What differs a fruit from a vegetable?

Question

Yes I know fruits have natural sugars and all that, but what makes a tomato a fruit? How is a tomato any different than a Green Pepper? Just curious

Answer 1

A fruit is formed from the ovary of a flower that has thickened and enlarged. A fruit contains the seeds. So some fruits are: apple, peach, cucumber, melon, green pepper, green bean, pea pod.

A vegetable is some non-reproductive part of a plant like a stem, a leaf, or a root. Vegetables are not formed from flower parts, and vegetables do not contain seeds. So some vegetables are: lettuce, potato, beet, celery, cabbage.

Answer 2

Some "vegetables" have natural sugars, too.

Ever eaten a carrot? It tastes sweet. But it's a "vegetable", as a root.

So sugar content isn't the deciding factor.

Apparently, the fruit/vegetable issue came up in regards to taxation of produce. Fruits and vegetables were taxed differently.

It's a distinction just for taxes and somewhat for culinary purposes.

Tomatoes and green peppers are both fruits in Solanaceae, the nightshade family (also ALL peppers, hot or sweet, eggplant, and tobacco. Very popular family.)

A tomato is a berry. A squishy fruit with little seeds inside. Bell peppers are also berries, I think. As are eggplants.

Edit: uh, potatoes ARE reproductive parts of a potato plant. If you cut a potato in pieces complete with its "eyes" and plant the hunks, it'll reproduce asexually (that is, grow into a plant without pollination.)

Most potatoes are grown from other potatoes, not seeds. That way, you get the same kind of potato that you planted.

The only time people bother with potato seeds is pretty much just when they're hybridizing new varieties.

It doesn't have to be sexual to be reproduction.

Answer 3

In botany, tomato is a fruit. Anything that encloses the seeds of a plant is a fruit. But in the kitchen, when I am cooking, I consider tomatoes to be vegetables, just as I do green peppers, cucumbers, squash and green beans. If I want my kids to eat 'em, I say "eat your vegetables." Botanically speaking, however, all these things are the fruit part of the plant. So it depends on the context.

Answer 4

fruits grow on trees vegetables don't