#infructescence

Coldplay - Strawberry Swing

Did you know that the Strawberry is not a fruit?

The strawberry is not, from a botanical point of view, a berry. Technically, it is an aggregate accessory fruit, meaning that the fleshy part is derived not from the plant's ovaries but from the receptacle that holds the ovaries. Each apparent "seed" (achene) on the outside of the fruit is actually one of the ovaries of the flower, with a seed inside it.

The Strawberry is a Infructescence.

Infructescence (fruiting head) is defined as the ensemble of fruits derived from the ovaries of an inflorescence. It usually retains the size and structure of the inflorescence.

In some cases, infructescences are similar in appearance to simple fruits. These are called multiple fruits.

Strawberry surface, showing achenes.

Strawberry Flower

The Infructescence - the globose “wind ball” or seed ball - of the sand dune inhabiting Spinifex littoreus, probably the second most successful beach plant after Ipomoea pes-caprae, in terms of the pervasiveness of its colonization of the tropical coastline, an achievement all the more remarkable considering that it DOES NOT use insects either for its pollination or its seed dispersal, relying EXCLUSIVELY on the wind for both functions - it a dioecious, anemophilous species.