whats the differnce between a fruit and vegetable?

Question

whats the differnce between a fruit and vegetable is a watermellon a fruit or vegetable?? help me!

Answer 1

FRUIT = SEEDS ON THE INSIDE
VEGETABLE = NO SEEDS

Where it gets complicated are things like Strawberries that have seeds in the outside, these are scientifically an enlarged part of the flower with each of the seeds being a separate fruit.

The complication is that strawberries are part of the rose family and have the same function as rose hips.

Rose hips however are true fruit and strawberries are not fruit at all.

Answer 2

A fruit is the ripe ovary or ovaries of a flower—the mature ovary of a seed-bearing plant. Let’s say you’ve got a tomato plant with those little yellow flowers all ready. A bee comes along and fertilizes the flower. The flower starts developing into a fruit with the seed inside. (There are four kinds of fruits, which explains fruits such as pineapple and blueberries, but let's not get into that.) And, hey, guess what? Nuts are fruits. True nuts that is, chestnut and filberts come to mind.
Vegetables, however, are the roots (eg, carrot), tubers (eg, potato), leaves (eg spinach), stems (eg, celery), and other bits of plants that you might eat. For a botanist, a vegetable is sort of like the umbrella word for all the edible parts of a plant. Just to keep life interesting, mushrooms aren’t plants at all, they are a kind of fungus.

For years, people have debated about the classification of tomatoes as well - is it a fruit or a vegetable? The big question to ask is, does it have seeds? And tomato is really a fruit of a vine native to South America. What about watermelon? Botanically, a watermelon is a fruit, a ripened ovary of a seed plant and its contents - much like the pepper, pumpkin or tomato. However, as a member of the cucurbitaceous plant family of gourds, watermelon is also related to cucumber and squash, planted from seeds or seedlings, harvested, and then cleared from the field like a vegetable.

In culinary terms, the distinction is hazier. North Americans primarily treat watermelon as a fruit and use it as delicious sweet snack in salads and desserts. Yet, in countries such as China, and other parts of the Asian continent, watermelons are stir-fried and stewed. Pickled watermelon rinds are a delicacy in Russia. Moreover, since watermelon is grown as a vegetable crop using vegetable production systems, it is considered a vegetable.

Answer 3

Biologically explained: A fruit is a mature ripened ovary of a flower. Apple, pear, strawberry, pumpkin, tomato, pepper, squash.

Veggie: A part of a plant not formed from the flower ovary.
Celery/stalk:stem, Carrot is a root as well as the beet, turnip.
Spinach is a leaf like lettuce.

Many items we eat are really fruits and not veggies!!!!

Added later: After reading all the answers before me, I see many do not have a clue as to the actual definition of fruit/veggie distinction and many watch too many TV cooking shows for more than the gourmet cooking aspects.....yes I watch those shows too and am a gourmet cook....I also gross out my bio classes with fine line distinctions of definitions and actual fruits.
Hey, did you know that the maple spinners/helicopters are fruits also? Ever take one of those fallen "spinners" and open it to push out the seed and stick the fruit on your nose to make a Pinocchio nose?

Answer 4

The technical definition of a fruit is the (often fleshy) part of a plant that surrounds the seeds. By this definition, tomatoes, apples, pumpkins, eggplants, squashes, rose hips, peppers, peapods, cucumbers, and corn kernels are all fruits. All other edible plant parts are considered vegetables. Lettuce, carrots, and spinach are examples of vegetables.

The popular definitions of fruit and vegetable are somewhat different from the technical definitions. Most people categorize "vegetables" as foods that are eaten as part of a meal's main course and "fruits" as foods that are eaten for dessert or as a snack.

Answer 5

Fruit is what is borne by a plant above the ground eg apple on a tree.
Vegetable is usually part of the root system of a plant eg potatoe.

Tomatoes are usually mistakenly referred to as vegetables when they are in fact a fruit.

Answer 6

fruits are edible seed bearing structures of plants, whereas vegetables are any edible parts of plants. This definition is consideraly blured by the popular notion that fruits must contain sugars. Under the strict definition, tomatos, squashes, peanuts and corn and lima beans are all fruits. So go figure.

Answer 7

Fruits usually grow on trees, while some do grow on vines. Most vegetables are grown underground. A watermelon is a fruitis a fruit.

Answer 8

Well mice can get to the max size of 6 inches long with out it's tail. Where a Rat can get 12 to 24 inches long. And mice can come in several different colors so can the rat but the rat usually only comes in light brown, blue, grey, black and white, brown and white, white and black. Where a mouse can come in grey, white, white brown, White, brown and black, Gold, Black and brown, Sand, grey and white, and brown. Mice come in more different colors than the rat. Also if kept as a pet a rat needs a larger cage and they can learn tricks where a mouse can't really learn much. Mice are soft fur where a rat is more coarse. I am not sure on anything else sorry.

Answer 9

In cuisine, when discussing fruit as food, the term usually refers to those plant fruits that are sweet and fleshy, examples of which include plums, apples and oranges. However, a great many common vegetables, as well as nuts and grains, are the fruit of the plant species they come from.

All parts of herbaceous plants eaten as food by humans, whole or in part, are generally considered vegetables.

A watermellon is a fruit!

Answer 10

Root - Satlk - Stem - or Leaf = Veggie
Pod that grows off of a plant to transport seeds = fruit