This term is to be used for a stage of development of a whole plant (PO:0000003). For the stages of development of an individual fruit, see fruit development stage (PO:0001002). An iteroparous plant will only have one fruit formation stage in its life, while a semelparous plant may have multiple whole plant fruit formation stages during its life. In plants with continuous (i.e., indeterminate) fruit development (GO:0010154), new fruits may continue to develop after the first fruit has begun to ripen and the fruit ripening stage of whole plant (PO:0007042) has begun. Although the use of synonyms like "07-milk stage in rice" properly refer to the development of an individual fruits, they are used as here to extrapolate to a whole plant.

A whole plant fruit development stage (PO:0025500) that begins when a fruit (PO:0009001) on a whole plant (PO:0000003) that is not currently participating in a whole plant fruit development stage begins a fruit initiation stage (PO:0025503) and ends with the onset of a whole plant fruit ripening stage (PO:0007010). [ Poc:curators ]