In
botany, a
drupe (or
stone fruit) is an
indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (
exocarp, or skin; and
mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a shell (the pit, stone, or
pyrene) of hardened
endocarp with a
seed (kernel) inside. These fruits usually develop from a single
carpel, and mostly from flowers with
superior ovaries (
polypyrenous drupes are exceptions). The definitive characteristic of a drupe is that the hard, "lignified" stone (or pit) is derived from the ovary wall of the flower—in an
aggregate fruit composed of small, individual drupes (such as a
raspberry), each individual is termed a
drupelet and may together form a botanic
berry.