Berry (botany) in fruit type may have led to the evolution of fruit eating in mammals and birds. Fruit type has been considered to be a useful character in classification and in understanding the phylogeny of plants. The evolution of fruits with a berry-like pericarp has been studied in a wide range of flowering plant families. Repeated transitions between fleshy and dry pericarps have been demonstrated regularly. One well-studied family is the Solanaceae, because of the commercial importance of fruit such as tomatoes, bell peppers, and eggplants or aubergines. Capsules, which are dry dehiscent fruits, appear to be the original form of
Berry 1800s, English breeders of strawberry made varieties of "F. ananassa" which were important in strawberry breeding in Europe, and hundreds of cultivars have since been produced through the breeding of strawberries. A form of the word "berry" is found in all the Germanic languages; for example, Old English "berie" compares with Old Saxon and Old High German "beri", and Old Norse "ber". These forms point to the Proto Germanic "*bazją". In Old English, the word was mainly applied to grapes, but has since grown to its current definition. In botanical terminology, a berry is a simple fruit with seeds and