[[Image:Berries (USDA ARS).jpg|250px|thumb|right|Several types of "berries" from the market.]]
[[Image:Berries (USDA ARS).jpg|250px|thumb|right|Several types of "berries" from the market.]]
[[Image:Rainforestwildberry.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Wild berry from Sumatran rainforest]]
The term '''berry''', in common parlance and in [[cuisine]], refers generically to any small, edible fruit with multiple seeds. [[fruit#Aggregate fruit|Aggregate fruits]] such as the [[blackberry]], the [[raspberry]], and the [[boysenberry]] are also berries in this sense, but not the botanical.
These fruits tend to be small, sweet, juicy, and of a bright color contrasting with their background to make them more attractive to animals that eat them, thus [[biological dispersal|dispersing]] the seeds of the plant.
In [[botany]], the '''berry''' is the most common type of simple fleshy [[fruit]]; a fruit in which the entire [[ovary (plants)|ovary]] wall ripens into an edible [[pericarp]]. The flowers of these plants have a [[ovary (plants)#superior ovary|superior ovary]] and they have one or more [[carpel]]s within a thin covering and very fleshy interiors. The [[seed]]s are embedded in the common flesh of the ovary. Examples of botanical berries include the [[tomato]], [[grape]], [[litchi]], [[kumquat]], [[plantain]], [[avocado]], [[persimmon]], [[eggplant]], [[guava]], [[uchuva]] (ground cherry), and [[chile pepper]].
The fruit of [[citrus]], such as the [[orange (fruit)|orange]] and [[lemon]], is a modified berry called a ''[[hesperidium]]''. The fruit of [[cucumber]]s and their relatives are modified berries called "[[Pepo|pepoes]]". A plant that bears berries is referred to as ''bacciferous''.
[[Image:Alaska wild berries.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Alaska wild "berries" from the [[Innoko National Wildlife Refuge]].]]
[[Image:Alaska wild berries.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Alaska wild "berries" from the [[Innoko National Wildlife Refuge]].]]
Pulpy, indehiscent, few- or many-seeded fruit; technically, the pulpy [[fruit]] resulting from a single [[pistil]], containing one or more [[seed]]s but no true [[stone]], as the [[tomato]].
==See also==
{{glossary}}
*[[List of fruits]]
*[[Epigynous berry]]
==External links==
*[http://www.nccpg.com/Default.Aspx?Page.Aspx?Page=161 The National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens] - Description of berries
*[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761576964/Fruit.html Encarta.msn.com] - Differentiation between true berries, pepos, and hesperidia
Pulpy, indehiscent, few- or many-seeded fruit; technically, the pulpy fruit resulting from a single pistil, containing one or more seeds but no true stone, as the tomato.
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