovules develop into seeds, the ovary begins to ripen and the ovary wall, the pericarp, may become fleshy (as in berries or drupes), or form a hard outer covering (as in nuts). In some multiseeded fruits, the extent to which the flesh develops is proportional to the number of fertilized ovules.[13] The pericarp is often differentiated into two or three distinct layers called the exocarp (outer layer, also called epicarp), mesocarp (middle layer), and endocarp (inner layer). In some fruits, especially simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary, other parts of the flower (such as the floral tube, including the petals, sepals, and stamens), fuse with the ovary and ripen with it. In other cases, the sepals, petals and/or stamens and style of the flower fall off. When such other floral parts are a significant part of the fruit, it is called an accessory fruit. Since other parts of the flower may contribute to the structure of the fruit, it is important to study flower structure to understand how a particular fruit forms.[1]
Fruits are so diverse that it is difficult to devise a classification scheme that includes all known fruits. Many common terms for seeds and fruit are incorrectly applied, a fact that complicates understanding of the terminology. Seeds are ripened ovules; fruits are the ripened ovaries or carpels that contain the seeds. To these two basic definitions can be added the clarification that in botanical terminology, a nut is not a type of fruit and not another term for seed, on the contrary to common terminology.[5]
There are three general modes of fruit development:
Apocarpous fruits develop from a single flower having one or more separate carpels, and they are the simplest fruits.
Syncarpous fruits develop from a single gynoecium having two or more carpels fused together.
Multiple fruits form from many different flowers.
Plant scientists have grouped fruits into three main groups, simple fruits, aggregate fruits, and composite or multiple fruits.[14] The groupings are not evolutionarily relevant, since many diverse plant taxa may be in the same group, but reflect how the flower organs are arranged and how the fruits develop.
Simple fruit
Epigynous berries are simple fleshy fruit. Clockwise from top right: cranberries, lingonberries, blueberries red huckleberries
Simple fruits can be either dry or fleshy, and result from the ripening of a simple or compound ovary in a flower with only one pistil. Dry fruits may be either dehiscent (opening to discharge seeds), or indehiscent (not opening to discharge seeds).[15] Types of dry, simple fruits, with examples of each, are:
achene - Most commonly seen in aggregate fruits (e.g. strawberry)
capsule – (Brazil nut)
caryopsis – (wheat)
Cypsela - An achene-like fruit derived from the individual florets in a capitulum (e.g. dandelion).
fibrous drupe – (coconut, walnut)
follicle – is formed from a single carpel, and opens by one suture (e.g. milkweed). More commonly seen in aggregate fruits (e.g. magnolia)
legume – (pea, bean, peanut)
loment - a type of indehiscent legume
nut – (hazelnut, beech, oak acorn)
samara – (elm, ash, maple key)
schizocarp – (carrot seed)
silique – (radish seed)
silicle – (shepherd's purse)
utricle – (beet)
Lilium unripe capsule fruit
Fruits in which part or all of the pericarp (fruit wall) is fleshy at maturity are simple fleshy fruits. Types of fleshy, simple fruits (with examples) are:
berry – (redcurrant, gooseberry, tomato, cranberry)
stone fruit or drupe (plum, cherry, peach, apricot, olive)
Dewberry flowers. Note the multiple pistils, each of which will produce a drupelet. Each flower will become a blackberry-like aggregate fruit.
An aggregate fruit, or etaerio, develops from a single flower with numerous simple pistils.[16]
Magnolia and Peony, collection of follicles developing from one flower.
Sweet gum, collection of capsules.
Sycamore, collection of achenes.
Teasel, collection of cypsellas
Tuliptree, collection of samaras.
The pome fruits of the family Rosaceae, (including apples, pears, rosehips, and saskatoon berry) are a syncarpous fleshy fruit, a simple fruit, developing from a half-inferior ovary.[17]
Schizocarp fruits form from a syncarpous ovary and do not really dehisce, but split into segments with one or more seeds; they include a number of different forms from a wide range of families.[14] Carrot seed is an example.
