The term “drupe” refers to an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (the exocarp, or skin, and the mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the pit, stone, or pyrena) of hardened endocarp that contains a seed (kernel). These fruits are typically formed from a single carpel, and they are produced primarily from flowers with superior ovaries.
The defining characteristic of a drupe is that the hard, lignified stone is produced by the flower’s ovary wall, which makes it unique among other fruits. Each drupelet is an aggregate fruit, which is composed of small, individual drupes (such as a raspberry), is referred to as a drupelet, and the aggregate fruit may be composed of several drupelets. Such fruits are commonly referred to as berries, even though botanists use a different definition of the word berry. Other fleshy fruits may have a stony enclosure that is formed by the seed coat that surrounds the seed, but these fruits are not drupes because they do not have a stony enclosure.
Drupe
Drupe-producing plants include coffee, jujube, mango, olive, most palms (including aça, date, sabal, coconut, and oil palms), pistachio, white sapote, cashew, and all members of the genus Prunus, which includes the almond, apricot, cherry, damson, peach, nectarine, and plum. Drupe-producing plants include coffee, jujube, mango
- The term drupaceous refers to a fruit that has the structure and texture of a drupe but does not meet the definition of a drupe in all of its details.
Drupes include apricots, olives, loquats, peaches, plums, cherries, mangoes, pecans, and amlas, to name a few examples (Indian gooseberries). The sloe (Prunus spinosa) and ivy are two other examples of such plants (Hedera helix).
A drupe, the coconut is also fibrous or dry (referred to as a husk), so this type of fruit is classified as a simple dry, fibrous drupe rather than a complex dry, fibrous drupe. Coconut seeds, unlike other drupes, are so large that they are unlikely to be dispersed by being swallowed by fauna, but they can float extremely long distances, including across oceans.
Bramble fruits, such as the blackberry and the raspberry, are composed of drupelets arranged in clusters. The fruit of blackberries and raspberries is produced by a single flower whose pistil is made up of several free carpels, as opposed to the fruit of other fruits. Mulberries, on the other hand, which are closely related to blackberries, are not aggregate fruits, but rather a collection of fruits that are derived from clusters of catkins, with each drupelet belonging to a different flower.
Certain drupes can be found in large clusters, such as those found in palm species, where a large array of drupes can be found in a single cluster of leaves. Date palms, Jubaea chilensis in central Chile, and Washingtonia filifera in the Sonoran Desert of North America are examples of such large drupe clusters.
Coconut and Avocado
Biologically, the coconut is a drupe that is fibrous and has only one seed, according to botanical definitions. Coconut is also referred to as a dry drupe in some circles. The pericarp of coconut is composed of three layers: the exocarp, which is the smooth, greenish layer, the mesocarp, which is the fibrous husk, and finally the endocarp, which surrounds the seed. In this way, according to botanical experts, coconut is a one-seeded drupe that also happens to be dry. Nevertheless, when we purchase coconut from a store, both the mesocarp and the endocarp are removed from the coconut.
An avocado, like a drupe, has a single seed and is made up entirely of the fleshy layer of the endocarp, unlike the latter. Avocados, on the other hand, are classified as berries rather than drupes because the seed of an avocado has a fleshy endocarp, as opposed to the hard endocarp of a drupe. As a result, even though avocados are typically prepared as a vegetable, they are classified as biological fruit. Furthermore, they are considered to be single-seeded berries that are members of the bay laurel and cinnamon tree families, respectively. They are, on the other hand, very different from blueberries or blackberries. Furthermore, according to some studies, they are very similar to drupes.
Conclusion
An individual flower produces a single ovary, which develops into a drupe, which is a simple fruit. On the ovary wall’s outer layer is a thin skin or peel, the middle layer is thick and usually fleshy (though it can be tough, as in the almond and coconut), and the inner layer, also known as the pit or putamen, is hard and stony. The pit or putamen is a hard and stony structure that surrounds the egg. It is common for one seed to be found in a pit, which is often confused with the seed itself. Occasionally, two or three seeds can be found in a pit, but only one of them will fully develop. Mango, walnut, and dogwood are examples of drupes that are representative of their species.