What is the Diffference Between a Fruit and a Vegetable? Answers to Your Questions

The Supreme Court Made the Wrong Call

You might think there wouldn’t be much question about the differences between fruits and vegetables, but there is. The government, cooks, and botanists disagree about exactly what those differences are. The controversy started back in 1893 when the government decided to tax all imported vegetables. Jon Nix, who imported tomatoes, said that tomatoes shouldn’t be taxed because scientifically they’re a fruit. The Supreme Court decided since tomatoes were commonly considered, and used, as a vegetable that’s how it would be classified. Answering the question: “What is the difference between a fruit and a vegetable?” can be tricky.

Image Credit/Wikimedia Commons/FoeNyx/GFD License

What’s a Fruit?

A lesson in biology is in order. A plant flowers, the flower is fertilized, and seeds are produced. If the seeds are in a ripened ovary, that ovary is botanically classified as a fruit. The ovary sometimes surrounds the seeds with an edible covering. Animals eat the covering along with the seeds and distribute them. That’s one way plants reproduce themselves and spread.

Modern botanists have added to the confusion of discerning the differences between fruits and vegetables, because hybrid breeding of seedless varieties of fruits have produced seedless watermelons, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

Common Vegetables That Are Scientifically Fruits

Common vegetables that are scientifically fruits include tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, pumpkins, and eggplant. Legumes that are fruits are peas and beans. Corn is a fruit. Grains such as wheat and barley are fruits of grasses.

Cook’s Definition

What is the difference between a vegetable or a fruit? The sweetness of the edible portion of the plant does not determine whether it’s a fruit or vegetable if you’re a botanist, but from a culinary viewpoint, it does. Fruits are sweet and vegetables are savory. However, even here there are exceptions; lemons and cranberries are quite sour but still considered fruits by chefs. The edible portion of rhubarb is the stalk – don’t eat the leaves, as they’re toxic– and it’s sour, but considered a fruit by cooks.

Fruits Considered Fruits By All

Berries are small fruits that grow on vines and bushes such as grapes, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries, and strawberries. Strawberries are an oddity because instead of the seeds being inside the ripened ovary, they’re on the outside.

Tree fruits include those with one seed such as avocados, plums, mangos, peaches, apricots, and cherries. Pomme fruits have several small seeds in the center of the fruit and include apples and pears.

Tropical fruits grow in climates that stay warm all year and include bananas which have barely visible seeds, papaya, star fruit, and pineapples.

Vegetables That Are Strictly Vegetables

Vegetables are the edible portions of plants. That edible portion could be the immature flower of the plant such as cauliflower, broccoli, and artichokes. It might be the leaves such as cabbage, spinach, kale, or chard. Alternatively, the edible portions are the roots as in the case of carrots, beets, radishes, parsnips, and rutabagas.

Onions, garlic, shallots, leeks, and scallions are in a class by themselves. The edible portion is the bulb. The roots grow from the basal plate of the bulb and aren’t edible. A bulb has many overlapping layers that connect to the basal plate. If left in the ground, baby bulbs will start to grow from the mother bulb. Not all bulbs are vegetables. Daffodil bulbs, for example, are toxic.

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams are tubers, not roots. Tubers contain all the genetic information and energy to produce a new plant. Sweet potatoes and yams are both sweet when cooked.

Does It Really Matter?

The answer to the question: What is the difference between a fruit and vegetable? It doesn’t really matter, as long as you make sure you get from five to ten servings of fruit and vegetables every day. There are lots of different kinds of vegetables. Find new favorites in this alphabetical list of vegetables, and try a new vegetable today.

Reference Sources

Louisiana Cooking: Tomatoes a Fruit or Vegetable, https://www.cookinglouisiana.com/Articles/Tomatoes-Veg-or-Fruit.htm

Delicious Living, “Fruits vs Vegetables,” https://deliciouslivingmag.com/food/0601-fruits-vs-vegetables/

“Is There a Difference Between Fruits and Vegetables,” https://www.hawthorne.k12.ca.us/ourpages/nutnet/Documents/Shape/Difference%20btwn%20fruits%20and%20vegetables.pdf