Fruit and vegies and botany.. Oh My!

[Wingy]

I was happy knowing a fruit was a fruit and were really nothing more than candy and that vegies were good for you. I was content with beans being a reasonable substitute for meats. I thought that I ate a well rounded diet. Last night when I was looking for info on pepper seeds I came across the information that peppers are really a fruit. What? So I looked a little deeper, big mistake.

 

http://www.cropsreview.com/what-is-a-fruit.html

A little background on what a fruit is.

The fruit is a plant organ that is considered as a reproductive part of the plant shoot system in the angiosperms, along with the flower and seed. It is distinct from the vegetative parts of the plant shoot which consist of the stem and leaves. Its participation in plant reproduction, however, is indirect. Its main functions are to enclose and protect the seed and to help in its dispersal.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit

I usually stay away from wikipedia but in this case it had a description that wasn't many paragraphs long. This was an easy to read summary.

These culinary vegetables that are botanically fruit include cucurbits (e.g., squash, pumpkin, and cucumber), tomatoes, peas, beans, corn, eggplant, and sweet pepper. In addition, some spices, such as allspice and chilies, are fruits, botanically speaking.[6] In contrast, rhubarb is often referred to as a fruit, because it is used to make sweet desserts such as pies, though only the petiole of the rhubarb plant is edible.[7] Edible gymnosperm seeds are often given fruit names, e.g., pine nuts, ginkgo nuts.

 

Botanically, a cereal grain, such as corn, wheat or rice, is also a kind of fruit, termed a caryopsis. However, the fruit wall is very thin, and is fused to the seed coat, so almost all of the edible grain is actually a seed.[8]

 

Many common terms for seeds and fruit do not correspond to the botanical classifications. In botany, seeds are ripened ovules; fruits are the ripened ovaries or carpels that contain the seeds and a nut is a type of fruit and not a seed

 

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1611/whats-the-difference-between-fruits-and-vegetables

About those nuts.

Which brings us to the nut. Yes, you guessed it, a nut is, in botany, "a dry, one-seeded, usually oily fruit." True nuts include the acorn, chestnut, and hazelnut. The term nut also refers to any seed or fruit with a hard, brittle covering around an edible kernel, like the peanut, which is really a legume. A legume is defined as "(the) name for any plant of the pulse family; more generally, any vegetable. Botanically, a legume--a pod that splits along two sides, with the seeds attached to one of the sutures--is the characteristic fruit of the pulse family." Say what? A "pulse" is "the common name for Leguminosae or Fabaceae, a large family of herbs, shrubs, and trees, also called the pea, or legume, family. "

 

So what did I learn today... All the vegies that I like are not vegies at all but are fruits. Grains, beans and nuts are also fruits. Why couldn't brussels sprouts be a fruit? Then I would have had a good reason for not eating them. (Jayd do you by chance have any scientific evidence that brussels sprouts shouldn't be eaten so I can stop my mother from glaring at me from across the table when I don't put any on my plate.)

[Jayd]

Sorry I can't help you lol... Maggie says "eat them with Mayonnaise:cool:, there good" LOL

[DawnMM]

Wow. I might be able to get my kids to eat Brussel sprouts if they were actually a fruit! When we make Brussel sprouts, I cut them in half and saute them in butter with chopped leeks and garlic, and add a little cayenne. Very yummy that way...not so very nutritious anymore though.

[Ray P]

WOW now as far as fruits and vegies I don`t know if I`m coming or going.

[CLB]

Hmmm. Good thing we like brussel sprouts! Shadow prefers them raw on the stalk!

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

My birds LOVE fresh fruits and veggies, thanks to the new generation! Ryan and Sean my teenagers, won't touch food that is " fortified" with antibiotics. They make sure all food for the birds, is natural, and devoid of antibiotics. What they eat, birds eat. I don't get crazy like they do, but I respect their choices. Nancy