DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VEGETABLES AND FRUITS

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Fruits and vegetables are referred to differently in botanical, culinary and retail terms, and terms are often used interchangeably. Tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, squashes and gourds are all fruits. Peas and beans are vegetables, but if eaten in the pod are considered fruit.

Although often referred to in culinary terms as a fruit, rhubarb is in fact a vegetable. Bananas have immature seeds within them. Strawberries have their seeds on the outside of the fruit. Peanuts are a variety of bean. Nuts are tree seeds.
What is a fruit

A fruit is the swollen ovary of a flowering plant, and therefore contains seeds.  The fruit is produced to help plants colonise wider areas and are often brightly coloured and flavoursome in order to attract animals to eat the seeds. They are ingested by the animal and then deposited in their droppings. Some seeds require this digestion in order to aid germination of the seed. 

What is a vegetable

A vegetable is any other part of the plant harvested for food such as the seeds, root, stem or leaf of a plant.

Examples of Vegetables

Asparagus (stem), Beans (seeds), broccoli (flowers), cabbage (leaves), carrot (roots), celery (stem), cauliflower (flowers), lettuce (leaves), peas (seeds), potato (root), rhubarb (stem).

Examples of Fruit

Apple, aubergine, banana, bell peppers, cherry, cucumber, melon, orange, peapods, peach, pear, strawberry, tomato.

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