In
botanical terminology, a
berry is a fleshy
fruit without a stone produced from a single flower containing one
ovary. Berries so defined include
grapes,
currants, and
tomatoes, as well as
cucumbers,
eggplants (aubergines) and
bananas, but exclude certain fruits commonly called berries, such as strawberries and raspberries. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire outer layer of the ovary wall ripens into potentially edible "
pericarp". Berries may be formed from one or more
carpels from the same flower (i.e. from a simple or a compound ovary). The seeds are usually embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary, but there are some non-fleshy exceptions, such as
peppers, with air rather than pulp around their seeds.