Essays, botanical travelogues, and other resources provided for students, instructors and anyone else seeking a deeper understanding of the nature of plants. Proceed below for recent posts or go to the Table of Contents (in the column to the right) for an organized list of topics.
The structures of the two fruits are quite different. Blackberries are aggregate fruits , which means that the cluster of drupelets derive from a cone of separate carpels belonging to a single flower. Mulberries on the other hand are technically infructescences , or compound fruits, similar to pineapples. Each drupelet forms from its own tiny flower. So there are fundamental developmental differences that lead to the similar looking fruits.
This might seem like a geeky bit of botanical trivia that would quickly make dinner guests fall asleep, but in the classroom, however, it illustrates some of the most central phenomena of evolution: adaptation , adaptive radiation , and convergent evolution .