Undeniably, fruits significantly improve our quality of life. They’re typically sweet, refreshing, and tasty. But what truly defines a fruit? It may come as a surprise that tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocados fall under the category of fruits, even though they’re not often recognized as such. From a scientific perspective, any section of a plant or tree that encompasses seeds is considered a fruit. Hence, if seeds exist, it’s technically a fruit. So where does the term vegetable fit in? In scientific terms, “vegetable” doesn’t hold much weight; it’s a term more prevalent in the culinary world. This implies that a scientist may segregate plant components into categories such as fruits, roots, stems, leaves, etc., but your grandmother might just separate them into fruits and vegetables, with fruits being the sweet segments and vegetables covering the rest. Armed with this newfound understanding about fruits and vegetables, be ready to learn even more. If you’re from a western country, there could be hundreds or even thousands of tasty fruits waiting for your discovery. Join us in exploring this savory universe with 25 intriguing facts about fruits that you may not have known previously.
Apples, peaches, and raspberries are all members of the rose family
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Oranges actually have less vitamin C than many other fruits including guava, lychee, kiwi, strawberries, and pineapples
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Coffee beans are actually not beans. They are fruit pits
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Grapes explode if you put them in the microwave
Source: reddit, Image: wikipedia The tomato is the world's most popular fruit
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Grapefruits have been known to lethally interact with certain prescription medications
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Cucumbers are actually fruits
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia The color orange was named after the fruit and not vice versa. Before that it was called "geoluread", meaning "yellow-red".
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia The Coco De Mer Palm tree is responsible for the world's largest fruit which weighs around 42 kg (92 lbs).
Source: wikipedia, Image: Shutterstock Pomology is the study of fruits
Source: wikipedia So you already know that tomatoes and cucumbers are fruits, but did you know that scientifically speaking, beans, avocados, sunflower seeds, lettuce leaves, and broccoli buds are too? This is because a fruit is the part of a plant that develops from a flower and contains the seeds. The other parts of the plant are considered vegetables
Source: wikipedia Did you enjoy these fruit facts? Then you might also enjoy these 25 strange fruits. Some of them you probably have never seen before.
Why do we call so many fruits vegetables then? Because from a culinary standpoint vegetables have come to be considered savory (in general) and fruits are considered to be sweet (in general)
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Of course, this rule doesn't always hold so sometimes savory fruits like tomatoes are labeled as vegetables because this is a more useful (and less accurate) way of dividing up our ingredients
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Enough of the terminology, did you know that tomatoes have more genes than humans?
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia There there are trees called "fruit salad trees" that can sprout 3 to 7 different fruits...on THE SAME tree. This is accomplished via grafting two or more plants so that they grow and function as a single plant.
Source: Scientific America, Image: Shutterstock Some Japanese farmers grow square watermelons
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia There are over 7000 different type of apples grown all over the world
Source: Illinois.edu, Image: Shutterstock And humans share 50% of their DNA with bananas?
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Pineapples and bananas are actually berries
Source: wikipedia, Image: pixabay Once again, this boils down to terminology. In everyday lingo, berries are usually small, round, and juicy. Scientifically, however, berries are fruits produced from the ovary of a single flower in which the outer layer of the ovary wall develops into an edible, fleshy portion.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Fruits don't die when they are harvested. They continue to respond to their environment long afterwards.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Eating miracle fruit will make very sour food taste sweet (at least for a few hours)
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia Not all oranges are orange. If the weather isn't cold enough, the chlorophyll in the skin doesn't break down and the fruit stays green
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia So you probably don't really care about the scientific definition of a berry right? But just to amaze your friends, besides bananas and pineapples, other berries include grapes, eggplants, and cucumbers
Source: wikipedia Bananas are slightly radioactive
Source: wikipedia, Image: blazingfires13 via deviantart 
