What makes a tomato a vegitable?

Question

Botanically a tomatoe is a fruit, but something else makes it a vegitable and I want you to tell me what it is. I know the answer but I want to see if anyone else does. I'm looking for something specific and the closest to what I'm looking for get's the 10 points.

Answer 1

The confusion about 'fruit' and 'vegetable' arises because of the differences in usage between scientists and cooks. Scientifically speaking, a tomato is definitely a fruit. True fruits are developed from the ovary in the base of the flower, and contain the seeds of the plant (though cultivated forms may be seedless). Blueberries, raspberries, and oranges are true fruits, and so are many kinds of nut. Some plants have a soft part which supports the seeds and is also called a 'fruit', though it is not developed from the ovary: the strawberry is an example. As far as cooking is concerned, some things which are strictly fruits may be called 'vegetables' because they are used in savoury rather than sweet cooking. The tomato, though technically a fruit, is often used as a vegetable, and a bean pod is also technically a fruit. The term 'vegetable' is more generally used of other edible parts of plants, such as cabbage leaves, celery stalks, and potato tubers, which are not strictly the fruit of the plant from which they come. Occasionally the term 'fruit' may be used to refer to a part of a plant which is not a fruit, but which is used in sweet cooking: rhubarb, for example. So a tomato is the fruit of the tomato plant, but can be used as a vegetable in cooking.

Answer 2

A fruit (or more specifically a berry) is made up of the ovary and seeds of a flowering plant - as a tomato is made up of these parts then it it a fruit.

But 'vegetable' is not a botanical term, it is just a word used for any part of a plant that humans eat whole...so technically there is nothing wrong with calling a tomato a vegetable, even though botanically it is also a fruit.

Answer 3

Botanically anything that have seeds inside it, is classified as a fruit. In this sense tomato is a fruit.

Plants that are green and humans eat them are called vegetables. In this sense, and since the tomato is green at sometime in its life, it is considered a vegetable.

Answer 4

Yes, a tomato is classified as a fruit, (because of the fact it has seeds) but I think what makes it a vegetable is the fact that it flowers , fruits and dies all in one season. Most fruiting plants have a certain blossom time and after that they don't have another one. They also return year after year. ( Making them a perennial. ).Tomatoes blossom and set fruit the whole growing season and die at the end of it..thus making them an annual so that is my final answer....

Answer 5

A fruit refers to foods that we pick that have Vitamin C in them. A tomato has Vitamin C in it so it is called a fruit. However, we typically also think of "fruits" as growing on trees or other woody type branches such as briars or vines (ie grapes, blueberries, raspberries). The tomato does not grow on a tree, bush, briar, vine or other woody type branch and therefore is called a vegetable by many people.

If the seed idea were true, why wouldn't green beans, cucumbers, peppers, even peanuts be called fruits? None of them have Vitamin C in them. Therefore they are not a fruit.

Answer 6

Nothing else makes a tomato a vegetable. It is formed in the ovary of the plant and has seeds so it is a fruit. In cooking it is referred to as a vegetable because it is savoury and not sweet.

Answer 7

To me it's a vegetable because of the taste. You wouldn't put a tomato in a fruit salad, that would be gross. You would serve it with other vegetables because it isn't sweet enough to be a fruit from a culinary point of veiw.