Aggregate fruit
Detail of raspberry flower.
Aggregate fruits form from single flowers that have multiple carpels which are not joined together, i.e. each pistil contains one carpel. Each pistil forms a fruitlet, and collectively the fruitlets are called an etaerio. Four types of aggregate fruits include etaerios of achenes, follicles, drupelets, and berries. Ranunculaceae species, including Clematis and Ranunculus have an etaerio of achenes, Calotropis has an etaerio of follicles, and Rubus species like raspberry, have an etaerio of drupelets. Annona have Etaerio of berries.[18][19]
The raspberry, whose pistils are termed drupelets because each is like a small drupe attached to the receptacle. In some bramble fruits (such as blackberry) the receptacle is elongated and part of the ripe fruit, making the blackberry an aggregate-accessory fruit.[20] The strawberry is also an aggregate-accessory fruit, only one in which the seeds are contained in achenes.[21] In all these examples, the fruit develops from a single flower with numerous pistils.
Multiple fruits
Main article: Multiple fruit
A multiple fruit is one formed from a cluster of flowers (called an inflorescence). Each flower produces a fruit, but these mature into a single mass.[22] Examples are the pineapple, fig, mulberry, osage-orange, and breadfruit.
In some plants, such as this noni, flowers are produced regularly along the stem and it is possible to see together examples of flowering, fruit development, and fruit ripening.
In the photograph on the right, stages of flowering and fruit development in the noni or Indian mulberry (Morinda citrifolia) can be observed on a single branch. First an inflorescence of white flowers called a head is produced. After fertilization, each flower develops into a drupe, and as the drupes expand, they become connate (merge) into a multiple fleshy fruit called a syncarpet.
Fruit chart
To summarize common types of fleshy fruit (examples follow in the table below):
Berry – simple fruit and seeds created from a single ovary
Pepo – Berries where the skin is hardened, like cucurbits
Hesperidium – Berries with a rind and a juicy interior, like most citrus fruit
Compound fruit, which includes:
Aggregate fruit – with seeds from different ovaries of a single flower
Multiple fruit – fruits of separate flowers, merged or packed closely together
Accessory fruit – where some or all of the edible part is not generated by the ovary
Types of fleshy fruits
True berry Pepo Hesperidium Aggregate fruit Multiple fruit Accessory fruit
Blackcurrant, Redcurrant, Gooseberry, Tomato, Eggplant, Guava, Lucuma, Chili pepper, Pomegranate, Kiwifruit, Grape, Cranberry, Blueberry Pumpkin, Gourd, Cucumber, Melon Orange, Lemon, Lime, Grapefruit Blackberry, Raspberry, Boysenberry Pineapple, Fig, Mulberry, Hedge apple Apple, Rose hip, Strawberry
Seedless fruits
An arrangement of fruits commonly thought of as vegetables, including tomatoes and various squash
Seedlessness is an important feature of some fruits of commerce. Commercial cultivars of bananas and pineapples are examples of seedless fruits. Some cultivars of citrus fruits (especially navel oranges), satsumas, mandarin oranges, table grapes, grapefruit, and watermelons are valued for their seedlessness. In some species, seedlessness is the result of parthenocarpy, where fruits set without fertilization. Parthenocarpic fruit set may or may not require pollination but most seedless citrus fruits require stimulus from pollination to produce fruit.
Seedless bananas and grapes are triploids, and seedlessness results from the abortion of the embryonic plant that is produced by fertilization, a phenomenon known as stenospermocarpy which requires normal pollination and fertilization.[23]
Seed dissemination
Variations in fruit structures largely depend on the mode of dispersal of the seeds they contain. This dispersal can be achieved by animals, wind, water, or explosive dehiscence.[24]
Some fruits have coats covered with spikes or hooked burrs, either to prevent themselves from being eaten by animals or to stick to the hairs, feathers or legs of animals, using them as dispersal agents. Examples include cocklebur and unicorn plant.[25][26]
The sweet flesh of many fruits is "deliberately" appealing to animals, so that the seeds held within are eaten and "unwittingly" carried away and deposited at a distance from the parent. Likewise, the nutritious, oily kernels of nuts are appealing to rodents (such as squirrels) who hoard them in the soil in order to avoid starving during the winter, thus giving those seeds that remain uneaten the chance to germinate and grow into a new plant away from their parent.[5]
Other fruits are elongated and flattened out naturally and so become thin, like wings or helicopter blades, e.g. maple, tuliptree and elm. This is an evolutionary mechanism to increase dispersal distance away from the parent via wind. Other wind-dispersed fruit have tiny parachutes, e.g. dandelion and salsify.[24]
Coconut fruits can float thousands of miles in the ocean to spread seeds. Some other fruits that can disperse via water are nipa palm and screw pine.[24]
Some fruits fling seeds substantial distances (up to 100 m in sandbox tree) via explosive dehiscence or other mechanisms, e.g. impatiens and squirting cucumber.[27]
Uses
Nectarines are one of many fruits that can be easily stewed.
Oranges, bananas, pears, apples, and a watermelon
Fruit bowl containing pomegranate, pears, apples, bananas, an orange and a guava
Many hundreds of fruits, including fleshy fruits like apple, peach, pear, kiwifruit, watermelon and mango are commercially valuable as human food, eaten both fresh and as jams, marmalade and other preserves. Fruits are also in manufactured foods like cookies, muffins, yoghurt, ice cream, cakes, and many more. Many fruits are used to make beverages, such as fruit juices (orange juice, apple juice, grape juice, etc.) or alcoholic beverages, such as wine or brandy.[28] Apples are often used to make vinegar. Fruits are also used for gift giving, Fruit Basket and Fruit Bouquet are some common forms of fruit gifts.
Many vegetables are botanical fruits, including tomato, bell pepper, eggplant, okra, squash, pumpkin, green bean, cucumber and zucchini.[29] Olive fruit is pressed for olive oil. Spices like vanilla, paprika, allspice and black pepper are derived from berries.[30]
Nutritional value
Fruits are generally high in fiber, water, vitamin C and sugars, although this latter varies widely from traces as in lime, to 61% of the fresh weight of the date.[31] Fruits also contain various phytochemicals that do not yet have an RDA/RDI listing under most nutritional factsheets, and which research indicates are required for proper long-term cellular health and disease prevention. Regular consumption of fruit is associated with reduced risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease (especially coronary heart disease), stroke, Alzheimer disease, cataracts, and some of the functional declines associated with aging.[32]
Diets that include a sufficient amount of potassium from fruits and vegetables also help reduce the chance of developing kidney stones and may help reduce the effects of bone-loss. Fruits are also low in calories which would help lower one's calorie intake as part of a weight-loss diet.[33]
Nonfood uses
Because fruits have been such a major part of the human diet, different cultures have developed many different uses for various fruits that they do not depend on as being edible. Many dry fruits are used as decorations or in dried flower arrangements, such as unicorn plant, lotus, wheat, annual honesty and milkweed. Ornamental trees and shrubs are often cultivated for their colorful fruits, including holly, pyracantha, viburnum, skimmia, beautyberry and cotoneaster.[34]
Fruits of opium poppy are the source of opium which contains the drugs morphine and codeine, as well as the biologically inactive chemical theabaine from which the drug oxycodone is synthysized.[35] Osage orange fruits are used to repel cockroaches.[36] Bayberry fruits provide a wax often used to make candles.[37] Many fruits provide natural dyes, e.g. walnut, sumac, cherry and mulberry.[38] Dried gourds are used as decorations, water jugs, bird houses, musical instruments, cups and dishes. Pumpkins are carved into Jack-o'-lanterns for Halloween. The spiny fruit of burdock or cocklebur were the inspiration for the invention of Velcro.[39]
Coir is a fibre from the fruit of coconut that is used for doormats, brushes, mattresses, floortiles, sacking, insulation and as a growing medium for container plants. The shell of the coconut fruit is used to make souvenir heads, cups, bowls, musical instruments and bird houses.[40]
Fruit is often used as a subject of still life paintings.
Safety
For food safety, the CDC recommends proper fruit handling and preparation to reduce the risk of food contamination and foodborne illness. Fresh fruits and vegetables should carefully be selected. At the store, they should not be damaged or bruised and pre-cut pieces should be refrigerated or surrounded by ice. All fruits and vegetables should be rinsed before eating. This recommendation also applies to produce with rinds or skins that are not eaten. It should be done just before preparing or eating to avoid premature spoilage. Fruits and vegetables should be kept separate from raw foods like meat, poultry, and seafood, as well as utensils that have come in contact with raw foods. Fruits and vegetables, if they are not going to be cooked, should be thrown away if they have touched raw meat, poultry, seafood or eggs. All cut, peeled, or cooked fruits and vegetables should be refrigerated within two hours. After a certain time, harmful bacteria may grow on them and increase the risk of foodborne illness.[41]
Top 10 Fruits in the Philippines
The Philippines has an abundant supply of tropical fruits, some of which are sought after by other countries for their taste and natural sweetness. They are available almost all-year round.
Mango
The mango is the national fruit of the Philippines and is considered the apple of the tropics. It is known worldwide and is a major export product. Ripe ones have yellow skin and flesh. This is when mangoes are at their sweetest. Two varieties are commonly grown, the sweeter manggang piko and the fleshier manggang kalabaw. Those from Guimaras is said to be the sweetest in the world. Other regions in the Philippines which produce large quantities of mangoes for export are Zambales, Davao and Cebu.
Rambutan
Rambutan is native to Southeast Asia and the Malay Archipelago and grown in Laguna, parts of Mindanao, Panay Island, Mindoro and Batangas. The name is a Malay word “rambut”, which means hair. The egg-size fruit has claret skin that resembles scaly leather covered with soft red-green spines. Rambutan has translucent, pearly-white meat covering brown seeds.
Avocado
The avocado is a pear-shaped fruit with dark, shiny purple or green skin. The soft, creamy, thick flesh covers a single ovoid to round seed. The custard-like flesh tastes almost bland and said to lower cholesterol levels. Avocadoes are used in cooking, salads, ice cream and other desserts.
Lanzones
Lanzones grows in bunches resembling pale blonde grapes with bitter seeds. It is native to Western Malaysia. The tartly-sweet firm fruit has about five sections covered in cream-colored skin with white sap that can discolor your fingers. Lanzones from Camiguin in Mindanao is said to be the sweetest and holds an annual harvest festival. It also grows in Laguna, parts of Quezon, Batangas, Cagayan de Oro and Butuan.
Durian
Durian is the “king of all tropical fruits”, native to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia and grown in Mindanao. It has dark khaki or dull green skin with thick, short, pointed spines and a very pungent odor. Its flesh is golden, sweet and butter-soft. Some consider this an aphrodisiac. Durian is made into candied sweets, ice cream and cakes. Local eaters wash off the taste by placing some water in the husk and drinking it. They also wash their hands on water-filled husks.
Langka
Langka or jackfruit comes from Southwestern India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Philippines and also in Australia. It is the largest tree-born fruit in the world, growing up to 20 inches in diameter and weigh up to 40 kilos. The yellow flesh consists of sweet bulbs covering oblong seeds that are edible when boiled. It can be eaten raw or sliced and added to turon, guinatan and made into jam and added to halo-halo.
Atis
Atis or sugar apple or custard apple was introduced by the Spaniards around 1590. The round fruit is small with lumpy dull-green scales. Atis has sweet, creamy flesh with numerous black seeds. It has a very short shelf life and should be eaten as soon as it ripens but is sweeter when left to ripen on the tree.
