page_title: Berry (botany)
section_title: Botanical berries
hierarchical_section_title: Berry (botany) / Botanical berries
context_page_description: In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit without a stone produced from a single flower containing one ovary. Berries so defined include grapes, currants, and tomatoes, as well as cucumbers, eggplants 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. The seeds are usually embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary, but there are some non-fleshy exceptions, such as peppers, 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.
  A plant that bears berries is said to be bacciferous or baccate.
  In everyday English, a "berry" is any small edible fruit. Berries are usually juicy, round, brightly coloured, sweet or sour, and do not have a stone or pit, although many small seeds may be present.
context_section_description: In botanical language, a berry is a simple fruit having seeds and fleshy pulp (the pericarp) produced from the ovary of a single flower. The ovary can be inferior or superior. It is indehiscent, i.e. it does not have a special "line of weakness" along which it splits to release the seeds when ripe. The pericarp is divided into three layers. The outer layer is called the "exocarp" or "epicarp"; the middle layer, the "mesocarp" or "sarcocarp"; the inner layer, the "endocarp". Botanists have not applied these terms consistently. Exocarp and endocarp may be restricted to more-or-less single-layered "skins", or may include tissues adjacent to them; thus on one view, the exocarp extends inwards to the layer of vascular bundles ("veins"). The inconsistency in usage has been described as "a source of confusion".
  The nature of the endocarp distinguishes a berry from a drupe, which has a hardened or stony endocarp (see also below). The two kinds of fruit intergrade, depending on the state of the endocarp. Some sources have attempted to quantify the difference, e.g. requiring the endocarp to be less than 2 mm thick in a berry.
  Examples of botanical berries include:
  Avocado contains a single large seed surrounded by an imperceptible endocarp. Avocados are however also sometimes classified as drupes.
  Banana
  Barberry (Berberis), Oregon-grape (Mahonia aquifolium) and mayapple (Podophyllum spp.) (Berberidaceae)
  Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) (not to be confused with the strawberry (Fragaria), which is an accessory fruit), bearberry (Arctostaphylos spp.), bilberry, blueberry, cranberry, lingonberry/cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), crowberry (Empetrum spp.) (family Ericaceae)
  coffee berries (Rubiaceae) (also described as drupes)
  Gooseberry and currant (Ribes spp.; Grossulariaceae), red, black, and white types
  Aubergine/Eggplant, tomato, goji berries (wolfberry) and other species of the family Solanaceae
  Elderberry (Sambucus niger; Adoxaceae)
  Indian gooseberry (Phyllanthus emblica) (Phyllanthaceae)
  Garcinia gummi-gutta, Garcinia mangostana (mangosteen) and Garcinia indica in the family Clusiaceae
  Sapodilla (Manilkara zapota), Sapotaceae
  Grape, Vitis vinifera in the family Vitaceae
  Honeysuckle: the berries of some species are edible and are called honeyberries, but others are poisonous (Lonicera spp.; Caprifoliaceae)
  Persimmon (Ebenaceae)
  Pumpkin, cucumber and watermelon in the family Cucurbitaceae
caption: Diagram of a grape berry, showing the pericarp and its layers