anthocarps

Noun

anthocarp (plural anthocarps)

1. Lower part of a perianth containing the fruit, the upper part having dropped away, well seen in plants of the family Nyctaginaceae.
2. In the Nyctaginaceae, individual apetalous flowers have a tubular, petaloid calyx that resembles a sympetalous corolla. The lower portion of the calyx tightly enwraps the one-seeded achene and is persistent around the fruit as an anthocarp. The calyx base plus the enclosed seed-bearing achene is the unit of dispersal.
3. A collective, composite or aggregated fruit formed from an entire inflorescence, as in the sorosis of a pineapple or the syconus of a fig.
4. A fruit resulting from many flowers, such as the pineapple; a fruit of which the perianth or the torus forms part.
5. A composite false fruit, consisting of the actual fruit and the perianth.
6. A fruit formed by the union of the floral organs or part of them, with the fruit itself, as in Nyctagineae; also applied to fruits with accessories, sometimes termed pseudocarps, as the strawberry and pineapple.