Question

A berry fruit is
A) Fleshy and single seeded
B) Fleshy and multi seeded
C) Dry and multi seeded
D) Dehiscent and single seeded.

Answer 1

Hint:In botany, vegetables are classified as fruit of the plant. This is done based on the number of seeds, the fleshiness of the fruit, the kind of dehiscence, the way the seeds are arranged within the fruit, and the kind of pericarp.

Complete answer:
Fleshy and single seeded fruit are called drupes. Drupes form from plants whose flowers have single ovaries. Examples of such fruits are peaches and olives. Option A is not the correct answer.

Fruits with a fleshy pericarp and several seeds are berries. Some are very obvious like strawberries and raspberries, but a less obvious berry is the banana and the pomegranate. Option B is the correct answer.

Dry fruits are dehiscent, and often multi seeded. The seeds may be arranged in rows like for legumes and beans. Option C is not correct.

A good example of dry dehiscent fruits is those called follicles. They are called dehiscent because the skin of the fruit splits at maturity to release the seeds inside. Some of these undergo dehiscence along one side, some split along both sides of the pod. Lady finger or bhendi is an example of this kind of fruit. Option D is incorrect.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘B’.

Note:Some fruits that we eat are actually not the pericarp, but the seed endosperm. The most popular fruit of this kind is the coconut. The flesh of the coconut is the dry, stringy pericarp that is used to form rope. The flesh that is eaten is the milky endosperm inside the seed.