Is the tomato a fruit or vegetable

The main part of a plant is a vegetable, the things that grow off of plants are fruits. Things that grow off of trees, bushes, and vines are fruit. Carrots and potatoes are vegetables because the plant grows off of them, rather than the other way around.

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Originally Posted by ShlupQuack

The main part of a plant is a vegetable, the things that grow off of plants are fruits. Things that grow off of trees, bushes, and vines are fruit. Carrots and potatoes are vegetables because the plant grows off of them, rather than the other way around.

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Flower are fruit? What about lettuce and cabbage? Nuts? The fig? Peas?

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

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Originally Posted by bipper

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

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Originally Posted by bipper

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Originally Posted by DarkLadyNyara

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It doesn't mean that all that have seeds are fruit, you know. Squash has seeds, and it's a vegetable.
Tomato is a fruit.

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Actually, if you want to get technical, squash are also fruit. A fruit is, by definition, the ovary of an angiosperm, or more simply, the part of the plant that contains the seeds. :D

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Yes; in the scientific community, it is considered a fruit. A lot of "vegtables" are. They yeild the nutritional value of a vegtable though, and they do not produce a sweetened flavor, therefoe, they are traditionally known as vegtables. Simply put: Chefs will call them a vegie due to taste and nutrients, a scientist will call them a fruit due to their cosmic implimentations :)

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Also, scientists won't call them vegetables because vegetable is not a scientific term. :)

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I am fairly sure that vegtable is a scientific term in agriculture . :confused:

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Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Vegetable is a culinary term. Its definition has no scientific value, and is somewhat arbitrary and subjective. Any part of an herbaceous plant that humans eat whole or in part is a vegetable, except for culinary fruits and arguably grains, nuts, herbs, and spices. Also, mushrooms are commonly considered vegetables, despite belonging to a different biological kingdom, namely fungi (which used to be classified as plants).

Vegetables include leaf vegetables (for example lettuce), stem vegetables (asparagus), root vegetables (carrot), flower vegetables (broccoli), bulbs (garlic) and botanical fruits such as cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, avocados, capsicums, as well as botanical pulses such as green beans, and fleshy, immature seeds such as those of peas or beans.

Since "vegetable" is not a botanical term, there is no contradiction in a plant part being a fruit botanically while still being considered a vegetable (see diagram). See Nix v. Hedden for a United States Supreme Court's ruling on the matter.

In general, vegetables are thought of as being savoury, and not sweet (with some exceptions, such as rhubarb and pumpkin).

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umm.... that is no source; it is wikipedia :) Agriculture is a science, and vegtable is and agricultural term.

ps. nuts are also considered fruit - to science. Flowers are not though. A fruit must bear seed and the nutrients for the seed to grow.

If you wanna get technical; a tomato is a berry.

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Originally Posted by bipper

umm.... that is no source; it is wikipedia :) Agriculture is a science, and vegtable is and agricultural term.

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Show me a source that says otherwise.

Also, fruit is a botanical term, and vegetable is not. Where is an online encyclopedia other than Wikipedia then? I'm sure the World Book Encyclopedia is where I first read about this.

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Originally Posted by Britannica Concice Encyclopedia

Any fruit of the numerous cultivated varieties of Lycopersicon esculentum, a plant of the nightshade family.

The plant is generally much branched and has hairy, strongly odorous, feathery leaves. The drooping, clustered, yellow flowers are followed by red, scarlet, or yellow fruits, which hang from the many branches of one weak stem. The tomato fruit varies in shape from spherical to elongate and in size from 0.6 in. (1.5 cm) across to more than 3 in. (7.5 cm) across. The Spanish were bringing tomatoes from South America to Europe by the early 16th century; they were introduced to North America from Europe by the 1780s. Tomatoes are used raw, cooked as a vegetable or puree, and pickled, canned, and sun-dried. The term also applies to the fruit of L. pimpinelli folium, the tiny currant tomato.

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Originally Posted by MSN Encarta

Tomato, common name for a vinelike herb of the nightshade family, native to the Andean regions of South America. The name also refers to the fruit of the herb. Once thought to be poisonous, tomatoes have become one of the most widely grown and commercially important vegetable crops.

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Originally Posted by Wikipedia, again

Fruit or vegetable?

Botanically speaking, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant, i.e. a fruit or, more precisely, a berry. However, from a culinary perspective the tomato is typically served as a meal, or part of a main course of a meal, meaning that it would be (and is) considered a vegetable.

