A type of fleshy fruit with a soft outer layer surrounding a hard, stony pit that contains a single seed. Examples include cherries, peaches, plums, and olives.
From Latin 'drupa' meaning 'overripe olive,' derived from Greek 'dryppa' (olive). The term was adopted into botanical classification in the 18th century to describe this specific type of fruit structure.
Drupes are nature's clever design for getting animals to plant trees - the sweet flesh bribes animals to eat the fruit, but the rock-hard pit protects the seed from being digested, emerging later in a pile of natural fertilizer!
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