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Which part of a peach becomes the hard pit around its seed?
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fruit
Ripening apricots on a tree. Apricots are single-seeded drupes.
The hard pit or stone of a peach is formed by the endocarp, which is the inner layer of the fruit's wall, known as the pericarp.1
In botanical terms, a peach is classified as a drupe, or stone fruit. As the peach develops from a single ovary, the pericarp differentiates into three distinct regions:
* Exocarp: The outer skin of the fruit.21
* Mesocarp: The fleshy, edible middle layer.21
* Endocarp: The stony, woody inner layer that hardens to protect the seed.21
This stony endocarp is what we commonly refer to as the pit or stone, which encloses the seed.31