When you cut open a fruit it had seeds or pips so tomatos, cucumber and peppers are all types of fruit
2006-11-27 07:49:32
·
answer #1
·
answered by thecat 4
·
0⤊
0⤋
Posted by Cathy(catmint@bestweb.net) on Sat, Jan 15, 00 at 11:03
I have taught plant science to elementary school classes at a botanical garden. I get this question all the time!
The answer depends on who you are: a scientist? a greengrocer? I'll give you the botanist's answer:
A fruit is the ripened (swollen) ovary of a flower. The ovary ripens when the ovules inside have been fertilized. Seeds of flowering plants always are found inside fruits.
Botanists generally don't use the word vegetable to mean a plant or even a plant part. The basic parts are roots, stems, leaves flowers/fruit/seeds. Vegetable is a grocery store term: Tomatoes are called vegetables to distinguish them from the sweeter fruits like peaches. Carrots are called vegetables but the part we eat is of course a root.
In horticulture people talk about growing "flowers and vegetables" but that doesn't really make sense: tomatoes and peppers are flowering plants!
I appreciate your question. I believe it's extremely important to give kids accurate info, especially if the learning is being done in a science class/class unit.
There's so much misinfo out there & it's confusing to kids-adults too!
I hope you'll gently share this with the teacher & let me know what she says.
Regards,
Cathy
2006-11-27 07:52:11
·
answer #2
·
answered by Splishy 7
·
0⤊
0⤋
A fruit is actually the sweet, ripened ovary or ovaries of a seed-bearing plant. A vegetable, in contrast, is an herbaceous plant cultivated for an edible part (seeds, roots, stems, leaves, bulbs, tubers, or nonsweet fruits). So, to be really nitpicky, a fruit could be a vegetable, but a vegetable could not be a fruit.
The Nutriquest team offers a similar answer, adding that most fruits are sweet because they contain a simple sugar called fructose, while most vegetables are less sweet because they have much less fructose. The sweetness of fruit encourages animals to eat it and thereby spread the seeds. The site also presents an interesting list of fruits that are often thought to be vegetables:
tomatoes
cucumbers
squashes and zucchini
avocados
green, red, and yellow peppers
peapods
pumpkins
2006-11-27 07:50:41
·
answer #3
·
answered by PatpongKid 2
·
1⤊
0⤋
A vegetable is from a herbaceous plant. This means that the plant's stem dies every winter to be replaced the next year. A vegetable can be any part of the plant that is edible. Such as the leaves (Lettuce), roots(Carrot), tubers(Potato), stem(Asparagus), flower, or fruit(Tomato). While a tomato is a fruit, it is also a vegetable because it is from a herbaceous plant.
A fruit is the protective covering of a seed in angiosperms. It is pleasant to eat, as an adaptive feature to allow the seed to be transported long distances....I.E. A bear eats an apple and walks 5 miles away from the mother tree before it releases the seed in the bear's feces. It does not always HAVE to be sweet. It just sometimes is.
I hope this clarified things for you. :)
2006-11-27 09:41:45
·
answer #4
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
0⤋
As cool as a cucumber
You must have always noticed that when you eat a fruit it always has seed(s)
also the fact that fruits are always derived as a result of plant reproduction
and hence they are bound to have seeds
though in present times fruits grown with genetic modification contain lesser or no seed(s)
but that does not make them vegetables.
And coming to vegetables they are not a result but the cause themselves,
i.e. vegetables are part of plants like roots(raddish, carrots etc.), stems(potato) and leaves(spinach).
Hence the next time you eat anything observe the above facts and you'll know what are you eating.
2006-11-27 08:04:35
·
answer #5
·
answered by prankstir 1
·
0⤊
0⤋
A fruit is the ripened ovary or ovaries of a seed-bearing plant, together with accessory parts, containing the seeds and occurring in a wide variety of forms. An edible, usually sweet and fleshy form of such a structure. A part or an amount of such a plant product, served as food: fruit for dessert. The fertile, often spore-bearing structure of a plant that does not bear seeds.
A vegetable is a plant cultivated for an edible part, such as the root of the beet, the leaf of spinach, or the flower buds of broccoli or cauliflower.
2006-11-29 07:14:36
·
answer #6
·
answered by Professor Armitage 7
·
0⤊
0⤋
Fruit develop from the plant's flowers - that's why they contain seeds. Vegetables don't develop from the plant's flowers, they are either roots, leaves, bulbs or stems.
That's why tomatoes are really fruit, as are cucumbers, courgettes, marrows, beans and peas! Rhubarb, on the other hand, is really a vegetable! Some 'vegetables' are actually neither of the two - cauliflower and broccoli are actually the plant's flowers themselves, albeit not fully mature.
2006-11-28 08:14:58
·
answer #7
·
answered by Timbo 3
·
0⤊
0⤋
A vegetable grows below ground and a fruit grows on trees or bushes, a tomato is thought of as veg but really a fruit
2006-11-27 07:51:16
·
answer #8
·
answered by Anonymous
·
0⤊
1⤋
Vegetables grow below ground- Fruit grows above on trees etc
2006-11-27 09:39:57
·
answer #9
·
answered by Nat 3
·
0⤊
0⤋
Many people who don't like vegetables love fruits. Specially children!
2016-05-23 13:16:56
·
answer #10
·
answered by ? 4
·
0⤊
0⤋