There are many definitions for the word fruit. Fruits can be defined by home makers and botanists. Most people have the thinking that a fruit is a plant produce that should be sweet while a vegetable is any produce that isn't sweet. Most people recognize fruits like strawberries, grapes, apples and bananas and not thinking that tomatoes are fruits as well.
Most people get surprised when they learn that tomatoes are indeed fruits and not vegetables. One of the reasons for the misconception may be due to the fact that it is often added to dishes as an ingredient and unlike fruits it is not common to eat it as a dessert.
Defining a fruit as a produce being sweet is wrong because most encyclopedias define fruits as ovaries of plants enclosed as seeds that have ripened. This is one of the answers to the question why is a tomato a fruit. The tomato grows from the ovary of the plant and should be ripe first before it is picked. It grows from the plant's ovary after it undergoes the process of fertilization. The flesh of the tomato comes from the ripened walls of the pericarp.
The second answer to the question why is a tomato a fruit is because vegetables are classified as bulbs, stems, leaves, flowers and root crops. Under root crops we have turnips, carrots and potatoes. We have onions and garlic for the bulbs, asparagus as a vegetable from the stem. Cabbages and Lettuces are leafy vegetables while Broccolis and Cauliflowers are flowers.
A tomato is not a root crop, a stem, a bulb, a flower or a leaf hence it is a fruit. Tomatoes grow as vines. It can even grow up to six feet in length from the soil if it has a support. There have been varieties of this plant that can grow up to three feet only.
The third answer to the question why is a tomato a fruit is because it is categorized as a berry so it belongs to the berry family of fruits. Another answer to the question why is a tomato a fruit is because it has hollow parts with seeds. The part is also moist which is known as the locular cavity. There are smaller tomatoes which have 2 locular cavities only. The typical tomatoes however have three cavities up to five cavities.The tomato known as the beefsteak variety has several locular cavities. The tomatoes called paste have the smaller number.
A tomato is a fruit for several reasons. One of the reason is the fact that it comes from the ovary of the plant.
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