Fleshy fruit with hard inner layer (endocarp or stone) surrounding the seed
Diagram of a typical drupe (peach), showing bothfruit andseedThe development sequence of a typical drupe, a smooth-skinned (nectarine) type of peach (Prunus persica) over a7+1⁄2-month period, from bud formation in early winter to fruit ripening in midsummer
Inbotany, adrupe (orstone fruit) is a type offruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, andmesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (thepip (UK),pit (US),stone, orpyrena) of hardenedendocarp with aseed (kernel) inside. Drupes do not split open to release the seed, i.e., they areindehiscent.[1] These fruits usually develop from a singlecarpel, and mostly from flowers withsuperior ovaries[1] (polypyrenous drupes are exceptions).
The definitive characteristic of a drupe is that the hard, woody (lignified) stone is derived from theovary wall of theflower. In anaggregate fruit, which is composed of small, individual drupes (such as araspberry), each individual is termed adrupelet, and may together form an aggregate fruit.[2] Such fruits are often termedberries, although botanists use adifferent definition ofberry. Otherfleshy fruits may have a stony enclosure that comes from the seed coat surrounding the seed, but such fruits are not drupes.
The boundary between a drupe and a berry is not always clear. Thus, some sources describe the fruit of species from the genusPersea, which includes theavocado, as a drupe;[4] others describe the avocado as a berry.[5] One definition of berry requires the endocarp to be less than2 mm (3⁄32 in) thick, other fruits with a stony endocarp being drupes. In marginal cases, terms such asdrupaceous ordrupe-like are sometimes used.[6]
Afreestone is a drupe with a stone that can easily be removed from the flesh.[7]Aclingstone is a drupe with a stone which cannot easily be removed from the flesh.[8] Atryma is a nut-like drupe. Hickory nuts (Carya) andwalnuts (Juglans) in theJuglandaceae family grow within an outer husk; these fruits are technically drupes or drupaceous nuts, not true botanicalnuts.[5][9]
Many drupes, with their sweet, fleshy outer layer, attract the attention of animals as food, and the plant benefits from the resultingdispersal of its seeds.[10]
Thecoconut is a drupe, itsmesocarp a dry or fibroushusk, its endocarp a hard shell.[12]
Bramble fruits such as theblackberry and theraspberry are aggregates of drupelets. The fruit of blackberries and raspberries comes from a single flower whosepistil is made up of a number of free carpels.[13] However,mulberries, which closely resemble blackberries, are not aggregates butmultiple fruits.[14]
^Meyer, Deborah J. Lionakis."Seed Development and Structure in Floral Crops". CABI. p. 132. Retrieved28 May 2025.In a drupe, the pericarp is divided into three layers: a leathery exocarp, a fleshy mesocarp and a hard endocarp. The endocarp usually surrounds the seed after the fleshy part of the fruit disintegrates (e.g. O. europaea and Prunus L.).
^Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. 1968.Excursion Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University PressISBN0-521-04656-4
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