To the ears of those who do not chew a bit of botany, the expression "false fruit" can be negative, as commonly the term "false" has a connotation linked to deception and error.
We do not find any of these elements in false fruits: they are in fact fruits, in which, however, not only the ovary, that is the part that holds the ovules, grows and is enriched with nourishing material, but also other parts, generally the receptacle .
Many of the most classic fruits, starting from the same apple, are not actually real fruits but, in fact, false fruit, or, with a slightly happier expression, compound fruits.
Apple
Apple, false fruit par excellence, one of the most sold and consumed in the world, rooted in the collective subconscious due to its symbolic, fairy-tale and religious connotations.
The reality, botanically speaking, only the core of the apple corresponds to the real fruit, while all the remaining pulp corresponds to the receptacle.
In the apple we find antioxidant phytonutrients, good doses of dietary fiber and flavonoids. True, an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Pear
Like the apple, the pear is a pomacea of ​​the family of Rosaceae, and as in the apple, the real fruit corresponds to the core, seat of the seeds, or the ovary, while the sugary pulp is nothing more than the receptacle.
Pears abound with sugars and fiber but they excel neither in vitamins nor in mineral salts.
Nashi
Always in the generate Pyrus we find the nashi, also a false fruit, as in the aforementioned cases.
An ecstatic relative of the pear, like this one rich in dietary fiber, but lower in sugar and richer in Vitamin C. The range of mineral salts is less extensive.
Quince
In the Rosaceae we also find the generally Cydonia, whose only representative is the famous mela contogna, rich in pectin and vitamin C and very useful for jams.
It shares the same structure of false fruit of the other pome fruit: the fruit resides in the core while the pulp is only the inflorescence that has become rich.
Quince jam, benefits and recipe
Strawberry
La strawberry falls within the false fruits and is the classic case of aggregate fruit: the achaeans, the yellow dots, would be the fruits of the plant, while the rest is the aggregate fruit.
Excellent source of vitamin C and manganese, the strawberry also contains many phytonutrients interesting: anthocyanins, flavonoids, flavanols, flavonols, and acids with antioxidant power. .
Ananas
Like the strawberry, theananas is a coalescence of fruits, we speak in fact not only of false fruit but of compound fruit: the its pulp does not derive from the receptacle but from the pistils (I swayed).
Pineapple is a perennial herb of the Bromeliads directly, and the fruit is rich in vitamin C and manganese.
Pomegranate
The case of the pomegranate is a story in itself. The type of fruit, the pomegranate, is one of a kind, Said balustrade, a particular type of berry coated with a resistant exocarp that protects the seeds covered by the arils, that is the external and edible part of the seed, the famous red grains.
Fico
In fico what they call fruit is actually theinflorescence, a fleshy structure called sycon, typical of the Moraceae; the fruit consists of every single filament contained within, small drupes filiformi.
It is rich in nutrients, trace elements, dietary fiber, vitamins A, B1 and B2.
Melon
Also melons o peponidi they are false fruits: in botanical language it would be one berry derived from the fleshy development of the ovary contained in the carpel, a characteristic modification of the leaves for reproductive purposes, in which this, folding and welding, creates an environment suitable as an ovary.
Il melosine consists mainly of water (about 90%) contains mostly potassium, phosphorus, football, Vitamin C e Vitamin B3, and also niacin, an antioxidant substance.
Watermelon
What has been said for melon also applies towatermelon, another peponide of the Cucurbitaceae belonging to the genus Citrullus and native to the deep south of Africa. Its most important nutrient is an antioxidant, the lycopene, useful in the prevention of tumors and in the fight against free radicals.
It also contains a portion of dietary fiber, proteins, sodium, potassium, iron, calcium, carbohydrates and vitamins of groups A, B1, B2 and C.
Other false fruits
Of note are the common medlar, the Japanese medlar, the hawthorn, the azure, the rowan, the raven pear, the blackberry, the mulberry blackberry (black and white), the raspberry.
Peponidae, apples and compound fruits: let's discover something more
