Did You Know? Bananas are also berries?

You might have heard that tomatoes are considered as a fruit but eaten as a vegetable. Similarly, almonds are seeds but eaten as nuts, pumpkins are berries but not eaten as a berry. Does this confuse you too? Let us simplify this for you through this article.

Botany has its own set of rules and guidelines that often contradict culinary norms. Talking about a banana, it is often confused with a fruit but according to science, its not ! But before understanding why, it is important to know what exactly fruits and berries are.

What is a Fruit?

Any plant growth with one or more seed is termed as a fruit. A fruit is supposed to spread the seeds of a plant so that it can multiply or reproduce and make more fruits. Another trait of fruits is that they are usually fleshy.

Now, if we look at this from a little science aspect, each flower contains reproductive structures known as ovaries, and a fruit develops from a plant’s flower. Some flowers have one ovary and some have more than one. In both the cases, each ovary ultimately becomes a fruit. 

What is a Berry? 

According to science and botany, what actually makes a plant into a berry is a fruit that grows from only one ovary. Berries generally have a slightly soft outer peel, fresh middle portion and a soft area around the seeds. Usually, berries also have many seeds but what they don’t have is a stone or pit like seeds, say peaches or plums for example.

Berries are a little different in the realm of fruits, they’re considered as small juicy, fleshy and pulpy fruits. 

Is Banana a Berry or a Fruits?

Well, it’s not just a berry, it’s both, a berry and a fruit! Scientifically speaking, it becomes a fruit by default if it is a berry. The banana flower has a soft skin, juicy flesh, and a lot of tiny seeds. Those seeds are so tiny in size that they won’t even get noticed while eating a banana. Although it’s hard to picture a banana as a berry, the tiny seeds in banana, qualify it as a berry.

Did you know? Cherry, often considered as a berry (because of the similar name), is not actually a berry, it is a stone fruit since it contains a hard pit in the center. Stone fruits, including peaches, plums and cherries are known as drupes - a macro version of a druplet.