Berry

~ This article is about the fruit. See also: Berry (province)

In botany, a berry is the most common type of simple fleshy fruit, one in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an (usually) edible pericarp. The ovary is always superior in these flowers, and they have one or more carpels within a thin covering and very fleshy interiors, the seeds embedded in the common flesh of an ovary that is either single or multi-carpelate. Examples of berries are grape and tomato, but many other common fruits are considered true berries: citrus fruits like orange and lemon are modified berries; date, avocado, persimmon, egg plant, guava, blueberry, and red pepper are all berries to a botanist.

In plant species with an inferior ovary, the floral tube (including the basal parts of the sepals, petals, and stamens) can ripen along with the ovary, creating an accessory fruit called a false berry. Included in this category are banana, squash fruits like cucumber, squash, watermelon, and pumpkin, currant, cranberry, gooseberry, and muskmelon.

Many berries are small, juicy, and of a bright color contrasting with their background to make them more noticeable to the animals that disperse them and thus scatter the seeds of the plant.

In common parlance and cuisine, the term "berry" refers to small, sweet fruits; in this sense, the strawberry is a berry and the tomato is not. Other culinary berries that are not botanical berries are blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries, and boysenberries.