A Brief Look at Pome Fruits

A Brief Look at Pome Fruits

There are many kinds of fruits.  For example, some fruits are berries and others are drupes.  In today’s post we take a brief look at a certain kind of fruit, pomes.

Generally, What is a Pome Fruit, and What are Some Examples?

A pome fruit is a fruit that has a few basic characteristics.  In a general sense, they are fruits that have a fruit flesh surrounding a core with seeds.  An example of a pome fruit is an apple.  Other examples include things like pears, loquats, and quinces.

What Makes a Pome Fruit Different Than a Berry?

Generally, as mentioned, pome fruits have seeds in a core.  Berries have seeds that are spread throughout the fruit.  Although you might not think of them as such, tomatoes are classified as berries.  They have fruit flesh and seeds throughout.  Other examples of berries are citrus fruits and bananas.  If you look at their structure, they have fruit flesh and seeds that are throughout, rather than seeds that are in a core in the center.

What’s the Basic Internal Structure of a Pome Fruit?

If you cut into a pome fruit you would find different sections.

In the center you would find seeds.  These seeds are surrounded by something called an endocarp.  It is tough and makes a pocket for the seeds.  Around the endocarp is the fruit flesh, and it is called the mesocarp (although this isn’t the fruit flesh you typically eat).  Around this is a layer called the exocarp.  This core comes from the female parts of the flower being fused together.  This core is the actual fruit and it is the main thing that separates pome fruits from other types of fruit.  The part around the core, which you eat, is called the hypanthium.  Around this, is the skin of the fruit, and it is called the epicarp.

Here is a short animated video that shows how an apple (a pome fruit) forms.

It gives a basic idea and can give you an idea of where the part of the apple you eat, the hypanthium, comes from.  The hypanthium is the receptacle of the flower that gets enlarged.

On this page, you can see a cut apple with the different parts labeled.

Pome fruits are a type of accessory fruit.  Accessory fruits are those that are made of parts of the plant in addition to the ovaries of the plant.

What Family are Pome Fruits From?

Pome fruits come from the family Rosaceae.  This is the family for roses.  They are from plants that are part of a subtribe of it named Malinae.  Lots of plants, even those you might not think of, come from the family Rosaceae.  Examples of this are trees such as peaches and some types of almond.

What Types of Trees Produce Pome Fruits?

Trees which produce pome fruits are trees that go dormant during the winter.  We’ve mentioned chill hours before, and these types of trees require certain amounts to produce fruit properly.

If you liked learning about pome fruits, check out our other posts on our TrueTreeTalk blog.  Follow us on Facebook to keep up with these and other posts.

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