This argument has led to actual legal implications in the United States, Australia and China. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables but not on fruits caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled this controversy in 1893, declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, using the popular definition which classifies vegetable by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert. The case is known as Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304). While the Tomato can be classified as a fruit, it is officially categorized as a definite vegetable in the United States.

The USDA also considers the tomato a vegetable.

It should be noted that strictly speaking the holding of the case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883 and not much else. The court does not purport to reclassify tomato for botanical or for any other purpose other than paying a tax under a tariff act.

In concordance with this classification, the tomato has been proposed as the state fruit of New Jersey. Arkansas takes both sides by declaring the "South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato" to be both the state fruit and the state vegetable in the same law, citing both its botanical and culinary classifications.

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Originally Posted by University of Illinois

Botanically speaking, the tomato you eat is a fruit. So is a watermelon, green pepper, eggplant, cucumber, and squash. A "fruit" is any fleshy material covering a seed or seeds.

Horticulturally speaking, the tomato is a vegetable plant. The plant is an annual and nonwoody. Most fruits, from a horticulture perspective, are grown on a woody plant (apples, cherries, raspberries, oranges) with the exception of strawberries.

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Fruit, because Wikipedia said so! :p

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Originally Posted by bipper

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

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Originally Posted by bipper

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Originally Posted by DarkLadyNyara

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It doesn't mean that all that have seeds are fruit, you know. Squash has seeds, and it's a vegetable.
Tomato is a fruit.

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Actually, if you want to get technical, squash are also fruit. A fruit is, by definition, the ovary of an angiosperm, or more simply, the part of the plant that contains the seeds. :D

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Yes; in the scientific community, it is considered a fruit. A lot of "vegtables" are. They yeild the nutritional value of a vegtable though, and they do not produce a sweetened flavor, therefoe, they are traditionally known as vegtables. Simply put: Chefs will call them a vegie due to taste and nutrients, a scientist will call them a fruit due to their cosmic implimentations :)

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Also, scientists won't call them vegetables because vegetable is not a scientific term. :)

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I am fairly sure that vegtable is a scientific term in agriculture . :confused:

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It may not have a botanical name; but it is a scientific term when referenced in the science known as agriculture :)

When you bring botanical names into play, the whole thing becomes a non issue lol. guess not.

See what your encyclopedias say about fruit.

The newton says this: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc...0/bot00134.htm

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Botanically speaking, anything that bears or is a seed is considered a fruit.
There are different kinds of fruit, ie nuts are a kind of
fruit. Vegetables
are any part of the plant that doesn't have to do with making new plants.
Lettuce is a leaf, carrot is a root, celery is a stem. I think I heard a
story of how the legal definition of a fruit vs. veggie was established as a
way of avoiding taxes or tarifs or something.

vanhoeck

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Originally Posted by bipper

The newton says this: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc...0/bot00134.htm

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Botanically speaking, anything that bears or is a seed is considered a fruit.
There are different kinds of fruit, ie nuts are a kind of
fruit. Vegetables
are any part of the plant that doesn't have to do with making new plants.
Lettuce is a leaf, carrot is a root, celery is a stem. I think I heard a
story of how the legal definition of a fruit vs. veggie was established as a
way of avoiding taxes or tarifs or something.

vanhoeck

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Further proving that vegetable has no specific definition - some scientists are saying one thing, some scientists are saying another.

Someone on the same page...

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I do not have an adequate definition for 'vegetable', but my feeling for its
routine meaning is any part of a plant consumed whether a stem (celery), a
leaf (lettuce), a root or tuber (radish, or potato, respectively), and in
some cases the fruit of fertilization or structures bearing them (cucumbers,
yes-tomatoes). Add to this such items as mushrooms (basidiocarps of fungi)
and you get the idea....the term vegetable has come to mean most anything
which is not animal or mineral which we find in the 'produce' section of the
supermarket. Thus, the term vegetable has somewhat lost a botanical
usefulness in that there are more specific terms to use depending on the
particular structure being discussed.

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they have a scientific defintion, just not a botanic definition. As agriculture is a science, and defines vegtables seperately from fruit. Ag = science so Ag term = science term

Agriculture is an art. ;)

ag·ri·cul·ture Audio pronunciation of "agriculture" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (gr-klchr)
n.

The science, art, and business of cultivating soil, producing crops, and raising livestock; farming.

See? I was right. :D

I was too! :D

umm, isn't the cucumber a fruit too? it has seeds.

'tis.

Bob is :cool: as a cucumber