this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2025
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I had always learned if it has seeds (in nature) then it was a fruit, otherwise it was a vegetable or something else
The definition strictly is "fruiting body", that their flower head goes through a process of becoming a fruiting body
Many vegetables have seeds.
Pumpkins are already in the example, but think peppers, legumes
I would still consider those fruits tbh, but yea they do draw the line
The thing is fruit/vegetable is not a category in botany. Fruit exists, and it kinda has that definition, that it carries seeds, but that doesn't serve to distinguish it from vegetables.
Fruit/vegetable is a culinary distinction, rather than a scientific one.
And this is the whole point of the controversy: The same word can have multiple meanings in different contexts and some people have trouble with that concept.