Fruit or vegetable?

Tomato -- fruit or vegetable? Who among us hasn't been at a dinner party or other gathering at one time or another and had this question spur a heated debate?

A post at http://www.livescience.com/health/080722-fruit-what-is.html helps clear up the issue:

" ... in the world of botany, a fruit is the structure that bears the seeds of a plant. It is formed in the plant's flower. In the center, the female parts of the flower include the ovary. The ovary has structures inside that become the seeds when fertilized. So the ovary will develop into the fruit. To the plant, fruits are basically a means of spreading the seeds around, generally by wind or animal poop. In the latter case, fruits such as raspberries become thicker and accumulate sugars and bright colors, thereby attracting birds or other animals ..."

Tomatoes, for the record, are technically a fruit.


But don't expect to find a bunch of tomato farmers at the next fruit growers co-op meeting.

What about vegetables? According to Livescience:

"The term vegetable has no meaning in botany ... . Instead, the other produce is also classified, like the fruits, by whatever part of the plant they are. For example, rhubarb and celery are the stems, albeit very enlarged and juicy stems, of a leaf. Lettuce, kale, spinach and cabbage are the leaves of a plant."

As far as public perception goes, I'm guessing people generally think of fruit as produce that is sweet and vegetables as those commodities that are not -- a fairly accurate shortcut.