Chico
The chico originated from Mexico. This smallish brown fruit is almost round in shape. The sugary-sweet flesh is caramel-colored, with a few flat, black seeds and granular texture near the rind. A seedless variety called pineras is more hardy and bigger than the native one.
Watermelon
Watermelons are juicy, sweet and crunchy, with plenty of pits. Watermelon grows on ground-crawling vines, its fruit round or oblong, with green skin and with or without dark green wavy stripes. The flesh is either red or yellow. They can be eaten fresh or scooped into balls and added to summer fruit compote.
Santol
Santol is a popular summer fruit in the Philippines but is native to Malaysia. This yellowish fuzzy round fruits has five to six white juicy pulps covering big seeds. It can be eaten raw or made into marmalade.
Mango
The mango is the national fruit of the Philippines and is considered the apple of the tropics. It is known worldwide and is a major export product. Ripe ones have yellow skin and flesh. This is when mangoes are at their sweetest. Two varieties are commonly grown, the sweeter manggang piko and the fleshier manggang kalabaw. Those from Guimaras is said to be the sweetest in the world. Other regions in the Philippines which produce large quantities of mangoes for export are Zambales, Davao and Cebu.
Rambutan
Rambutan is native to Southeast Asia and the Malay Archipelago and grown in Laguna, parts of Mindanao, Panay Island, Mindoro and Batangas. The name is a Malay word “rambut”, which means hair. The egg-size fruit has claret skin that resembles scaly leather covered with soft red-green spines. Rambutan has translucent, pearly-white meat covering brown seeds.
Avocado
The avocado is a pear-shaped fruit with dark, shiny purple or green skin. The soft, creamy, thick flesh covers a single ovoid to round seed. The custard-like flesh tastes almost bland and said to lower cholesterol levels. Avocadoes are used in cooking, salads, ice cream and other desserts.
Lanzones
Lanzones grows in bunches resembling pale blonde grapes with bitter seeds. It is native to Western Malaysia. The tartly-sweet firm fruit has about five sections covered in cream-colored skin with white sap that can discolor your fingers. Lanzones from Camiguin in Mindanao is said to be the sweetest and holds an annual harvest festival. It also grows in Laguna, parts of Quezon, Batangas, Cagayan de Oro and Butuan.
Durian
Durian is the “king of all tropical fruits”, native to Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia and grown in Mindanao. It has dark khaki or dull green skin with thick, short, pointed spines and a very pungent odor. Its flesh is golden, sweet and butter-soft. Some consider this an aphrodisiac. Durian is made into candied sweets, ice cream and cakes. Local eaters wash off the taste by placing some water in the husk and drinking it. They also wash their hands on water-filled husks.
Langka
Langka or jackfruit comes from Southwestern India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Philippines and also in Australia. It is the largest tree-born fruit in the world, growing up to 20 inches in diameter and weigh up to 40 kilos. The yellow flesh consists of sweet bulbs covering oblong seeds that are edible when boiled. It can be eaten raw or sliced and added to turon, guinatan and made into jam and added to halo-halo.
Atis
Atis or sugar apple or custard apple was introduced by the Spaniards around 1590. The round fruit is small with lumpy dull-green scales. Atis has sweet, creamy flesh with numerous black seeds. It has a very short shelf life and should be eaten as soon as it ripens but is sweeter when left to ripen on the tree.
Chico
The chico originated from Mexico. This smallish brown fruit is almost round in shape. The sugary-sweet flesh is caramel-colored, with a few flat, black seeds and granular texture near the rind. A seedless variety called pineras is more hardy and bigger than the native one.
Watermelon
Watermelons are juicy, sweet and crunchy, with plenty of pits. Watermelon grows on ground-crawling vines, its fruit round or oblong, with green skin and with or without dark green wavy stripes. The flesh is either red or yellow. They can be eaten fresh or scooped into balls and added to summer fruit compote.
Santol
Santol is a popular summer fruit in the Philippines but is native to Malaysia. This yellowish fuzzy round fruits has five to six white juicy pulps covering big seeds. It can be eaten raw or made into marmalade.
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