It often happens that the scientific and everyday (culinary) notion of fruits and vegetables does not match. Because of this, confusion arises. It is known from botany that tomatoes belong to multi-caviar paracarp berries.
The division of concepts - fruit and vegetable - is absent in English. Even in the 19th century in the United States, tomatoes were unanimously recognized as fruits. Because they are related to fruits. They are considered to be vegetables after collection of customs duties.
So they treated the fruits of tomato for a long time. And in the beginning of the 21st century, the European Union recognized that a tomato in Europe is a fruit.
However, in the ordinary understanding of people, and even in agricultural literature, tomatoes continue to be considered vegetables.
The native language is still stronger. So we constantly make discoveries for ourselves, seeing the differences between the names of fruits and vegetables in botany and the usual names.
The reasons for the debate - why a tomato is a fruit - really a lot. In the cities, each side of the discussion continues to insist on its own. In cooking, too, their habits, but there are more inclined to use in relation to products familiar to the people of the concept.
To understand the question of what should be attributed to a particular product, you need to understand how to classify plants. To begin with, let's see what a vegetable is all about.
What do we know about vegetables?
It should be noted that vegetables are called parts of plants, and not fruits. These are parts of plants that can not be attributed to the organs of reproduction. Otherwise, they would be called flowers, from which the fruits appear. Therefore, in fact, strange as it may sound, vegetables, we should call buds, stems, leaves and even the roots of the plant. In cooking these parts of plants can be used, as edible, and not having a sweet taste.
What do we know about fruit?
Why is a tomato a fruit? The concept of "fruit" emerged from botany as a substitute for the word fruits. Fruits also include parts of plants, but only those that develop from flowers to seeds. In cooking, sweet fruits are included in fruits, their delicious fruits.
So all the same, a tomato is a berry or a vegetable or a fruit?
Taking into account our knowledge, it's time to make more precise conclusions - what, to which part of the plants, should be attributed tomatoes.
Tomatoes, also called tomatoes, should be considered fruits, since fruits can only be obtained from flowers. But the fact is that the fruits are of different kinds. Some fruits are more juicy, some less. Tomatoes, of course, refer to more juicy fruits.
Next comes the following classification. Whether these fruits are related to the berries. By the way, berries are also divided into subspecies. It's time to argue about what a tomato relates to fruit or berries.
And what are berries? This fruit with a very juicy pulp, consisting of seeds and thin peel. It turns out that there is such a concept with respect to tomatoes.
But still, do not forget about the reckoning of tomatoes to vegetables, as most of us are used to. In everyday life, it is not customary to break down associative links.
At us tomatoes, as a herbaceous plant, it is accepted to include in vegetable culture. Vegetable culture can not produce fruits, and even more so, berries.
- tomatoes are grown on beds where other vegetable crops grow;
- tomatoes are eaten raw, like cabbage or cucumbers , this is their common characteristics;
- tomatoes are not used as a dessert, so they can not be attributed to berries that are put into baking.
Already these arguments are enough that we, as ordinary people, have the right to say that a tomato is a vegetable. And as you call them - in scientific or folklore - this is only your personal business.