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Epigynous berry   [ Botany ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Synonym: False berry 
     
  An epigynous berry (also called false berry) is a pulpy, juicy indehiscent accessory frui with one to many seeds which are not encased in a stone in which the entire ovary wall ripens into a fleshy pericarp and derives from either a single or compound (syncarpous) pistil.  
     

A false berry of Eriosyce napina ssp. lembckei var. duripulpa
It is always formed from an inferior ovary, in which the floral tube (hypanthium) including the basal parts of the sepals, petals, and stamens) ripen along with the ovary. False berries are usually dispersed by animals that eat them. The seeds pass through their bodies and are excreted.
(For example banana, cucumber, blueberry , prickly pears)

Compare with berry  (a simple fruit  that derives from a superior ovary.)

The fruit of Cactaceae - usually regarded as berry - are indeed epigynous (or false) berry because the outer layer of the fruit derives from the floral tube (hypanthium) and contain stem tissue, for this reason the fruit of many cacti show some stem characteristic like areole, spines, hairs, scale and glochids (in Opuntioideae)

 

   

 


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Holdfast roots  [ Botany  ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

 
     
  Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.  
     
Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans),  develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994
     

 

 

 

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