U

drupe

noun Botany.

any fruit, as a peach, cherry, plum, etc., consisting of an outer skin, a usually pulpy and succulent middle layer, and a hard and woody inner shell usually enclosing a single seed.

noun

an indehiscent fruit consisting of outer epicarp, fleshy or fibrous mesocarp, and stony endocarp enclosing a single seed, as in the peach, plum, and cherry

1753, from Modern Latin drupa “stone-fruit,” from Latin drupa (oliva) “wrinkled olive,” from Greek dryppa, short for drypepes “tree-ripened,” from drys “tree” + pepon “ripe” (see pumpkin).

A simple fruit derived from a single carpel. A drupe usually contains a single seed enclosed by a hardened endocarp, which often adheres closely to the seed within. In peaches, plums, cherries, and olives, a fleshy edible mesocarp surrounds the endocarp (the pit or stone). In the coconut, a fibrous mesocarp (the husk) surrounds the endocarp (the shell), while the white edible portion is the endosperm. Compare berry pome. See more at simple fruit.