Q5. What does the wall of the ovary become?
The pericarp, the wall of the fruit (NCERT Class 12 Biology, page 20).
Q6. Assertion: a coconut is a drupe. Reason: its mesocarp is fibrous. Are both true, and does the reason explain the assertion?
Both are true (NCERT page 66), but the reason does not explain the assertion: mango is also a drupe, yet its mesocarp is fleshy (page 66). What makes a fruit a drupe is the hard, stony endocarp round its single seed (beyond the NCERT text; NCERT describes mango’s ‘inner stony hard endocarp’, page 66).
Q7. How can parthenocarpic fruits be produced deliberately, and what do they lack?
By applying growth hormones; such fruits are seedless (NCERT Class 12 Biology, page 21).
Q8. In which group of plants are the seeds enclosed in fruits, and why can gymnosperms not form fruits?
In angiosperms the seeds are enclosed in fruits; gymnosperms have naked ovules, with no ovary to become a fruit (NCERT Sections 3.4 and 3.5, pages 32 and 34).
Q9. What happens to the other floral parts of most flowers as the fruit develops?
They degenerate and fall off (NCERT Class 12 Biology, page 20).
Q10. Is the coconut’s endosperm used up before the seed matures?
No. It persists in the mature seed and is used up during germination, as in castor (NCERT Class 12 Biology, page 19).