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The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened ovaries of flowering plants. In many plant species, the fruit includes the ripened ovary and surrounding tissues. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants disseminate seeds, and the presence of seeds indicates that a structure is most likely a fruit, though not all seeds come from fruits.

No single terminology really fits the enormous variety that is found among plant fruits. The term 'false fruit' (pseudocarp, accessory fruit) is sometimes applied to a fruit like the fig (a multiple-accessory fruit; see below) or to a plant structure that resembles a fruit but is not derived from a flower or flowers. Some gymnosperms, such as yew, have fleshy arils that resemble fruits and some junipers have berry-like, fleshy cones. The term "fruit" has also been inaccurately applied to the seed-containing female cones of many conifers.

Botanic fruit and culinary fruit

Many true fruits, in a botanical sense, are treated as vegetables in cooking and food preparation because they are not sweet. These botanical fruits include cucurbits (e.g., squash, pumpkin, and cucumber), tomatoes, peas, beans, corn, eggplant, and sweet pepper; some spices, such as allspice and chilies, are botanical fruits. Occasionally, though rarely, 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. In the culinary sense, a fruit is usually any sweet tasting plant product associated with seed(s), a vegetable is any savoury or less sweet plant product, and a nut any hard, oily, and shelled plant product.

Although a nut is a type of fruit, it is also a popular term for edible seeds, such as peanuts (which are actually a legume) and pistachios. Technically, a cereal grain is a fruit termed a caryopsis. However, the fruit wall is very thin and 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 edible seeds, although some references list them as fruits. Edible gymnosperm seeds are often misleadingly given fruit names, e.g. pine nuts, ginkgo nuts, and juniper berries.

Seedless fruits

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. Most seedless citrus fruits require a pollination stimulus; bananas and pineapples do not. Seedlessness in table grapes results from the abortion of the embryonic plant that is produced by fertilization, a phenomenon known as stenospermocarpy which requires normal pollination and fertilization.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Uses

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. 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. Olive fruit is pressed for olive oil. Spices like vanilla, paprika, allspice and black pepper are derived from berries.

Nutritional value

Fruits are generally high in fiber, water and vitamin C. 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, stroke, Alzheimer disease, cataracts, and some of the functional declines associated with aging.

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.

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. Osage orange fruits are used to repel cockroaches. Bayberry fruits provide a wax often used to make candles. Many fruits provide natural dyes, e.g. walnut, sumac, cherry and mulberry. 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.

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.

Production

Top Ten fresh fruit Producers — 2005
Country	Production (Int $1000)	Footnote	Production (MT)	Footnote
India	1,052,766	C	6,600,000	F
Vietnam	438,652	C	2,750,000	F
People's Republic of China	271,167	C	1,790,000	F
Indonesia	255,216	C	1,600,000	F
Nigeria	223,314	C	1,400,000	F
Iran	223,314	C	1,400,000	F
Myanmar	183,436	C	1,150,000	F
Papua New Guinea	129,203	C	810,000	F
Nepal	82,945	C	520,000	F
Democratic People's Republic of Korea	78,160	C	490,000	F
No symbol = official figure,F = FAO estimate, * = Unofficial figure, C = Calculated figure; Production in Int $1000 have been calculated based on 1999-2001 international prices Source: Food and Agricultural Organization of United Nations: Economic and Social Department: The Statistical Division

Top Ten tropical fresh fruit Producers — 2005
Country	Production (Int $1000)	Footnote	Production (MT)	Footnote
Philippines	389,164	C	3,400,000	F
Indonesia	377,718	C	3,300,000	F
India	335,368	C	2,930,000	F
People's Republic of China	177,413	C	2,164,000	F
Colombia	131,629	C	1,150,000	F
Thailand	83,556	C	730,000	F
Pakistan	60,893	C	532,000	F
Brazil	55,513	C	485,000	F
Bangladesh	31,934	C	279,000	F
Mexico	28,615	C	250,000	F
No symbol = official figure, F = FAO estimate, * = Unofficial figure, C = Calculated figure; Production in Int $1000 have been calculated based on 1999-2001 international prices Source: and Agricultural Organization of United Nations: Economic and Social Department: The Statistical Division

