pericarp

views updated Jun 11 2018

pericarp (fruit wall) The part of a fruit that develops from the ovary wall of a flower. The type of fruit that develops depends on whether the pericarp becomes dry and hard or soft and fleshy. The pericarp can be made up of three layers. The outer skin (epicarp or exocarp) may be tough and hard; the middle layer (mesocarp) may be succulent as in peach, hard as in almond, or fibrous as in coconut; and the inner layer (endocarp) may be hard and stony as in many drupes, membranous as in citrus fruits, or indistinguishable from the mesocarp, as in many berries.

A Dictionary of Biology

pericarp

views updated May 23 2018

per·i·carp / ˈperiˌkärp/ • n. Bot. the part of a fruit formed from the wall of the ripened ovary.

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English

pericarp

views updated Jun 27 2018

pericarp XVIII. — F. péricarpe — Gr. perikárpion pod, husk, shell, f. PERI- + karpós fruit.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD

pericarp

views updated Jun 08 2018

pericarp The fruit wall, often with 3 distinct, layers, endocarp, mesocarp, and outer exocarp.

A Dictionary of Plant Sciences MICHAEL ALLABY

pericarp

views updated Jun 08 2018

pericarp The fibrous layers next to the outer husk of cereal grains and outside the testa; of low digestibility and removed from grain during milling. The major constituent of bran.

A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition DAVID A. BENDER

pericarp

views updated May 21 2018

pericarp In seed plants, the wall of a ripened fruit that is derived from the ovary wall. The tissues of the pericarp may be fibrous, stony, or fleshy.

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