Read the passage and answer the following questions.
In the process of sexual reproduction in angiosperms, the seed serves as the final product. It is formed from a fertilised ovule and is typically enclosed within a fruit. A seed is composed of several parts, including seed coats, cotyledons, and an embryo axis. The cotyledons of the embryo are simple structures that are often thick and swollen, storing food reserves, particularly in legumes. Mature seeds may be albuminous (retaining a part of the endosperm) or non-albuminous (with no residual endosperm). The integuments of the ovules harden to become protective seed coats, and a small pore called the micropyle remains, enabling the entry of oxygen and water during seed germination. As the ovules develop into seeds, the ovary undergoes transformation into a fruit. This simultaneous process involves the ovules turning into seeds, and the ovary walls developing into the fruit's pericarp. Fruits come in different types, including fleshy fruits like guava, orange, and mango, as well as dry fruits such as groundnut and mustard. Many fruits have evolved mechanisms for the dispersal of seeds.
True fruits are derived from:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → The ovary alone.
As the ovules mature into seeds, the ovary develops into a fruit. In most plants the other floral parts degenerate and fall off, so the fruit develops only from the ovary. Such fruits are called true fruits. When the thalamus also contributes to the fruit, as in apple, strawberry and cashew, the fruit is called a false fruit.
Option (1) The ovary and thalamus. — Incorrect. A fruit formed from the ovary together with the thalamus is a false fruit, as in apple and strawberry, not a true fruit.
Option (2) The ovary alone. — Correct. True fruits develop from the ovary alone; the other floral parts fall off.
Option (3) Accessory floral parts only. — Incorrect. A fruit develops from the ovary. In false fruits such as apple, strawberry and cashew the thalamus also contributes, but accessory parts do not form a fruit on their own.
Option (4) Ovules without fertilisation. — Incorrect. Ovules develop into seeds, not fruits. A fruit that forms without fertilisation is a parthenocarpic fruit, and it too comes from the ovary.
NCERT Extract:
Seed – “… In most plants, by the time the fruit develops from the ovary, other floral parts degenerate and fall off. However, in a few species such as apple, strawberry, cashew, etc., the thalamus also contributes to fruit formation. Such fruits are called false fruits …. Most fruits however develop only from the ovary and are called true fruits.”