Bot. [ad. mod.L. Syncarpium, f. Gr. σύν SYN- + καρπός fruit.] A multiple fruit, i.e., one arising from a number of carpels in one flower: most properly applied when the carpels are coherent (cf. next).
Usually distinguished from an aggregate or confluent fruit, i.e., one arising from a number of flowers.
1826–34. T. Edwards, in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VII. 49. Compound fruits or syncarps.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 537. Starting from the definition that a fruit is always the product of a single ripe ovary, it follows that several fruits may arise from one flower…. The ripe gynæceum has in such cases been termed a multiple fruit, but it would be much better to apply to it the term Syncarp. Thus … the … fruits … of Ranunculus or Clematis or … of Pæonia or Helleborus, form together a syncarp…. The syncarp must not be confounded with the pseudocarp resulting from an entire inflorescence, as in … the mulberry and fig … or the pine-apple.
