Funny Avocado Fruit

The avocado is a species of plant in the laurel family (Lauraceae). The fruit is a berry from a botanical point of view and has historically been given many other, now rare, names such as avocado pear, alligator pear or butterfruit.

The tree originated in the warm and humid tropical rainforests of Mexico and Central America. Today, it is cultivated in over 400 cultivars worldwide in the tropics as well as in Turkey, South Africa, Israel, California, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Australia, New Zealand, southern Spain (Malaga, Canary Islands and the coast of the province of Granada), Portugal and in Africa. In the Mediterranean region, the avocado has been cultivated since the beginning of the 20th century. There are also very similar wild fruits of the related plant species Beilschmiedia anay and Beilschmiedia mexicana, also laurel family, from Mexico, as well as the wild avocados of Persea schiedeana. These avocado-like fruits are also used locally and very much appreciated.

The fruit (from Latin fructus, in technical terms karp- from Ancient Greek) or fruits of a plant is the totality of the organs that arise from a flower and enclose the plant seeds until they ripen. Fruits form in principle only those plants which have a closed ovary (angiosperms). In the case of gymnosperms, which include conifers and ginkgo trees, only free seeds are formed.

In addition to the carpel, the following organs can be involved in the formation of a fruit: Axillary tissue (for example, the receptacle), perianth, glumes. The fruit is used for dispersal. Depending on whether the seeds are enclosed by the fruit or released when ripe, a distinction is made between closed and open or spreading fruits. In common usage, fruits are also understood to include fruit and a clear distinction is not always made between the seeds and the fruit. Edible plant parts which, according to different definitions, are assigned to vegetables on the one hand and fruits on the other, are referred to as fruiting vegetables.

Fruits can be classified according to various criteria:
After closure of the ripe seeds: If the pericarp opens after fruit ripening and releases seeds, it is called an opening or scattered fruit. If, on the other hand, the pericarp remains closed and falls off the plant together with the seeds as a whole, it is called a closing fruit. If the seeds are still enclosed by the pericarp at maturity, but the pericarp falls apart into several units that may contain one or more seeds, it is called a decay fruit. By water content: Dry fruits: the seeds are contained in a dry and hard pericarp. They may occur as opening fruits (e.g., pea), closing fruits (e.g., nuts), and cleavage fruits (e.g., maple).  Sap fruits: in berries, the pericarp becomes fleshy and juicy in all its parts, contains sugar and is often colored; in drupes, only the mesocarp and exocarp.