A fruit is the part of a plant that contains the seeds. There isn’t really a scientific definition of vegetable, it’s probably more of a cooking term used to describe plants used in savoury dishes. In fact many things that most people think of as vegetables (like tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini and capsicum) are actually fruits, and some aren’t even plants at all (like mushrooms, which are fungi). So, the easiest way to remember is that fruits always have seeds (even if you cant always see them). Veges can be any part of a plant (like potatoes and carrots, which are the roots)
From the plant’s point of view, the bits we call fruits and vegetables have a different role to play for the survival of the plant.
The job of fruit is to help the seeds of the plant to be scattered over a large area. That’s why fruits are often sweet and tasty – the plant wants birds and animals to eat the fruit and take the seed with them, so they can be spread out over a wide area. So the fruit is like a reward for helping the plant spread out its seeds.
Now the bits of the plants we use as vegetables are mainly involved in making and storing the plant’s energy. Like the roots of vegetables, like carrots and beetroot, are the storage organs for the energy of the plants. Or other vegetables which are leaves, such as lettuce and spinach, that’s where the plants turn sunlight into energy, in a reaction called photosynthesis. That’s one of the reasons we eat vegetables – they’re full of energy!
So the different structures of fruits and vegetables are because of the different jobs they do for the plant.
bobby
A fruit is the part of a plant that contains the seeds. There isn’t really a scientific definition of vegetable, it’s probably more of a cooking term used to describe plants used in savoury dishes. In fact many things that most people think of as vegetables (like tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini and capsicum) are actually fruits, and some aren’t even plants at all (like mushrooms, which are fungi). So, the easiest way to remember is that fruits always have seeds (even if you cant always see them). Veges can be any part of a plant (like potatoes and carrots, which are the roots)
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From the plant’s point of view, the bits we call fruits and vegetables have a different role to play for the survival of the plant.
The job of fruit is to help the seeds of the plant to be scattered over a large area. That’s why fruits are often sweet and tasty – the plant wants birds and animals to eat the fruit and take the seed with them, so they can be spread out over a wide area. So the fruit is like a reward for helping the plant spread out its seeds.
Now the bits of the plants we use as vegetables are mainly involved in making and storing the plant’s energy. Like the roots of vegetables, like carrots and beetroot, are the storage organs for the energy of the plants. Or other vegetables which are leaves, such as lettuce and spinach, that’s where the plants turn sunlight into energy, in a reaction called photosynthesis. That’s one of the reasons we eat vegetables – they’re full of energy!
So the different structures of fruits and vegetables are because of the different jobs they do for the plant.
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Darren and Krystal have both given good answers and beat me to it! If I say anything I would just be repeating what they have already said 🙂
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