Drupe, in botany, simple fleshy fruit that usually contains a single seed, such as the cherry, peach, and olive. As a simple fruit, a drupe is derived from a single ovary of an individual flower. The outer layer of the ovary wall is a thin skin or peel, the middle layer is thick and usually fleshy (though sometimes tough, as in the almond, or fibrous, as in the coconut), and the inner layer, known as the pit, or putamen, is hard and stony. The pit, which is often confused with the seed itself, usually has one seed or, rarely, two or three, in which case only one develops fully. Other representative drupes are the mango, walnut, and dogwood.

nectarines Nectarine fruits (Prunus persica). © alexlukin/Fotolia

walnut A cracked walnut, showing the shell and the seed inside. © Iurii Konoval/Shutterstock.com

Britannica Quiz This or That? Fruit vs. Vegetable potato

In some aggregate fruits, such as the raspberry and blackberry—which are not true berries—many small drupes are clumped together. Formally, these fruits are called aggregates of drupelets. Such fruits are formed of numerous fused carpels (ovule-containing structures) from a single flower.