Fruits Charts, Botany, School Education

Quick Answer: Fruits Charts are botany wall charts that classify fruits and show their internal structure, using labelled drawings of familiar examples such as mango, tomato, apple and pea pod. Teachers use them to explain how fruits form from the ovary and how they are grouped.

How Fruits Are Classified

A botanical fruit is the ripened ovary of a flower, and fruit charts usually begin there, contrasting true fruits with false fruits such as the apple, where the fleshy part develops from the thalamus rather than the ovary. The fruit wall, or pericarp, is labelled in three layers: epicarp (skin), mesocarp and endocarp. In a mango the endocarp forms the hard stone, while in a tomato the whole pericarp is fleshy.

Classification panels divide fruits into simple fruits from one ovary (fleshy types such as the berry, drupe, pome and hesperidium, and dry types such as the legume, capsule, caryopsis and nut), aggregate fruits from a flower with several free carpels, such as custard apple and strawberry, and composite or multiple fruits formed from a whole inflorescence, such as jackfruit, pineapple and mulberry. Seed dispersal by wind, water, animals and explosion is another common panel.

Specifications

Care & Handling

• During cut-fruit practicals, keep the charts on the wall, well away from juice and seeds on the bench.
• Keep them out of bright sun; the colours of the mango, orange and tomato sections help students match chart to specimen.
• Roll loosely for storage to avoid creases through the section drawings.

Applications

• Practicals in which students cut fruits and identify the type and pericarp layers
• Teaching the link between flower structure and fruit formation
• Seed dispersal lessons with collected seeds and fruits
• Revision of fruit types with examples

Why Choose LabEquip

Schools usually buy fruits charts together with the Flower Charts, since fruit formation follows directly from flower structure. The wider Educational Charts range has other botany titles, and orders go through the contact page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a true fruit and a false fruit?

A true fruit develops only from the ovary. In a false fruit, other flower parts such as the thalamus also form part of the fruit; the apple is the usual example, where the fleshy part we eat is swollen thalamus.

What are the three layers of the pericarp?

The outer epicarp forms the skin, the middle mesocarp is often the fleshy part, and the inner endocarp surrounds the seed. In a mango the endocarp is the hard stone.

Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

Botanically it is a fruit, a berry that develops from the ovary and contains seeds. In cooking it is treated as a vegetable, which makes it a good discussion example.

What is the difference between aggregate and composite fruits?

An aggregate fruit develops from one flower with several separate carpels, as in custard apple. A composite or multiple fruit develops from a whole cluster of flowers, as in jackfruit and pineapple.

How are seeds and fruits dispersed?

By wind (winged or hairy seeds such as drumstick and cotton), water (floating fruits such as coconut), animals (fleshy fruits that are eaten, or hooked fruits that cling to fur) and explosion (pods such as balsam that burst open).

How can students use the chart in a practical?

Give each group a few cut fruits, ask them to name the fruit type and label the pericarp using the chart, then check their answers against the classification panel.

Last Updated: September 2026