caryopsis
Sign in to savethumb|An assortment of different caryopses. thumb|Wheat spikelet with the three anthers sticking out.|right thumb|Caryopsis cross-section.|right In botany, a caryopsis () is a type of simple fruit—one that is monocarpellate (formed from a single carpel) and indehiscent (not opening at maturity) and resembles an achene, except that in a caryopsis the pericarp is fused with the thin seed coat.
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Encyclopedic overview
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- Etymology
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thumb|An assortment of different caryopses. thumb|Wheat spikelet with the three anthers sticking out.|right thumb|Caryopsis cross-section.|right In botany, a caryopsis () is a type of simple fruit—one that is monocarpellate (formed from a single carpel) and indehiscent (not opening at maturity) and resembles an achene, except that in a caryopsis the pericarp is fused with the thin seed coat.
The caryopsis is popularly called a grain and is the fruit typical of the family Poaceae (or Gramineae), which includes wheat, rice, maize, and oat.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “caryopsis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.