Aril

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Aril

Distinguish from aryl
Aryl

In the context of organic molecules, aryl refers to any functional group or substituent derived from a simple aromatic ring, may it be phenyl, thiophene, indole, etc ....
, which is a type of organic chemical radical.

An aril (or arillus) is any specialized outgrowth from the funiculus

Funiculus

The cerebrospinal nerves consist of numerous nerve fibers collected together and enclosed in membranous sheaths. A small bundle of fibers, enclosed in a tubular sheath, is called a funiculus; if the nerve is of small size, it may consist only of a single funiculus; but if large, the funiculi are collected together into larger bundles or fasci...
(attachment point of the seed) (or hilum) that covers or is attached to the seed.

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An aril (or arillus) is any specialized outgrowth from the funiculus

Funiculus

Mangosteen

The Purple Mangosteen , colloquially known simply as "the mangosteen", is a tropical evergreen tree, believed to have originated in the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas of Indonesia....
and pomegranate

Pomegranate

The pomegranate is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing to between five and eight metres tall. The pomegranate is native to the region from Iran to the Himalayas in northern India and has been cultivated and naturalized over the whole Mediterranean Basin region and the Caucasus since ancient times....
fruit, or the mace of the nutmeg seed.

The aril may create a fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
-like structure (called a false-fruit). False fruit are found in numerous Angiosperm taxa. The edible flesh of the longan

Longan

The longan is a tropical tree native to southern China. It is also found in Southeast Asia. It is also called guiyuan in Chinese language, lengkeng in Indonesia, mata kucing in Malaysia, nh?n in Vietnamese , Mora in Sinhalese and also "longan" in Tagalog language....
, lychee

Lychee

The Lychee , also spelled Litchi or Laichi and Lichu, Chinese language: ??, Hanyu Pinyin: L?zhi, is the sole member of the genus Litchi in the soapberry family Sapindaceae....
, and ackee

Ackee

The Ackee or Akee is a member of the Sapindaceae , native to tropical West Africa in Cameroon, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo....
fruits is a highly developed aril surrounding the seed rather than a pericarp layer. Such arils are also found in a few species of gymnosperm

Gymnosperm

Gymnosperm is a group of spermatophyte seed-bearing plants with ovules on scales, which are usually arranged in cone-like structures. The other major group of seed-bearing plants, the angiosperms, [from the Greek, 'angion' - container] have ovules enclosed in a carpel, a sporophyll with fused margins....
s, notably the yews

Taxus

Taxus is a genus of yews, small Pinophyta trees or shrubs in the yew family Taxaceae. They are relatively slow growing and can be very long-lived, and reach heights of 1-40 m, with trunk diameters of up to 4 m....
and related conifers

Pinophyta

The conifers, division Pinophyta, also known as division Coniferae, are one of 13 or 14 division level taxon within the Plant. They are Conifer cone-bearing seed plants with Vascular plant tissue; all extant conifers are woody plants, the great majority being trees with just a few being shrubs....
. Instead of having a wood

Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
y cone

Conifer cone

A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the plant sexuality structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds....
as is typical of most gymnosperms, the reproductive structure of the yew consists of a single seed that becomes surrounded by a fleshy, cup-like covering. This covering is derived from a highly modified cone scale.

Aril development in Taxus

In the photographs of a European yew (Taxus baccata
Taxus baccata

Taxus baccata is a Pinophyta native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the common yew, or European yew....
) below, note that the aril starts out as a small, green band at the base of the seed, then turns brown to red as it enlarges and surrounds the seed, eventually becoming fleshy and scarlet in color at maturity. The aril is attractive to fruit-eating bird

Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s and is non-toxic (all other parts of the yew are toxic), serving therefore to promote dispersal of the yew seed by birds, which digest the fleshy aril as a food source, and pass the seed out in their droppings.

Aril

Aril development in Taxus

See also

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