Achenes on a dandelion, also known as dandelion clocks.

A microscopic view of a dandelion clock showing the pericarp and the achenes. A Fruit in Botany refers to a mature ovary. In fleshy fruits the outer often edible layer is the pericarp, which is the tissue that develops

Strawberry "seeds" seen up close, are clearly achenes.

An achene is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context and the term is not synonymous in Food preparation and Biology. The flowering plants or angiosperms ( Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta) are the most widespread group Achenes are "monocarpellate" (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not open at maturity). A gynoecium (from Ancient Greek gyne, "woman" is the Female reproductive part of a Flower. Achenes contain a single seed that nearly fills the pericarp, but does not adhere to it. A seed (in some plants referred to as a kernel) is a small embryonic Plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat usually with some stored A Fruit in Botany refers to a mature ovary. In fleshy fruits the outer often edible layer is the pericarp, which is the tissue that develops In many species, what we think of as the "seed" is actually an achene, a fruit containing the seed.

Examples

Typical achenes are the fruits of buttercup, buckwheat, and dandelion. Buckwheat refers to plants in two genera of the Dicot family Polygonaceae: the Eurasian genus Fagopyrum, and the North American genus It is sometimes spelled "akene", and occasionally called "achenium" or "achenocarp. "

The most familiar achenes are those of the strawberry, where the "seeds" are the achenes (technically the 'botanical' fruits), while what is eaten as the ('culinary') fruit is a so-called accessory fruit. Garden strawberries are a common variety of strawberry cultivated worldwide An accessory fruit, false fruit, spurious fruit, epigynous fruit, syconium or pseudocarp is a Fruit where the fleshy

Fruits of sedges are sometimes considered achenes because they have a one-locule compound ovary. The family Cyperaceae, or the sedges, is a taxon of monocot Flowering plants that superficially resemble grasses or rushes By the same definition, the common fruit type in the Family Asteraceae is also usually considered achene (some term the asteraceous achene cypsela, however). The family Asteraceae or Compositae (known as the aster, daisy, or sunflower family) is the largest family of Flowering A sunflower "seed" in the husk is not really a seed, but an achene. The sunflower ( Helianthus annuus) is an Annual plant in the family Asteraceae and native to the Americas, with a large flowering The white-gray husks are the walls of the fruit.

Variations

A winged achene, such as in maple, is called a samara. Acer ( maple) is a Genus of Trees or Shrubs They are variously classified in a family of their own the Aceraceae, or A samara is a type of Fruit in which a flattened wing of fibrous papery tissue develops from the ovary wall

A rose also produces achenes, which are nestled inside the rose hips (each rose hip, or the fruit, holds a few achenes). A rose is a perennial flowering Shrub or vine of the Genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae, that contains over 100 species

A grain, a type of fruit closely resembling an achene, differs in that the pericarp is fused to the thin seed coat in the grain.

A utricle is like an achene, but it has a compound ovary, rather than a simple one. In addition, its fruit ovary becomes bladdery or corky.

External links

• Botanical Glossary