See also

• List of culinary fruits
• Fruit trees
• Tutti frutti
• Fruitarianism

References

1. Lewis, Robert A. (January 1, 2002). CRC Dictionary of Agricultural Sciences. CRC Press. pp. 375–376. ISBN 0-8493-2327-4.
2. Schlegel, Rolf H J (January 1, 2003). Encyclopedic Dictionary of Plant Breeding and Related Subjects. Haworth Press. p. 177. ISBN 1-56022-950-0.
3. Mauseth, James D. (April 1, 2003). Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology. Jones and Bartlett. pp. 271–272. ISBN 0-7637-2134-4.
4. ^ McGee, Harold (November 16, 2004). On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. Simon and Schuster. pp. 247–248. ISBN 0-684-80001-2.
5. McGee. On Food and Cooking. p. 367.
6. For a Supreme Court of the United States ruling on the matter, see Nix v. Hedden.
7. McGee. On Food and Cooking. p. 501.
8. Lewis. CRC Dictionary of Agricultural Sciences. p. 238.
9. Spiegel-Roy, P. (August 28, 1996). The Biology of Citrus. Cambridge University Press. pp. 87–88. ISBN 0-521-33321-0. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
10. ^ Capon, Brian (February 25, 2005). Botany for Gardeners. Timber Press. pp. 198–199. ISBN 0-88192-655-8.
11. Heiser, Charles B. (April 1, 2003). Weeds in My Garden: Observations on Some Misunderstood Plants. Timber Press. pp. 93–95. ISBN 0-88192-562-4.
12. Heiser. Weeds in My Garden. pp. 162–164.
13. Feldkamp, Susan (2002). Modern Biology. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. p. 634. ISBN 0-88192-562-4.
14. McGee. On Food and Cooking. Chapter 7: A Survey of Common Fruits. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |nopp= ignored (|no-pp= suggested) (help)
15. McGee. On Food and Cooking. Chapter 6: A Survey of Common Vegetables. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |nopp= ignored (|no-pp= suggested) (help)
16. Farrell, Kenneth T. (November 1 1999). Spices, Condiments and Seasonings. Springer. pp. 17–19. ISBN 0-8342-1337-0. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
17. "Health benefits of fruit and vegetables are from additive and synergistic combinations of phytochemicals - Liu 78 (3): 517S - American Journal of Clinical Nutrition".
18. Adams, Denise Wiles (February 1, 2004). Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants, 1640-1940. Timber Press. ISBN 0-88192-619-1.
19. Booth, Martin (June 12 1999). Opium: A History. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-20667-4. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
20. Cothran, James R. (November 1, 2003). Gardens and Historic Plants of the Antebellum South. University of South Carolina Press. p. 221. ISBN 1-57003-501-6.
21. K, Amber (December 1, 2001). Candlemas: Feast of Flames. Llewellyn Worldwide. p. 155. ISBN 0-7387-0079-7.
22. Adrosko, Rita J. (June 1, 1971). Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing: A Practical Guide with over 150 Recipes. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-22688-3.
23. Wake, Warren (March 13, 2000). Design Paradigms: A Sourcebook for Creative Visualization. John Wiley and Sons. pp. 162–163. ISBN.
24. "The Many Uses of the Coconut". The Coconut Museum. Retrieved 2006-09-14.

External links

• Images of fruit development from flowers at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
• Fruit and seed dispersal images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
• Fruit Facts from California Rare Fruit Growers, Inc.
• Encyclopedia Britannica 1911 on Fruit

• Fruit
• Plant morphology
• Pollination
• Snack foods
• Vegan snacks
• Vegan cuisine
• Vegetarian cuisine