Fruit anatomy Fruit anatomy Fruit anatomy is the plant anatomy of the internal structure of fruit. Fruits are the mature ovary or ovaries of one or more flowers. In fleshy fruits, the outer layer (which is often edible) is the "pericarp", which is the tissue that develops from the ovary wall of the flower and surrounds the seeds. But in some seemingly pericarp fruits, the edible portion is not derived from the ovary. For example, in the fruit of the ackee tree the edible portion is an aril, and in the pineapple several tissues from the flower and stem are involved. The
Fruit in which part or all of the "pericarp" (fruit wall) is fleshy at maturity are "simple fleshy fruits". Types of simple, fleshy, fruits (with examples) include: An aggregate fruit, or "etaerio", develops from a single flower with numerous simple pistils. 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. Schizocarp fruits form from a syncarpous ovary and do not really dehisce, but rather split into segments with one or more seeds; they include a number of different forms from a wide range