Grapes are fruits or berries
The etymological assignment of some crops to fruits, berries or vegetables does not always coincide with external characteristics. For example, for this reason, tomato and watermelon are classified as berries. You can determine whether a grape is a fruit or a berry by the type of plant growth and the type of Fruit
Etymological characteristics of grapes
Understanding the terms
To understand whether a grape is a fruit, a berry, or even a vegetable, you need to understand the scientific view of typology.
- The fruit is the part of the plant that grows out of a flower bud and has seeds or one bone inside. Technically, this includes cucumbers, melons, tomatoes.
- Fruit is a succulent fruit of a tree or shrub that is suitable for human consumption.
- Berry is a type of multi-seeded fruit. In its formation, not only the ovary is involved, but also the receptacle. In botany, watermelon, eggplant and even tomato have this form. This is the name of a juicy fleshy fruit with a large number of seeds, a type of fruit.
- Vegetables are the edible parts of plants (stems, leaves, roots). Vegetables include cabbage, carrots, celery, but cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatoes cannot be attributed to this category. From the point of view of botany, tomato and pumpkin are not vegetables, because people do not eat parts of these plants.
It turns out that the classification is based on the organization of the fetus.
Why the confusion arises
The confusion about whether grapes is a fruit or a berry is associated with popular consciousness. People rely on practical experience: the size of the fruit, whether the fruit is edible, the place of growth. Popular typology is at odds with science.
Popular signs of berries:
- small fruits of shrubs and herbaceous plants, which are easy to pick up and eat whole;
- can be poisonous (for example, wolf);
- are wild (for example, forest and wild).
Classic representatives: raspberries, strawberries, strawberries.
Folk signs of fruits:
- are only edible;
- cultivated plants;
- the size is medium, fits in the palm of your hand.
The grapes are suitable for berries
If you follow the folk logic, then you need to consider cherries and mountain ash as a fruit (after all, they grow on trees).
The watermelon does not fit into the classification of the people by size: it is considered a fruit, because it is large. And in botany, strawberries and strawberries are considered false representatives of the folk class and refer them to fruits.
The popular consciousness does not fit the concept that a tomato, a pumpkin are berries, because a class of vegetables has been conventionally chosen for them for a long time. In addition, their taste is unsweetened, which also does not fit into the traditional concept of fruit.
Where to carry grapes
Definitely, grapes cannot be attributed to vegetables. People do not eat parts of the bush, but in the East it is customary to eat grape leaves as well, making a kind of analogue of stuffed cabbage. In European cuisine, grape leaves are canned, grilled and served with sweets. From this point of view, a plant is a vegetable. But in most cultures, only the fruits of the plant are considered suitable for food.
It cannot be classified as a vegetable for all other typological characteristics - size, taste.
But it can be considered a berry on the following grounds:
- fruits grow in bunches;
- grapes are a bush, not a tree;
- has a thin skin, outer skin;
- there are many seeds inside.
- almost any grape variety is sweet.
Conclusion
The answer to this question is obvious: grapes are a berry for all botanical and folk characteristics. The only thing that does not fit this definition is the shape of the bush. It looks more like a tree, but berry plants may have a hardened stem.