How to Distinguish a Fruit From a Vegetable

Many of the foods we call vegetables are actually classified by scientists as fruits, such as the tomato. This confusion is caused by the fact that the word “vegetable” is not actually a scientific word. We use the word “vegetable” to refer to a miscellaneous group of foods that fulfill similar functions on our dinner plates. Even though the word “fruit” does have a scientific definition, we often use the word to refer to only sweet fruits.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Learn the definitions of the words. Dictionaries define a fruit as “the [developed/ripened/swollen/mature] ovary of a flowering plant, including its contents.” A vegetable is considered to be “the edible part of an herbaceous plant.” Herbaceous plants have soft stems, so the edible parts may include roots, stems, leaves, tubers, bulbs and buds.

2. Determine if the food in question started out as a plant's ovary. The best way to determine this is to look for seeds; if it contains seeds then it’s the ovary. Seeds are the result of the fertilization of eggs by sperm, which happens inside the ovary.
   
   

   Some fruits might be a little tricky. For example, banana seeds are very small and you don’t really notice them. A coconut is a very large seed. Nuts are seeds; the coverings that are shelled off them are technically part of their fruit.

3. There are three basic types of fruits: fleshy fruits (oranges, apples, melons and berries), pitted fruits (cherries, dates, plums) and dry fruits (beans, peas, nuts, grains). When we think about eating "fruit," we tend to think of the first two categories. In common speech, the word “fruit” usually means a fruit that is sweet, even if a little tart at the same time.

4. The word "vegetable" is generally used for edible plant parts that are not very sweet, such as corn, tomatoes, potatoes, beans.

Tips & Warnings

• See if you (or your child) can name what part of a plant is on the plate tonight. Broccoli consists of stems and flower buds. Celery is all stem. Carrot is a root. Cucumber is the fruit.

[Thims]

on 11/15/2008 LOL! This is just an increadibly ingenious ehow.
Congratulations! ;-) Ketchup; didn't the Reagan adm. name this a fruit at one time?