What is the scientific name for the flesh of a fruit?

Question

And is the name different for say, a banana and a tomato?

Botanical; I'm trying to understand the ripening and decay (or digestion) of fruit in terms of what *remains the same* during the process, as opposed to the obvious things that change.

Answer 1

The first answerer was mostly correct. But it varies depending on the fruit.

When you say "fruit" are you referring to the botanical definition or the culinary definition?


Apples (the part that you eat) for example are the petals.



This wikipedia article is pretty good, and you can click on terms that you don't understand:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit



EDIT:
Think of the fruit as the ripening ovary of the flower. That ovary can be divided into the exocarp, the mesocarp and the endocarp. But sometimes, other parts can fuse with the exocarp, for example.

If you take a look at the wikipedia article, you will see why I'm not going into more detail. It starts getting more complicated quickly.

The study of fruits took up about 1/3 of the semester in both my plant anatomy and plant morphology classes.

Let me know if you have more questions or would like me to elaborate.

Answer 2

mesocarp