Vruchttypes

Vruchttypes (fruit types) is a botanical concept used to classify fruits according to how they develop and the structure of their edible tissue. In botany, a fruit is the mature ovary of a flower, often containing seeds and sometimes including other floral parts. The major groups are simple fruits, aggregate fruits and multiple fruits.

Simple fruits originate from a single ovary. They can be fleshy or dry. Fleshy simple fruits are further categorized as berries (grapes, tomatoes, blueberries), drupes or stone fruits (peach, cherry, plum, almond), and pomes (apple, pear, quince). Berries have a fleshy pericarp with all parts soft at maturity, drupes have a hard inner layer encasing a single seed, and pomes have a firm central core.

Dry simple fruits include dehiscent types such as capsules and legumes, which split open to release seeds, and indehiscent types like nuts, which do not open at maturity.

Aggregate fruits develop from multiple ovaries of a single flower; examples are raspberries and blackberries. Strawberry is an accessory fruit; the fleshy part is derived largely from the receptacle, while the true fruits are the small achenes on the surface.

Multiple fruits form from the whole inflorescence; examples include pineapple and fig (the fig arises from a syconium).

In some classifications, other subtypes are described, such as hesperidium for citrus fruits with segmented juice sacs, and pepo for fruits with thick rind like cucurbits and melons. Vruchttypes are primarily a botanical framework used in taxonomy and horticulture; culinary classification may group fruits differently by taste and use. Classifications can vary across regions and authors.