Fruit vegetables are collectively one of the many high-value crops that entrepreneurial farmers grow.

Consequently, many companies engage in the breeding of superior varieties of vegetable crops such as tomato, eggplant, peppers (Capsicum), bitter gourd, bottle gourd, string beans, and many more.

These vegetables are a common scene in wet market stalls. Likewise, these are commonly grown in residential backyards.

Some even utilize the boundary fences as trellises for climbing plants such as string beans or pole sitao, lima beans, and winged beans.

Standing trees are likewise used for climbers with relatively large fruits like bottle gourd, luffa, and chayote.

But did you know that one fruit vegetable became the subject of a legal controversy?

In the case of tomatoes, the issue of whether it was a fruit or a vegetable had to be decided by the US Supreme Court. Click here to read.

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The functions of fruits in the angiosperms are mainly in relation to reproduction by which plants perpetuate their species.

The fruit is in fact described as a reproductive organ of plants just like the flower and seed.

However, the functions that fruits perform in reproduction are indirect. 

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Simple fruits are those fruits in the angiosperms that develop from a single ovary of one flower.

This ovary may be either simple or compound. Unit fruits or true fruits are those that represent the individual components of an aggregate or multiple fruits.

Various types of fruits are here listed and described.

However, there are fruits having characteristics that do not perfectly fit into the specific description of any fruit type for which such terms as drupe-like, berry-like, and nut-like are used.

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What is a fruit? This question is always asked in association with another question “What is a vegetable?”

These questions are repeatedly asked and without doubt, will be asked over and over again.

The reason is that the word fruit has many meanings based on various criteria. It can refer to a part of a plant, a type of tree or crop, or a particular food item.

As to vegetables, there is a special classification called fruit vegetables which refers to crops in which botanical fruits are harvested primarily for use in culinary preparations, such as tomato and squash.

Indeed, based on common usage, fruits refer to the plant structure having sweet, edible portions and generally consumed raw as contrasted to vegetables which refer to edible plant parts which are generally consumed cooked but some in raw form as a salad.

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“Alright class, draw a complete flower showing its parts.”

That was the instruction of a teacher who gave a surprise quiz to assess the basic learning of his students about plant structures.

To his surprise when he checked the papers, some drew a potted mature plant complete with the parts of the shoot from trunk to blossoms. It elicited a grin, nonetheless.

On second thought, it should not be a surprise.

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Various types of pollination occur in seed plants.

As to plant-to-plant pollen transfer, two types exist self-pollination and cross-pollination.

Classification has also been made according to agents of pollination.

Having a sufficient understanding of these pollination mechanisms is important in crop agriculture.

Knowing the normal mode of pollination of any crop can accelerate crop improvement works because plant breeding methods are pollination type-dependent.

Proper cultural management practices, such as in relation to pests and diseases control and biodiversity, can be identified to favor populations of animal pollinators.

The process of pollination precedes fruit and seed formation in the angiosperms and seed formation in the gymnosperms.

Both fruits and seeds perform functions in plant reproduction. In particular, the seeds serve as the major, immediate, direct progenitors of new plants.

In addition, many agricultural crops are grown for the primary purpose of producing either fruits or seeds or both.

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