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Botanically, fruits and vegetables are classified depending on which part of the plant they come from. A fruit develops from the flower of a plant, while the other parts of the plant are categorized as vegetables. Fruits contain seeds, while vegetables can consist of roots, stems and leaves.
Is cucumber a fruit or a vegetable?
The botanical classification: Cucumbers are fruit. A botanical fruit would have at least one seed and grow from the flower of the plant. With this definition in mind, cucumbers are classified as fruit because they contain tiny seeds in the middle and grow from the flower of the cucumber plant.
How is an item classified as a vegetable or a fruit?
Vegetables are usually grouped according to the portion of the plant that is eaten such as leaves (lettuce), stem (celery), roots (carrot), tubers (potato), bulbs (onion) and flowers (broccoli). A fruit is the mature ovary of a plant. So a tomato is botanically a fruit but is commonly considered a vegetable.
Why is strawberry not a fruit?
Botanists call the strawberry a “false fruit,” a pseudocarp. A strawberry is actually a multiple fruit which consists of many tiny individual fruits embedded in a fleshy receptacle. The plants form their fruit buds in the fall, so adequate moisture at that time is vital.
Is coconut a fruit?
Botanically speaking, a coconut is a fibrous one-seeded drupe, also known as a dry drupe. However, when using loose definitions, the coconut can be all three: a fruit, a nut, and a seed. Botanists love classification.
What is technically a fruit?
A fruit is scientifically defined as “the mature ovary of a flowering plant that is edible.” The fruit is the ovary, the seed or seeds it encloses, and any parts associated with the ovary. Other fruits produce hundreds of seeds, like a tomato or banana.
What classifies something as a fruit?
A fruit is a mature, ripened ovary, along with the contents of the ovary. The ovary is the ovule-bearing reproductive structure in the plant flower. Under the botanical definition of fruit, many things that are commonly called vegetables are in fact fruits (for example, eggplant, green beans, okra, and, yes, tomatoes).
What is a fruit but is actually a vegetable?
The outlook is quite different in culinary terms, however. A lot of foods that are (botanically speaking) fruits, but which are used in savory dishes rather than sweet ones, are typically considered vegetables by chefs. This includes such botanical fruits as eggplants, bell peppers and tomatoes, according to EUFIC.
Is carrot a fruit?
The carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) is a root vegetable, typically orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, Daucus carota, native to Europe and Southwestern Asia.
What type of fruit is a pineapple?
A pineapple is neither a pine nor an apple, but a fruit consisting of many berries that have grown together. This also means that Pineapples are not a single fruit, but a group of berries that have fused together. The technical term for this is a “multiple fruit” or a “collective fruit”.
Are cherries considered berries?
Botanically speaking, a berry has three distinct fleshy layers: the exocarp (outer skin), mesocarp (fleshy middle) and endocarp (innermost part, which holds the seeds). In addition, to be a berry, a fruit must have two or more seeds. Thus, a cherry, which has just one seed, doesn’t make the berry cut, Jernstedt said.
Is a cashew a fruit or a nut?
Some examples of true nuts include acorns, chestnuts, and hazelnuts. On the other hand, the fruits of the cashew, almond, and pistachio plants are not true nuts, but are rather classified as “drupes.” Drupes are fruits that are fleshy on the outside and contain a shell covering a seed on the inside.
Is corn a fruit?
Corn, Zea mays, belongs to the Poaceae family, and while eaten sometimes as a vegetable and sometimes as a grain, it is actually classified by botanists as a fruit, as are tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and other squashes.
Is a peanut a nut?
Peanuts aren’t actually a true nut; they’re a legume (in the same family as peas and lentils). But the proteins in peanuts are similar in structure to those in tree nuts.
Is a green bean a fruit?
Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?
Is an avocado a fruit or a vegetable?
What are vegetables What are the qualities that classify them as vegetables?
Vegetable characteristics They are low in calories. They are high in vitamins and minerals. They are autotrophs, which means that they generate their own food without affecting other living beings. The cells that compose them are organized into tissues. They are high in fiber and complex carbohydrates.
Is a zucchini a fruit?
Is pumpkin a fruit or a veg?
The answer may surprise you! A pumpkin is, in fact, a fruit. According to expert Joe Masabni, Ph. D., Texas A&M Agri Life Extension Service vegetable specialist in Dallas, scientifically speaking, a pumpkin is a fruit simply because anything that starts from a flower is botanically a fruit.
Is Pickle a fruit?
Technically, pickles may be considered both a fruit and a vegetable. While they are made from cucumbers, which are a vegetable, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled them a ‘fruit of the vine’ because of their seeds.
Is Avocado a berry?
A berry, which has a fleshy exocarp (rind) and a fleshy mesocarp (pulp), is any soft and fleshy fruit that comes from a flower with a single ovary. This means avocados, tomatoes, bananas, and oranges are all technically berries.
Is a capsicum a fruit?
Capsicums (Capsicum annuum) and chillies (Capsicum frutescens) are cultivated as annual vegetables while the edible parts are botanically fruit. They belong to the Solanaceae family along with tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant.
Is okra a fruit?
All but one person said string beans were a vegetable and most (30) said squash is a vegetable. Avocadoes, string beans, squash, eggplant, green pepper and okra are all technically fruits, Litt says. On the other hand, rhubarb is not a fruit.
Is broccoli a vegetable?
The head, or flower, vegetables include artichokes, broccoli, and cauliflower. The fruits commonly considered vegetables by virtue of their use include cucumbers, eggplant, okra, sweet corn, squash, peppers, and tomatoes. Seed vegetables are usually legumes, such as peas and beans.
Is potato a fruit?
Botanically speaking, a potato is definitely a vegetable. It comes from an annual plant that is grown for its edible root.
