Confusion between multiple and aggregate fruits

Abstract

The definitions of aggregate and multiple fruits, and the classification of these fruits, are reviewed chronologically, beginning in 1751 with Linnaeus’Philosophia botanica. In 1788, Joseph Gaertner defined a multiple fruit as one derived from many ovaries in a single flower, and a compound fruit as one derived from many ovaries of many flowers; in 1813, Augustin de Candolle referred to Gaertner’s compound fruits as aggregate fruits. Gaertner’s 1788 definition of multiple and de Candolle’s 1813 definition of aggregate (compound) fruits have been employed in non-English botanical textbooks for nearly two centuries, but equivalent English books currently give opposite meanings for these terms. We have traced the modern English definitions of aggregate and multiple fruits to John Lindley’s 1832Introduction to botany. The long history of confusion over the meanings of multiple and aggregate (compound) fruits is only one example of a need to stabilize descriptive fruit terminology; in such cases where an established meaning is not clear we suggest that priority be applied—i.e., application of those terms follow Gaertner. Since classification of fruits is in chaos, we urge authors to reference their use of fruit terminology to an authoritative source.