Nectar is not a fruit; the two terms describe fundamentally different biological concepts. Nectar is a sweet, sugar-rich liquid produced by plants, serving as a secretion. A fruit, by contrast, is a specific botanical structure, the mature, seed-containing part of a flowering plant. The confusion between the two arises from the shared terminology and the association of sweetness with both the liquid and certain edible structures.
What Nectar Is and Where It Comes From
Nectar is a viscous, aqueous solution secreted by specialized plant glands known as nectaries. These nectaries can be located within a flower (floral nectaries) or on other parts of the plant like stems and leaves (extrafloral nectaries). The liquid originates from the plant’s phloem, the tissue responsible for transporting sugars throughout the organism.
The primary components of nectar are carbohydrates, mainly sugars such as sucrose, glucose, and fructose. Sugar concentration typically ranges from approximately 10% to more than 30% of the solution’s mass, depending on the plant species. Nectar also contains trace amounts of other compounds, including amino acids, proteins, organic acids, and salts.
The Botanical Definition of a Fruit
In the precise language of botany, a fruit is defined as a ripened ovary of a flowering plant that encloses the seeds. This definition is structural and includes many items commonly called vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, and squash. The wall of the ripened ovary develops into the fruit wall, known as the pericarp.
The pericarp is typically differentiated into three distinct layers. The outermost layer is the exocarp, the skin or rind of the fruit. Beneath this is the mesocarp, which often constitutes the fleshy, edible portion. Finally, the innermost layer is the endocarp, which directly surrounds the seed or seeds.
Clarifying the Difference Between Nectar and Nectarines
The similar names often cause confusion, but the fruit known as a nectarine is entirely distinct from the liquid secretion called nectar. A nectarine is botanically classified as a variety of peach, belonging to the species Prunus persica. It is essentially a peach that lacks the characteristic fuzzy skin due to a single recessive gene.
Nectarines are stone fruits, or drupes, meaning they develop from a single ovary and possess a hard, stony endocarp surrounding the seed. The name “nectarine” was likely coined in the 17th century, derived from the word “nectar,” referring to the fruit’s notably sweet flavor.
The term nectarine describes a solid, seed-bearing structure, while nectar refers to a sugary liquid produced by plant glands. They share a linguistic root because the fruit’s sweetness reminded people of the liquid, but they are not biologically related in their form or function.