Ovary (botany) in the context of "Carpel"

In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the pip (UK), pit (US), stone, or pyrena) of hardened endocarp with a seed (kernel) inside. Drupes do not split open to release the seed, i.e., they are indehiscent. These fruits usually develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries (polypyrenous drupes are exceptions).

The definitive characteristic of a drupe is that the hard, woody (lignified) stone is derived from the ovary wall of the flower. In an aggregate fruit, which is composed of small, individual drupes (such as a raspberry), each individual is termed a drupelet, and may together form an aggregate fruit. Such fruits are often termed berries, although botanists use a different definition of berry. Other fleshy fruits may have a stony enclosure that comes from the seed coat surrounding the seed, but such fruits are not drupes.

The gymnosperms (/ˈdʒɪmnəˌspɜːrmz, -noʊ-/ nə-spurmz, -⁠noh-; from Ancient Greek γυμνός (gumnós), meaning "naked", and σπέρμα (spérma), meaning "seed", and thus, "naked seed") are a group of woody, perennial seed-producing plants, typically lacking the protective outer covering which surrounds the seeds in flowering plants, that include conifers, cycads, Ginkgo, and gnetophytes, forming the clade Gymnospermae. The name is based on the unenclosed condition of their seeds (called ovules in their unfertilized state). The non-encased condition of their seeds contrasts with the seeds and ovules of flowering plants (angiosperms), which are enclosed within an ovary. Gymnosperm seeds develop either on the surface of scales or leaves, which are often modified to form cones, or on their own as in yew, Torreya, and Ginkgo.

The life cycle of a gymnosperm involves alternation of generations, with a dominant diploid sporophyte phase, and a reduced haploid gametophyte phase, which is dependent on the sporophytic phase. The term "gymnosperm" is often used in paleobotany to refer to (the paraphyletic group of) all non-angiosperm seed plants. In that case, to specify the modern monophyletic group of gymnosperms, the term Acrogymnospermae is sometimes used.

A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit although many pips or seeds may be present.‍ Common examples of berries in the culinary sense are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, white currants, blackcurrants, and redcurrants.‍ In Britain, soft fruit is a horticultural term for such fruits.‍

The common usage of the term "berry" is different from the scientific or botanical definition of a berry, which refers to a fleshy fruit produced from the ovary of a single flower where the outer layer of the ovary wall develops into an edible fleshy portion (pericarp). The botanical definition includes many fruits that are not commonly known or referred to as berries,‍ such as grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, bananas, and chili peppers. Fruits commonly considered berries but excluded by the botanical definition include strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, which are aggregate fruits, and mulberries, which are multiple fruits. Watermelons and pumpkins are giant berries that fall into the category "pepos". A plant bearing berries is said to be bacciferous or baccate.

In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single flower containing one ovary. Berries so defined include grapes, currants, and tomatoes, as well as cucumbers, eggplants (aubergines), persimmons and bananas, but exclude certain fruits that meet the culinary definition of berries, such as strawberries and raspberries. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire outer layer of the ovary wall ripens into a potentially edible "pericarp". Berries may be formed from one or more carpels from the same flower (i.e. from a simple or a compound ovary). The seeds are usually embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary, but there are some non-fleshy exceptions, such as Capsicum species, with air rather than pulp around their seeds.

Many berries are edible, but others, such as the fruits of the potato and the deadly nightshade, are poisonous to humans.

Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, for example bees, beetles or butterflies; birds, and bats; water; wind; and even plants themselves. Pollinating animals travel from plant to plant carrying pollen on their bodies in a vital interaction that allows the transfer of genetic material critical to the reproductive system of most flowering plants. Self-pollination occurs within a closed flower. Pollination often occurs within a species. When pollination occurs between species, it can produce hybrid offspring in nature and in plant breeding work.

In angiosperms, after the pollen grain (gametophyte) has landed on the stigma, it germinates and develops a pollen tube which grows down the style until it reaches an ovary. Its two gametes travel down the tube to where the gametophyte(s) containing the female gametes are held within the carpel. After entering an ovule through the micropyle, one male nucleus fuses with the polar bodies to produce the endosperm tissues, while the other fuses with the egg cell to produce the embryo. Hence the term: "double fertilisation". This process would result in the production of a seed, made of both nutritious tissues and embryo.

Double fertilization or double fertilisation (see spelling differences) is a complex fertilization mechanism of angiosperms. This process involves the fusion of a female gametophyte or megagametophyte, also called the embryonic sac, with two male gametes (sperm). It begins when a pollen grain adheres to the stigmatic surface of the carpel, the female reproductive structure of angiosperm flowers. The pollen grain begins to germinate (unless a type of self-incompatibility that acts in the stigma occurs in that particular species and is activated), forming a pollen tube that penetrates and extends down through the style toward the ovary as it follows chemical signals released by the egg. The tip of the pollen tube then enters the ovary by penetrating the micropyle opening in the ovule, and releases two sperm into the embryonic sac (megagametophyte).

The mature embryonic sac of an unfertilized ovule is 7-cellular and 8-nucleate. It is arranged in the form of 3+1+3 (from top to bottom) i.e. 3 antipodal cells, 1 central cell (binucleate), 2 synergids & 1 egg cell. One sperm fertilizes the egg cell and the other sperm fuses with the two polar nuclei of the large central cell of the megagametophyte. The haploid sperm and haploid egg fuse to form a diploid zygote, the process being called syngamy, while the other sperm and the diploid central cell fuse to form a triploid primary endosperm cell (triple fusion). Some plants may form polyploid nuclei. The large cell of the gametophyte will then develop into the endosperm, a nutrient-rich tissue which nourishes the developing embryo. The ovary, surrounding the ovules, develops into the fruit, which protects the seeds and may function to disperse them.