Yet people don`t usually think of their fruits and vegetables in terms of strict, definition-specific distinctions. In non-scientific everyday contexts, we usually distinguish between a fruit and a vegetable based on how we eat it and the dishes we put it in, especially whether it is sweet or not. For most of us, fruit is the edible, usually sweet, parts of a plant – often those eaten raw, pressed for juice, or used in desserts. To illustrate this definition, let`s focus on a fruit that is more often recognized as such: the apple. Botanists consider an apple kernel to be a fruit because it is a mature ovary that contains seeds. But with the looser definition of fruit, a whole apple (the kernel and pulp surrounding the stone) is also considered a fruit. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1893 in Nix v. Hedden that tomatoes count as vegetables – despite the botanical fact that they are fruits.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Botany offers two definitions of fruit: an 850-watt motor drives hard vegetables like carrots, while the two-speed rotary knob slows things down for softer fruits and vegetables. So, according to these technical definitions, our friend Truculent is right: a tomato is a fruit, just like a pepper and cucumber, and all pumpkins, even zucchini. Anything that grows on a plant and is the means by which that plant brings its seeds into the world is a fruit. Carrots, potatoes, parsnips and others, of course, are always vegetables; They are the edible part of the plant, not its reproductive body. So there you have it. Although a tomato plant is indeed herbaceous – its parts are not woody and only grows for one season – a vegetable is, according to our definition, only the plant itself or the edible part of such a plant. Meanwhile, what a tomato plant produces is not part of the plant itself, any more than the egg a hen lays is part of the chicken, or the apple is part of the tree on which it grew. So why was it so important to legally define tomatoes as vegetables? Well, in 1883, a tariff was introduced to protect domestic vegetable producers by taxing imported vegetables.
The case eventually ended up before the Supreme Court. The judges ruled that while tomatoes fit the botanical definition of fruit, consumers consider tomatoes to be vegetables and should therefore be legally defined. Since I haven`t seen a specific definition in the Miami Shores zoning code, I guess that`s the definition they`re working with. The word vegetable tends to make us think of salty (not sweet) flavors. But vegetables simply refer to any part of a plant grown primarily for food. It can be the leaves (spinach), root (carrots), tuber (potatoes), flower (broccoli), stem (celery) or other parts – including the fruit. Yes, by definition, fruits are actually just a type of vegetable (because they are an edible part of a plant). The cucumber plant belongs to the cucurbit family. The part that people eat (and turn into cucumbers) is the fruit of the plant. While you may not think of a cucumber salad as a type of fruit salad, cucumbers fit the technical definition of a fruit. It`s a good reminder that the taste and way people usually prepare a meal has little to do with its scientific classification.
Just because the scientific definition is clear does not mean that the problem is solved. The distinction is perhaps best summed up by the quote often attributed to journalist Miles Kington: “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom does not mean putting it in a fruit salad. But even this notion has been refuted by countless chefs – look for a variation of the tomato and watermelon salad recipe and you`ll get millions of visits. For a botanist, the word fruit specifically refers to the edible part of a seed plant that grows from a flower to a mature ovary that contains one or more seeds — fertilized seeds that can create a new plant. Fruits come from many different plant species: apples grow on trees, grapes grow on vines, and blueberries grow on shrubs. The botanical definition of a fruit has nothing to do with whether it tastes sweet or not. We therefore turn here to the relevant definition of fruit: “the normally edible reproductive body of a seed plant; Above all: the one who has a sweet pulp. The tomato plant is a seed plant – it bears seeds – and the tomato that grows from it is an edible reproductive body; Tomato seeds are the means by which the tomato plant reproduces. A tomato is not sweet like an apple, but the definition does not require it to be sweet to be considered a fruit. Britannica.com: Encyclopedia articles on vegetables The potato belongs to the same plant family (the nightshade family) as the tomato, eggplant and some peppers.
But unlike these, it is classified as a vegetable, because the part of the plant that is eaten is the tuberculous part of the root, as opposed to the reproductive organ. Preheat oven to 375°F. Heat the vegetable oil in a large, high-walled cast iron pan. Finally, we apologize if any of the puns on fruits and vegetables were too cheesy. Technically, a fruit is the developed ovary of a plant that originates from a flower and contains one or more seeds. The term vegetable is much broader – it refers to any part of a plant used for food, including roots, tubers, stems and leaves. Many foods that we casually call vegetables, like tomatoes, are technically fruits. Nevertheless, this is a technical distinction that is usually ignored in practical contexts such as menus or product area layout. It is abundant when plant substances are burned, as well as during respiration, fermentation and many other processes. Middle English, borrowed from medieval Latin vegetÄbilia, plural noun derived from vegetÄbilis vegetable entry 2 Grain and vegetable merchants crowded the streets themselves. However, we will not leave you to the schadenfreude of your rebel pill friend without a source of comfort. Finally, instead, we offer some information that you can use as your own ammunition for Truculence: Strawberries aren`t technically berries, but bananas are.
You drive to the vegetable garden and take care of your flowers and vegetables. According to the State of Florida, [TITLE XXXV CHAPTER 570.55] (www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2012/570.55) Remember that vegetables can come from any part of the plant, whether roots, leaves, stems or other parts. Keeping this in mind can be helpful in clarifying whether something belongs in the vegetable category or the fruit category. Many people who ask, “Is a potato a vegetable?” really ask if they can count it as a nutritional one like they do for green vegetables. Traditionally, potatoes have been considered starch, but they are full of nutrients, including vitamins C, B1, B3 and B6, as well as minerals such as iron, potassium and folic acid. Here are some of the words we are currently looking for a place in the dictionary. How can we know what a fruit is? A vegetable? A bay? A nut? Does he not feel that this is constantly changing? Why is it so confusing? It`s easy to go through life feeling like you know the difference between a fruit and a vegetable, but it`s likely that at some point, a rebellious pill tried to dissuade you from the idea that you know your products.
