Watermelon is a vegetable, says Associated Press

7-05-2006 @6:42PM Conrad Persson said... I believe that things have become hopelessly confused because the terms "fruit" and "vegetable" are used in different senses. In the most general sense, "vegetable" simply means anything that grows, that has no intelligence, and no sense organs, and is not capable of locomotion (although some "animal" entities are also fit those criteria, more or less).
More specifically, grass, trees, potatoes, tomatoes, blueberries, apples, pears, etc., etc., are "vegetable."
Within the "vegetable" category, the part of the plant that contains the seeds, which can in turn produce new plants is the "fruit". Botanically, the "fruit" category includes not only apples, pears, peaches, grapes, and other sweet, dessert, kinds of products, but squash, cucumbers, eggplant, etc.
However, in common parlance, anything you eat that is not animal or a grain product, and not sweet, is considered a vegetable. Such products that are sweet are considered fruits.
In my (very humble and very suspect) opinion, all fruits are vegetable, but not all vegetables are fruit. Until some accredited body can sort all this out, the confusion will remain, since the terms "fruit" and "vegetable" are both used in more than one sense. So, is a watermelon a vegetable? Of course it is. Is a watermelon a fruit? You bet. Are you confused? So am I.
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7-05-2006 @6:45PM Geoffrey M. Huntley said... Yes, I agree with the folks who recalled watermelons being classied not oly as fruits but they are also berries: (seed enclosed in a soft fleshy tissue) so squashes and pumpkins(relatives) are also berries. Tomatoes, are also berries although congress declared them vegatables several years ago to stop arguements on the subject for tax purposes.Chocolate is also a fruit! Beans are born inside the big pod. My horticulture students get a strange look on their faces of disbelief each time i explain how watermelons are just a huge berry!
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7-05-2006 @6:45PM B. A. Heaver said... Pursuing the status of watermelon as a fruit or vegetable can lead to severe schizophrenia. It really depends upon which classification one is employing. Don't bet the farm on it being exclusively one or the other.
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7-05-2006 @6:57PM Jay Preston said... And a melon is defined as a fruit that grows on a vine.
Is it animal vegetable or mineral?
Does it reproduce sexually and create seeds in an ovary?
"Nuts" are fruits, too.
Anyway, the govt will interpret the definitions in the way most favorable to the politics of income.
Remember when Reagan's USDA decided that ketchup should be considered a serving of vegetables?
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7-05-2006 @7:03PM john said... in my mind, fruit is a botanical term and vegetable is a culinary term. JMO.
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7-05-2006 @7:04PM Allen said... I guess I would have to call watermelon... dessert.
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7-05-2006 @7:07PM Sidnee said... Is a snow pea a fruit? Isn't the pea the seed from the vine? Or is that a leaf? And what about the strawberry? The seeds are outside the fruit.
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7-05-2006 @7:22PM Joyce said... I don't care what you call it, as long as they taste good and they're sweet , who cares.
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7-05-2006 @7:24PM Diana said... Just to get things a little more confusing... Doesnt the vine the veggie/fruit grow on have something to do with it. i.e. if it grows on a vine its a fruit. or the other way around.
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7-05-2006 @7:25PM steven miller said... I think fruits come from trees and vegetables from all other plants. Thats why olives are fruits and watermelons and the like are vegetables. Grapes have vines with bark which is why they are considered fruits.
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7-05-2006 @7:29PM Tony said... I was taught in my college botany Class a fruit is the maturing ovary of a plant.Hence a watermellon and many other so called flowers are in deed fruits. As anyone who has eaten at a French restaurant.
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7-05-2006 @7:38PM Bflobty13 said... Vine bearing plants, carrying seeds, such as watermelons, squash, pumpkin,cucumbers, tomatoes, are dubiously labelle fruits, but mistakenly only watermelon and tomatoes are labelled fruits and the other vegetables. Perhaps it is the RED sweet coloring and taste that draws us to their fruity classification.
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7-05-2006 @7:39PM Erika said... Fruit? Vegetable? Huh? This is really confusing. lol. Personally I thought it was a fruit considering it bore seeds, (I thought everything that bore seeds was a fruit? Like tomatoes and peppers???) Why can't they just call it a melon? Isn't that what it is? Oh well...I'll just stick with the term "food" from now on. lol. :)
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7-05-2006 @7:49PM Amy said... According to T. Maito Watermellon is in fact a vegetable. T. Maito is an interesting older red headed man that has be studying farm fields forever. His unique ground breaking approach has made him the talk of the farming community. He actually sleeps with the plants in the field. If he does not know the truth then no one does.
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7-05-2006 @7:52PM Kelila said... Then what is a vegetable? Vegetation you put on the table? LOL.
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7-05-2006 @7:54PM Tameka said... I could personally care less!!!!! The thought of the word makes me sick to my stomach. I used to could eat it when I was a kid, but now NO WAY!!!
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7-05-2006 @7:54PM Mary said... It ain't the USDA. It's Binomial Nomenclature. (See Nika's comment.) You can go into science this or that all you want about seeded versus not seed producing "fruit" but you can't get more scientific then that. It's only semantics though, does it impact anyone's life, at all, if they call something a fruit, or a veggetable? Maybe that Jenning's guy, but the rest of us schmos likely can get along regardless.
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7-05-2006 @7:54PM DHT said... I took Plant Biology (Botany) about 14 years ago. I distinctly recall that a watermelon and other things you would not expect are actually fruits, not vegetables. In the same class, I also learned that a strawberry is actually a modified stem. The flowers form on the red part leaving a seed, the achene, a fruit.
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7-05-2006 @8:01PM Betsy said... So what if they are a veggie , they are good for you and they are in my case the best veggie I ever tasted! Any thing that grows on a vinethat lays on the groundis a veggie I guess beside who cares! If you like it eat it , nomatter what family they come from !
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