noun
- A fruit formed from a flower with separate or distinct carpels that do not fuse together.
Usage: botany; technical
adjective
- Relating to or characterized by carpels that remain separate rather than fused.
Usage: botany; technical
Examples
- The strawberry is technically an apocarp, with each seed-bearing unit derived from a separate carpel.
- Buttercups produce apocarp fruits composed of multiple independent carpels.
- In apocarp flowers, the carpels develop independently without fusing together.
- Botanists classify raspberries as apocarp fruits because they form from distinct carpels.
- The apocarpous structure of the flower allows each carpel to mature separately.