Fruits are ... Fruits of plants. Fruits - Biology

Fruit is a protective shell for plant seeds. They can be different in color, shape, size and taste, but they all have a similar structure. Fruits - it's vegetables, fruits, berries, and earrings of birch, and nuts. It would seem that they are quite different, but they all have much in common.

Structure

Fruits - a collection of substances that are designed to protect the seeds from the environment and increase the chances of their germination. They are also designed to spread seeds as far as possible. This can happen with the help of wind, water, animals. Fruits consist of three parts: endocarp, mesocarp and exocarp. The first is the inner shell, it is located directly near the seeds (several or one). Mesocarpus - the middle shell, exocarp - the outer one. These three structures are combined into a pericarp or pericarp. In most cases, the exocarp is represented by the skin (in fruit) or the shell (in the nut). Endocarp is the most often part of the fruit that is eaten by animals and humans. A mesocarp can be seen, for example, in the form of a white shell between the flesh and the skin of an orange. However, there are exceptions to these rules. In apples, for example, the endocarp is presented in the form of transparent plates near the seeds, and the pulp is a mesocarp.

Fruits are different

They are divided into several groups, depending on their appearance and some features of the structure. Fruits are nuts, cherries, and acorns - they all have a similar structure, but at the same time there are many differences.

Classification

Fruits of plants are divided into two large groups: dry and juicy. The latter, unlike the first, have a flesh. Dry are divided into multi-seed (box-shaped) and single-seeded (nut-like), juicy - on croissant and berries-shaped. Each of these groups combines different types of fruits. There are quite a few of them. So, to the box-shaped are such fruits of plants as a bean, a pod, a little pincushion, a pouch, a leaflet, a box. Nut-shaped are represented by a grain, a scallop, a seed, a nut and a nut. Only the succulent drupe is related to the otter. Berries combine fruits such as berries, tukwins, apples. Let's analyze each of them in more detail.

Dry capsular

The first representatives of this group are beans. This fruit is found in all plants of the legume family. It consists of one carpel, has two seams on which it can be opened. This is a single-nosed fruit. Plants that have beans: beans, peas, lupines, lentils, mimosa, clover, wisteria.

The next type is pods and pods. This is the fruit of cruciferous vegetables , to which cabbage, mustard, lettuce, turnip, horseradish and others belong. It differs from the previous one in that it is bilobed, has two carpels. The capsule is also a dry, box-shaped fruit. In it, as a rule, a very large number of small seeds is placed. Such a fruit is formed by the following plants: poppy, bleached, clove, dope. Its structure can have one or more carpels. By the method of opening, the boxes can also be different. In poppies, for example, the capsules have holes, for bleached - the lid, for the dolman - the valves, for the cloves - denticles.

Dry nutty fruits

The first among them should be, of course, a nut.

Its main difference is a woody outer shell. Such fruits have such plants as walnut, pterocaria, Californian, black, manchurian nuts. Similar fruits form and hazel are nuts, they are smaller and have a softer shell. Also to this group belongs the seed. This fruit has a leathery pericarp, with which seeds do not fuse. It is formed by many complex plants, the most common and widely known of which is sunflower. Also, these are asters, daisies, marigolds, wormwood, dandelion, dapple and many others. The grain also belongs to this group of fruits. It is characteristic of plants of the family of cereals, which unites such crops as rye, wheat, millet, bluegrass, bamboo, feather grass and others. This type of fetus is characterized by a skiny pericarp, which fuses with the endocarp.

The next species is the lionfish. This is the fruit of the maple tree, as well as the ash tree. It has a pericarp with a leathery membranous pterygoid outgrowth, due to which the seeds can spread with a wind to a farther distance from the parent tree.

Juicy berry-like

First of all, they are apples. They are characterized by membranous cells, in which seeds are located, and the flesh is formed during the growth of the tube and the ovary of the flower. No, such fruits form not only the apple tree, but all the plants of the pink family: pear, mountain ash, hawthorn, quince and others. Also, this group includes berries that have a fleshy juicy pericarp. They are such plants: currants, blueberries, cranberries, gooseberries, tomatoes, kiwi, eggplant, banana and others. Contrary to the widespread misconception, cherries and raspberries are not berries, but stony bones. False strawberries and strawberries, as well as dogrose, are a set of fruit - multi-ridges. The first two real fruits (nuts) are outside this structure (white dots), and the latter - inside. The collection of nuts is also the earrings of birch. Also succulent belongs to succulent berries. It has a juicy pulp, but a woody exocarp. Such a fruit is a pumpkin, watermelon (what is a berry, is also a delusion), melon, cucumber.

Bony-crooked

This is also a sub-group of juicy fruits. Its only representative is the drupe. It is characterized by the fact that the seeds of fruits of this type are located inside the bone, located under the pericarp, having a solid outer shell and intended for additional protection. A birch can contain either one or several bones. Examples of this type: plum, cherry, coconut, peach, apricot, viburnum. There are also complex fruits, formed by several drupes. This is raspberry, blackberry.

What protects the pericarp?

Under these three shells is one or more seeds. Let's look at their structure. All flowering plants are divided into monocots and dicots, depending on how many cotyledons have their seeds.

Seeds of monocotyledonous plants consist of one cotyledon, a kidney, a stalk, a root, from which, in fact, a new plant is formed, endosperm and seminal rind, usually fused with the pericarp. Fruits from this type of seeds are, for example, pods and pods. It is also sometimes a box (in a tulip, a lily), less often a berry.

Seeds of dicotyledonous plants are distinguished by the presence of two cotyledons. Also their structure differs from previous ones in that their seed peel almost never fuses with the pericarp. These seeds can be found in fruits of the type such as drupe, apple, bean, achene and others.

Methods of spreading fruits and seeds

They can spread with the help of some "intermediary" or without it. Thus, some plants throw their seeds out of the opening fruit (most often beans). Also, fruits can simply fall off under the influence of gravity from their weight. But more often they are carried by the wind, animals or people, as well as water. For this, fruits often have additional adaptations, for example, papus in a dandelion (fluff growing from a pericarp with which help spreads with the wind).