A silique or siliqua (plural ''siliques'' or ''siliquae'') is a type of
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...
(seed
capsule) having two fused
carpels with the length being more than three times the width.
When the length is less than three times the width of the dried fruit it is referred to as a silicle.
The outer walls of the ovary (the ''valves'') usually separate when ripe, then being named ''dehiscent'', and leaving a persistent partition (the ''replum''). ''Siliques'' are present in many members of the mustard family,
Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae () or (the older but equally valid) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important Family (biology), family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous pla ...
, but some species have ''silicles'' instead. Some species closely related to plants with true ''siliques'' have fruits with a similar structure that do not open when ripe; these are usually called ''indehiscent siliques'' (compare
dehiscence).
File:Lunaria annua MHNT.BOT.2004.0.779.jpg, Silicles of '' Lunaria annua'' – MHNT
File:Capsella bursa-pastoris Sturm23.jpg, '' Capsella bursa-pastoris'' with silicles
File:Raphanus sativus 004.jpg, Indehiscent siliques of radish '' Raphanus sativus''
File:Cardamine occulta - Silique.jpg, Silique with seeds of '' Cardamine occulta''
File:Broccoli siliques, hauwen (1).jpg, Siliques of the broccoli
Broccoli (''Brassica oleracea'' var. ''italica'') is an edible green plant in the Brassicaceae, cabbage family (family Brassicaceae, genus ''Brassica'') whose large Pseudanthium, flowering head, plant stem, stalk and small associated leafy gre ...
plant.
See also
*
Legume
Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...
– a fruit type that somewhat resembles a silique, but is derived from one carpel that typically splits along two sides.
References
Further reading
External links
Fruit morphology
{{Plant-morphology-stub