Achene

achene

[ə′kēn]

(botany)

A small, dry, indehiscent fruit formed from a simple ovary bearing a single seed.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Achene

 

a monospermous indehiscent fruit of angiospermous plants. An achene consists of two carpels with an inferior ovary; it has a dry, leathery pericarp (in Compositae and Dipsacaceae). Winglike processes, pappi, hooklets, and other formations often develop to promote distribution of the fruit. The achene of Dipsacaceae falls off with a sheath of concresced bracts; in some Compositae (cocklebur, globe thistle) the achene falls off with the sheath of the head.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.