Multiple fruit

{{Short description|Fruiting bodies formed from a cluster of fruiting flowers (inflorescence)}}

Image:Pineapple 'Victoria' with slice.jpg

Multiple fruits, also called collective fruits, are fruiting bodies formed from a cluster of flowers, the inflorescence. Each flower in the inflorescence produces a fruit, but these mature into a single mass.{{cite book |last= Schlegel |title= Encyclopedic Dictionary of Plant Breeding and Related Subjects |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7J-3fD67RqwC&q=acarpous&pg=PA282

|page=282|isbn= 9781560229506 |date= 2003-05-13 |publisher= Taylor & Francis }} After flowering, the mass is called an infructescence.{{cite book |author1=Hickey, M. |author2=King, C. |year=2001 |title=The Cambridge Illustrated Glossary of Botanical Terms |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}{{cite book |author1=Beentje, H. |author2=Williamson, J. |year=2010 |title=The Kew Plant Glossary: an Illustrated Dictionary of Plant Terms |publisher=Kew Publishing |location=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew}} Examples are the fig, pineapple, mulberry, osage orange, and jackfruit.

In contrast, an aggregate fruit such as a raspberry develops from multiple ovaries of a single flower. In languages other than English, the meanings of "multiple" and "aggregate" fruit are reversed, so that multiple fruits merge several pistils within a single flower.{{cite journal |author1=Spjut, R. |author2=Thieret, J. |year=1989 |title=Confusion between multiple and aggregate fruits |journal=The Botanical Review |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=53–72 |doi=10.1007/bf02868781|bibcode=1989BotRv..55...53S |s2cid=24994626 }}

In some cases, the infructescences are similar in appearance to simple fruits. One example is pineapple (Ananas), which is formed from the fusion of the berries with receptacle tissues and bracts.{{Cite web |title=Multiple Fruits, Pineapple Multiple Fruit, Examples of Multiple Fruits, Types of Multiple Fruits |url=https://www.fruitsinfo.com/multiple-fruit.php |access-date=2022-03-18 |website=www.fruitsinfo.com}}{{Cite web |title=Multiple Fruits |url=https://science.jburroughs.org/resources/flower/fruit5.html |access-date=2022-03-18 |website=science.jburroughs.org |archive-date=2022-01-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220108103359/https://science.jburroughs.org/resources/flower/fruit5.html |url-status=dead }}

Image:Noni fruit dev.jpg, flowers are produced continuously and it is possible to see examples of flowering, fruit development and fruit ripening together on a single stem.]]

As shown in the photograph of the noni, stages of flowering and fruit development in the noni or Indian mulberry (Morinda citrifolia) can be observed on a single branch. First an inflorescence of white flowers called a head is produced. After fertilization, each flower develops into a drupe, and as the drupes expand, they become connate (merge) into a multiple fleshy fruit called a syncarp. There are also many dry multiple fruits.{{Cn|date=June 2021}}

Other examples of multiple fruits:

• Plane tree, multiple achenes from multiple flowers, in a single fruit structure
• Mulberry, multiple flowers form one fruit
• Breadfruit, multiple flowers form one fruit
• Fig, multiple flowers similar to mulberry infructescence form a multiple fruit inside the inverted inflorescence. This form is called a syconium.