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In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. In cuisine, when discussing fruit as food, the term usually refers to just those plant fruits that are sweet and fleshy, examples of which would be plum, apple, and orange. However, a great many common vegetables, as well as nuts and grains, are the fruit of the plants they come from. Fruits that might not be considered such in a culinary context include gourds (e.g. squash and pumpkinA pumpkin is a gourd ( Cucurbitaceae), most commonly orange in colour that grows from a trailing vine, and is traditionally used in pies or in carving Jack o'lanterns for use as part of Halloween celebrations. A pumpkin is the fruit of the gourd Cucurbita), maizeMaize Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Liliopsida Order: Poales Family: Poaceae Genus Zea Species Zea diploperennis ''Zea luxurians ''Zea mays ssp. huehuetenangensis ''Zea mays ssp. mays ''Zea mays ssp. mexicana '', tomatoThe tomato is a plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family. The taxonomic name is either Solanum lycopersicum or Lycopersicon esculentum depending on the reference. Originating in South and Central America, the tomato is now grown world-wide for its bries, and green pepperThere are several completely different plants referred to by the name of pepper all are used in food for the "hot" sensation that particular chemical components induce on the tongue. Various plants in the family Piperaceae, notably the genus Piper, includs. These are fruits to a botanist, but are generally treated as vegetables in cookingCooking is the act of preparing food for consumption. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour and/or digestibility of food. It generally requires the selection, measurement and combining of ingr. Some spiceFor information on the spice from Frank Herbert's Dune universe, see melange. Spices are strongly flavored or aromatic parts of plants used in small quantities in food as a preservative, or flavouring in cooking. Spices are distinguished from other plants, such as allspiceAllspice also called Jamaica pepper Myrtle pepper Pimento or Newspice is a spice which is the dried unripe fruit of the Pimenta dioica plant. The name "allspice" was coined by the English, who thought it combined the flavour of several spices, such as clo and nutmegNutmeg and mace are two spices derived from the same plant, the nutmeg tree Myristica fragrans The nutmeg tree is indigenous to the Banda Islands of Indonesia but is also grown in the Caribbean, especially in Grenada. Several commercial products are produ, are fruits. Rarely, culinary "fruits" are not fruits in the botanical sense, such as rhubarb in which only the astringent stalk, or petiole, is edible. Indeed, under European Union trade rules a carrot is defined as a fruit, presumably because fruits are taxed at a higher duty and carrot jam is a popular Portuguese dish. The term false fruit is sometimes applied to a fruit, like the fig (a multiple-accessory fruit; see below) or to a plant structure that resembles a fruit but is not derived from a flower or flowers. Some gymnosperms, such as yew, have fleshy arils that resemble fruits and some junipers have berry-like, fleshy cones.
With most fruits pollination is a vital part of fruit culture, and the lack of knowledge of pollinators and pollenizers can contribute to poor crops or poor quality crops. In a few species, the fruit may develop in the absence of pollination/fertilization, a process known as parthenocarpy. Such fruits are seedless. A plant that does not produce fruit is known as acarpous, meaning essentially "without a developing ovule-bearing structure".
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