A small, dry, one-seeded fruit that does not split open at maturity, with the seed coat separate from the fruit wall. Examples include sunflower seeds and the individual fruits of strawberries.
From Greek 'achainein' meaning 'not to gape or open,' composed of 'a-' (not) and 'chainein' (to gape). This describes the fruit's characteristic of remaining closed when ripe.
Those tiny bumps covering a strawberry's surface are actually individual achenes - each one is a separate fruit containing a seed! What we think of as the strawberry 'fruit' is really just a swollen receptacle holding hundreds of these miniature fruits.
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