Caryopsis vs. Cypsela — What's the Difference?

In botany, a caryopsis (plural caryopses) is a type of simple dry fruit—one that is monocarpellate (formed from a single carpel) and indehiscent (not opening at maturity) and resembles an achene, except that in a caryopsis the pericarp is fused with the thin seed coat. The caryopsis is popularly called a grain and is the fruit typical of the family Poaceae (or Gramineae), which includes wheat, rice, and corn.The term grain is also used in a more general sense as synonymous with cereal (as in "cereal grains", which include some non-Poaceae).

An achene fruit derived from an inferior ovary, characteristic of plants in the composite family.

See grain.

(botany) An achene formed from an inferior bicarpellary ovary of which only one carpel develops into a seed, as in plants of the family Compositae.

(botany) A type of fruit in which the fruit skin is stuck to the seed coat; especially the grain of a cereal.

A one-seeded, one-celled, indehiscent fruit; an achene with the calyx tube adherent.

A one-celled, dry, indehiscent fruit, with a thin membranous pericarp, adhering closely to the seed, so that fruit and seed are incorporated in one body, forming a single grain, as of wheat, barley, etc.

Dry seedlike fruit produced by the cereal grasses: e.g. wheat, barley, Indian corn