Since when did a tomato become a fruit and an avocado is classified as a berry?! When we really got down to the nitty gritty and started really identifying our produce with the correct classification, yo. But what makes a plant either a fruit, veggie, or something else entirely? Well, let’s find out, yes?
Hmm… Is it?
So, first, what makes a fruit a fruit? According to HuffPost Taste, a fruit “grow[s] from the flowers of plants after pollination.” If it grows from another part of the plant, it is deemed a vegetable. There are other classifications for the plants we eat, but let’s just stick to fruit and veggies for now.
**Also, I just want to mention that fruits are also classified if the fruit contains seeds.
Let’s say for example that we don’t know what a tomato is. If we observe the way it grows, the tomato plant starts to grow above the ground, leaves begin to appear, then flowers, and after the flowers are pollinated, tomatoes begin to sprout from the flower part of the tomato plant. By this observation, you can deem that the tomato is a fruit. Also, when you open up the tomato, you see that there are many seeds in it. You can therefore be assured that the tomato is a fruit.
Pic courtesy of dillasethiopianrestaurant.com.
But wait! You’re telling me that I’m making fruit sauce for my spaghetti? That sounds nasty! Well technically you are, since a tomato is a fruit, but the way we cook and consume this delectable product is in a vegetable form. Yeah!
Continuing with fruits, there are 4 main classes that I’d like to touch upon on: simple, multiple, accessory, and aggregate.
- Simple Fruits: this is when one fruit is produced by one flower. It also contains one or
![Pic courtesy of blog.joslin.org.]()
Pic courtesy of blog.joslin.org.
more seeds. Sub-classifications of simple fruits would include berries, hesperidium, pepo, pome, and drupe. Examples of simple fruits are: grapes, tomatoes, citrus fruits, cucumbers, pumpkin, stone fruits, and apples.
- Multiple: when fruits form from a cluster of flowers that eventually coalesce (mass together and become a whole). Multiple fruit types can be aggregate-types, too! An example of a multiple fruit would be a pineapple, since the pineapple sections come from flowers that fused together to make the fruit.
- Accessory: Fruits that are formed with part of it not coming from the ovary (usually the flesh). Examples include strawberries, pineapples, figs, and mulberries. Pomes (ex. apples) can also be accessory.
- Aggregate: These are produced by flowers with more than one pistil (the female organs of the flower). Most berries, though also simple fruits, are also aggregate. Sub-classifications include: drupelets, achenes, follicles, and samaras.
Oh, Patrick.
Now, to veggies. So, if a fruit is classified as any product produced by a flower that contains one or more seeds, how do we identify vegetables? Simple– vegetables, according to Wikihow, “are the edible, non-reproductive parts of plants commercially grown and harvested for consumptions.”
So, how do we classify vegetables? By what part of the plant we eat! These include the leaves, stem, roots, tubers, bulbs… Yup! That’s pretty much it.
WHAT ARE YOU?! Pic courtesy of evolvefitnessinc.com.
Besides fruit and vegetables, we also have another class– fungi. That’s right! Mushrooms are neither fruits or veggies. (Also, fungi are neither plants or animals, but rather both… Man, can’t they just be a little normal and just fit into a category we all know and love?!)
What’s more is that fungi is so unique that there are scientists that just study fungi and that’s it.
In any sense, that’s pretty much the produce we eat (that I can think of; if you know any other major classes, comment below!). As you can tell, fruits have many classifications, as the definition of fruits is very general. Veggies are just simply the other parts of the plant that we can consume, and fungi… Well, they’re like the transvestites of the plant and animal kingdom. But hopefully this clears things up! (Yes, corn and beans are fruits!)
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The post How To Identify Fruits, Veggies, and More! appeared first on Mensore Girl.
