Plum is a berry or a fruit? Plum is a tree or shrub?

Plum is a fruit plant from a large family of Roses (Rosaceae). Many fruit and berry crops well-known to children and adults refer to the same systematic group: apple, cherry, cherry, apricot, peach, strawberry, raspberry. Let's look at the question, which most often sounds like this: "Plum is a berry or a fruit?". There is nothing surprising in that many are confused in terms.

Plum - a berry or a fruit?

Among the fruit trees of the plum take an honorable place, because from ancient times people grow it for the sake of harvesting. Prepared from the fruits of plums, thorns, cherry plums, sweet dishes, sauces and spirits. Plum is a tree or shrub with a height of 1 to 6 m. All varietal groups and wild species are high-yielding plants.

Fruit - single-core drupe - is formed on the spot of the flower after fertilization. Before ripening the pericarp for a time remains solid, colored green. As nutrients accumulate, the fetus becomes more juicy, and inside it, in a special nest, a solid bone with a seed is formed.

What are the fruits?

From the Latin language into Russian very long came the term "fruit", not accustomed to scientific use. But in medicine, dietology, cooking and at home, the word is very popular, although not everyone can correctly interpret it. What is the difference between fruit and berries? Plum belongs to which of these two groups?

It is commonly believed that a fruit is the same as a fruit, because that is how the word fructus is translated from Latin. Other edible parts of plants, and the plants themselves, can still belong to such economic groups as vegetables, cereals, nuts. Among fruits, two groups of juicy fruits are distinguished : drupes and berries. They differ in the number of seeds and a number of other characteristics.

We will understand thoroughly: the plum is a fruit or a berry in fact. It is necessary to distinguish between scientific terms and economic definitions. Types of plant fruits in botany vary in the consistency of the pericarp and the number of seeds. There are 4 main groups - dry and juicy, single-seeded and multi-seeded.

What kind of plum does a plum have?

Stones - plums, cherries, apricots - are juicy, contain one seed. The berries are also juicy, but multi-seeded. They arise from one or more carpels. Distinguish completely fleshy berry with a thin skin, like that of grapes, and a leathery berry, in which the pericarp is thick, like an orange. So all the same, the plum is a berry or a fruit? The second concept is more extensive and includes the first, that is, berries - this is the type of fruit (fruit).

Representatives of botanical science, without hesitation, will determine: the plum is a berry or a fruit. Seeing the juicy fruits of plums and grapes, they will say that they have a drupe and a berry before them. A nutritionist, a trade worker, an ordinary person will explain that both are fruits. All will be right in their reasoning and conclusions. Thus, the plum is not a berry. Here it should be recalled that berries can also be classified as fruits, that in economic activities, life is not considered a mistake. After all, all these are fruits (Latin fructus).

Plum refers to trees or shrubs?

According to the external appearance of plants can be attributed to different life forms. The main ones are the following groups: trees, shrubs, grassy plants, lianas. Life forms are a kind of adaptation to conditions of existence.

After we have easily understood the above problem - the plum is a berry or a fruit - it will be more difficult to answer the question about the life form. In appearance, plants belonging to the genus Plum are low trees and shrubs. The most common type is a garden garden plum. In the wild, a tree is found in the Caucasus.

Variety of species of the subgenus Prunus

Until now, in the forests, along the ravines and ravines, wild plums are found, but most of the species belonging to this subgenus have long been cultivated. They give rich harvests of medium and large fruits of different colors with a characteristic flat bone inside. Their length usually exceeds the thickness by 1.5 times, the diameter is from 1-3 cm. New varieties are produced, giving large fruits up to 8 cm in size, sweet to taste or sourish. Common species in Eurasia:

- Home garden - the usual view for the middle zone of Russia.
- Barbed, thorn, bramble - a small, very prickly shrub with blue fruits.
- Spreaded, cherry plum - tree, reaching a height of 8 m. It is found in the wild in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
- Ussuriyskaya - wildly dwells in Primorye and cultivated for the sake of fruits in Eastern Siberia.
- Chinese - is grown in China, Japan, Korea. The fruits are sweet and sour, are widely used in cooking and winemaking.
- Pissardi - an ornamental tree with beautiful pink petals and dark red foliage. Used in landscape design.

When you see a bush of blackthorn, there is bewilderment: is this really a plum? Berry or fruit - its dark blue small fruit? Alycha also causes surprise with its fruit bearing. Although this tree looks like a plum, but the color of its rich harvest is unusual - red and yellow (less often there are purple and blue fruits).

Useful qualities of plum

People use the fruits of wild and cultivated plants for food, for processing into juices, jams, jams, and fillings, as a filling for baking, as medicinal raw materials. Plum home is grown for the sake of succulent drupes with a bluish coating. The fruits of the domestic plum contain:

• Carbohydrates (fructose, glucose);
• Vitamins C, A, P, group B;
• Organic acids;
• tannins;
• Microelements;
• Pectin.

Preparations from flesh pulp and plum seeds are used in folk and official medicine. Prunes are used in dietary nutrition, confectionery production. Plum blooms early and abundantly, even before the leaves are completely blossomed. Trees and shrubs look very elegant, valued in landscape design.

Traditionally, in the XX century, two types of varieties were distinguished: the Hungarian and the Renklod. The first are represented by trees and bushes with blue-violet rounded or elongated fruits. Renkloids often have spherical fruits of greenish color. Now the main direction is the removal of undersized subspecies, interspecific crossing and the production of hybrids, for example, plum and apricot.