Schinus terebinthifolius fruit contains a single seed that is reniform, with a smooth pale-brown membranaceous seed coat, and a small dark brown saddle-shaped patch. It is an exalbuminous seed and the reserve foods in the cotyledons are proteins and lipids. The ovule is anatropous, bitegmic, crassinucellar with well developed rafe, inserted in an apical-lateral position in the fruit. The outer tegument is continuous with the base of the funicle and has been interpreted as a partially tegumentar funicular obturator. The hypostase is tanniferous and results from the chalazal and nucelar tissues. The presence of remains of the funicle fused to the seed-coat is considered a vestigial aril. The seed-coat has double origin: a partially pachychalazal one, externally evident in the mature seed, as a small dark brown saddle-shaped patch, and another one of tegumentary origin.
Anacardiaceae; Schinus; seed
