Ask A Scientist Botany Archive

name         Ernest B.
status       other
age          50s

Question -   Why is a tomato a fruit and not a vegetable? More
generally, what is the difference between a vegetable and a fruit?
---------------------------------------
Generally, a fleshy growth originating from a flower and carry seeds is
considered a fruit. So a gourd or cucumber or pea pod is a fruit too.

A potato fails because it does not come from the flower and is part of the
root, cabbage and spinach and is leaves and stems, etc.

Don Yee
=============================================================
Please refer to previous answers to this famous question:

http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~robsond/solutions/horticulture/docs/tomato.html
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutother/tomato
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question143.htm

Anthony R. Brach, Ph.D.
==============================================================
Botanically speaking, anything that bears seeds is a fruit.  The fruit forms
from the reproductive part of the plant, i.e., the flower.  The ovary of the
flower becomes the fruit and inside the seeds form. So a tomato comes from
the flower and inside are the seeds.  So it is a fruit.  A nut is a seed and
the shell is the fruit.  Anything from a part of the plant that is not the
flower is vegetative, i.e., does not reproduce.  So leaves, stems and roots
are vegetables.  So lettuce, carrots and potatoes are vegetables.

vanhoeck
==============================================================
A fruit is a seed bearing structure derived from the flower, and is not
necessarily edible. A "vegetable" in human dietary terms, is any edible,
non-seed bearing part of a plant.

J. Elliott
==============================================================