Botanically, what fruit structure are thimbleberries classified as, similar to raspberries?
Aggregate fruits composed of many tiny drupelets
Thimbleberries are technically classified botanically as aggregate fruits. This means they are formed from the merger of several distinct ovaries within a single flower, resulting in a structure composed of numerous small units known as drupelets clustered together. This structural composition is identical to that found in closely related fruits such as raspberries and blackberries. This contrasts sharply with true berries, which develop from a single ovary and contain seeds embedded directly in the fleshy pulp, such as grapes or tomatoes. The distinction highlights that while colloquially called berries due to their appearance and culinary use, their internal anatomy places them in a different botanical category defined by the aggregation of these small, seed-bearing drupelets.
