why is a tomato a fruit?

Question

We are making salsa and got to thinking about why tomatoes are fruits. I was told it was because the seeds are on the inside. If this is true then a cucumber, jalapeno and many other vegitables would be fruits too. Huh...?

Answer 1

To really figure out if a tomato is a fruit or vegetable, you need to know what makes a fruit a fruit, and a vegetable a vegetable. The big question to ask is, DOES IT HAVE SEEDS?

If the answer is yes, then technically, you have a FRUIT. This, of course, makes your tomato a fruit. It also makes cucumbers, squash, green beans and walnuts all fruits as well. VEGETABLES such as, radishes, celery, carrots, and lettuce do NOT have seeds (that are part of what we eat) and so they are grouped as vegetables.

Now don't go looking for tomatoes next to the oranges in your grocery stores. Certain fruits like tomatoes and green beans will probably always be mostly referred to as "vegetables" in today's society

Answer 2

In a botanical sense a fruit is a ripened ovary of a plant containing its seeds. An ovary of a plant is inside the carpel of the "female" part of the plant. A pistil is made up of a carpel or carpels. The stamens is the "male" part of the plant. Many plants are monoecious meaning they have both male and female reproductive organs on the same plant. Despite this these plants won't always self-fertilize. Instead the pollen from the stamens is transferred to the pistil of another of the same species. Dioecious plants have only the male or female parts.

So the fruit is what encases the plants seeds. Animals eat the fruit but cannot digest the seeds which are deposited away from the parent trees canopy, or if it is another type of plant the seeds are dropped farther away so the plant can flourish far and wide.

A vegetable would be a part of the plant which is not a ripened ovary and does not contain seeds. It would be a part of the plant's stem or roots or leaves and so on.

Answer 3

The class of the tomato can also be complicated. But there are key matters to notice. It can honestly be regarded a vegetable and a fruit even as relying on which context it is in. Scientifically, it's regarded a fruit for the reason that it's honestly the ovary enclosed with seeds that got here from a constructing flower. However, as a result of its culinary utilization, when you consider that it does now not have the traditional "candy" style of such a lot different end result, it's as a rule labeled as a vegetable. It is such a lot more often than not served with different veggies as a substitute than with end result or candy truffles. However, a few select making use of the clinical definition at the same time cooking, regardless of it now not being ready as a fruit. Additionally, the US Supreme Court declared the tomato as a vegetable basically on the truth that it's used such a lot more often than not as a vegetable on the subject of paying a tax beneath a tariff act. Hence, a few "veggies" reminiscent of cucumbers and squashes also are end result in step with clinical definition.

Answer 4

The ones you listed are fruits, because the tissues tha contain the seeds come from the transformation of the uterus of the flower. Thats the actual definition of a fruit.
A pine cone is not a fruit eventhough they have seeds on the inside.
The pineaple and the strawberry are not fruits, they are engorged stems.....the fruits in the pineable lie below the eyes and in the strawberry the fruits are the yellow thingis that you'd call a seed....
Other unlikely fruits are pea-pods (any pod), nuts (you eat the seed after it's open), and helicopter seeds (not all...some are actually seeds)
Of course this is the botanical definition of fruit......the practical definition of a fruit is something sweet that you san eat and comes from a plant, so don't sweat it! ;)

Answer 5

Yes, anything that contains seeds is considered a fruit. That is the biological definition.
Therefore cucumber (a relative to the pumpkin), zucchini, and jalapeno pepper are fruits.

Answer 6

A tomato is a fruit base on several characteristics
1. fruits usually have a short shelve life
2. thier texture, smell
3 fruts have a larger percentage of water than any other food kind.

Answer 7

Yes they are scientifically classed as fruit; all the ones you listed, because they contain seeds, but we don't use the scientific definition in everyday conversation or when talking about food. It's a different vocabulary!

Answer 8

The tomato is LEGALLY considered a VEGETABLE. In 1883 the Supreme Court ruled so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nix_v._Hedden

Answer 9

You pretty much answered your own question. Fruit is the result of the union of the gametes or the sex cells of the plant.

In contrast, spinach, and lettuce, are vegetables because they are composed of just leaves and no reproductive parts.

In any case, tomato or TO- MA_TOW they are all good eating and good for you!

Bon apettit!

Answer 10

Hi. Because it fits this category http://www.answers.com/fruit?cat=health&gwp=13 .