Horticulture Principles and Practices

(a)
(b)
FIGURE 2–8 A climbing plant. To climb, such plants have various structural adaptations for holding onto physical
support nearby, such as a (a) stake or a (b) wall. (Source: George Acquaah)
climbing plants that simply wrap their stringy stems around their support, as occurs in
sweet potato (Ipomea batatas). Another group of climbers develop cylindrical structures
called tendrils that are used to coil around the support on physical contact.
An example of a plant that climbs by this method is the garden pea (Pisum sativum).
The third mode of climbing is by adventitious roots formed on aerial parts of the
plant, as found in the English ivy (Hedera helix) and Philodendron.
2.3.4 CLASSIFICATION OF FRUITS
Fruits can be classified on a botanical basis and for several operational purposes.
Fruit
A mature ovary.
Botanical Classification
Fruits exhibit a variety of apparent differences that may be used for classification. Some
fruits are borne on herbaceous plants and others on woody plants. A very common
operational way of classifying fruits is according to fruit succulence and texture on
maturity and ripening. On this basis there are two basic kinds of fruits—fleshy fruits and
dry fruits. However, anatomically, fruits are distinguished by the arrangement of the
carpels from which they developed. A carpel is sometimes called the pistil (consisting of
a stigma, style, and ovary), the female reproductive structure.
A fruit is a mature ovary. The ovary may have one or more carpels. Even though the
fruit is a mature ovary, some fruits include other parts of the flower and are called accessory
fruits. Combining carpel number, succulence characteristics, and anatomical features,
fruits may be classified into three kinds, simple, multiple, or aggregate (Figure 2–9).
Simple fruits develop from a single carpel or sometimes from the fusing together
of several carpels. This group of fruits is very diverse. When mature and ripe, the fruit
may be soft and fleshy, dry and woody, or have a papery texture. There are three types
of fleshy fruits.
46 Chapter 2 Classifying and Naming Horticultural Plants