Are pumpkins a fruit or a vegetable? What is the difference between the two? (2024)

FAQs

Are pumpkins a fruit or a vegetable? What is the difference between the two? ›

Answer. A pumpkin, from a botanist's perspective, is a fruit because it's a product of the seed-bearing structure of flowering plants. Vegetables, on the other hand, are the edible portion of plants such as leaves, stems, roots, bullbs, flowers, and tubers.

A pumpkin is, in fact, a fruit. According to expert Joe Masabni, Ph. D., Texas A&M Agri Life Extension Service vegetable specialist in Dallas, scientifically speaking, a pumpkin is a fruit simply because anything that starts from a flower is botanically a fruit.

Some people are surprised to find out that squashes are fruits not vegetables! Squashes grow on vines. They also have seeds inside. So, they are fruits!

Blackberries, mulberries, and raspberries are not berries at all, but bananas, pumpkins, avocados and cucumbers are. So what makes a berry? Well, a berry has seeds and pulp (properly called “pericarp”) that develop from the ovary of a flower. The pericarp of all fruit is actually subdivided into 3 layers.

So, are cucumbers a fruit or a vegetable? The answer is: both! Although they are botanically classified as a fruit, cucumbers are overwhelmingly prepared in savory ways like in salads or as pickles, so it's fair to say that they are vegetables in the culinary world.

Avocado is a fruit!

While avocados are often prepared with salt and spice and consumed like, and alongside, vegetables, avocados are biologically fruits since they contain seeds and develop from the ovary of a flowering plant.

Technically, pickles are fruit. They are made from cucumbers which are commonly seen as vegetables; however, they are a seed containing fruit of the cucumber plant.

Eggplants, also known as aubergines, belong to the nightshade family of plants and are used in many different dishes around the world. Although often considered a vegetable, they're technically a fruit, as they grow from a flowering plant and contain seeds.

Broccoli is a vegetable that grows as clusters of flower buds, called florets, on a stem.

The smallest fruit on the planet is the one-seeded fruit of the Duckweed plant Wolffia Globasa. They are usually referred to as Watermeal. These fruits are barely 0.3 mm long, which is comparable to one table salt particle. The plant looks like light green grains and is around 1mm long.

What is the largest fruit in the world? ›

The Largest Fruit in the World: Jackfruit - Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

Each pumpkin plant has both male and female flowers, with the first eight flower buds appearing on a new plant usually forming only male flowers. Typically, the first female flower opens approximately one week after the first male opens.

Corn, Zea mays, belongs to the Poaceae family, and while eaten sometimes as a vegetable and sometimes as a grain, it is actually classified by botanists as a fruit, as are tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and other squashes.

Olives are small fruits that grow on olive trees (Olea europaea). They belong to a group of fruit called drupes, or stone fruits, and are related to mangoes, cherries, peaches, almonds, and pistachios.

Mushrooms ... are neither fruit nor vegetable

Most experts know that mushrooms are neither a plant nor a fruit; they don't come from flowers, they also have neither seeds nor roots and don't need light to grow. Mushrooms are, in fact, fungi.

The Bottom Line. A potato is definitely a vegetable. Because it's considered a starchy vegetable, it's nutritionally different from other types of veggies — but that doesn't mean it's bad. If anything, white potatoes simply aren't veggies you necessarily need to prioritize for daily consumption.

Like the pepper, tomato, and pumpkin, watermelon is a fruit, botanically. It is the fruit of a plant originally from a vine of southern Africa. Loosely considered a type of melon (although not in the genus Cucumis), watermelon has a smooth exterior rind and a juicy, sweet interior flesh.

This category includes items many consider to be vegetables, including squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant and avocados. Yes, pumpkins are a fruit! Peas and beans are a bit trickier, because if you just eat what's inside the pod, you're eating the seed.

Generally zucchini is considered a vegetable, but botanically the definition of zucchini is the immature fruit, being the swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower.