drupelet

Drupelet is one of the small units that make up aggregate fruits such as raspberries and blackberries. Each druplet originates from a separate ovary of a flower and resembles a tiny drupe, containing a single seed encased in a hard endocarp. The fleshy exterior is the surrounding pericarp, and the aggregate fruit is composed of many druplets clustered on a common receptacle.

In Rubus and related genera, multiple ovaries develop into numerous druplets within a single flower or inflorescence, producing a fruit that appears as a cluster of discrete units rather than a single fleshy sphere. Each druplet can be eaten as part of the whole fruit, and together the druplets form the characteristic texture of raspberries and blackberries.

Examples and distribution: The most familiar druplet fruits are raspberries and blackberries, but the term also applies to related cultivated berries such as loganberries and boysenberries.

Notes: The term druplet is a descriptive botanical term rather than a separate taxonomic unit. It helps describe the modular structure of aggregate fruits in certain plant groups within the Rosaceae.