Quiz: Is It a Berry or Not?

Cranberry: Yes, it’s a true berry. Like its cousins the blueberry and lingonberry.

Blackberry: Not a true berry (what?).  Blackberry, raspberry and other members of genus Rubus are botanically classified as “aggregate fruits”.  They contain “...seeds from different ovaries of a single flower, with the individual fruitlets joined at maturity to form the complete fruit” per the Wikipedia link above.

Strawberry: Also not a true berry. It’s an “accessory fruit” which means that “…the edible part is not generated by the ovary.” If that sounds confusing, how about this: what looks like tiny seeds all over the outside of the strawberry is actually the fruit “...derived by an aggregate of ovaries; the fleshy part develops instead from the receptacle…” A “receptacle” is botany-speak for vegetative tissue near or around the reproductive organs. How to make such a luscious little mouthful sound positively unappealing!

Cocoa: Well, no – the fruit of the Theobroma cacao tree is not botanically classified as a berry, but it is classified as baccate-like (berry-like). Cocoa beans are the seeds of the pod-shaped fruit and each pod produces approximately 35-50 seeds surrounded by a sweet pulp. Bonus factoid: “Theobroma” means food of the gods in classical Greek (of course it does – and it is!).

Grape: Aha, it’s a true berry!  Vitus vinifera does answer to the botanical definition of a berry (...a simple fruit having seeds and fleshy pulp…produced from the ovary of a single flower.”)

Banana: Believe it or not, it’s also a true berry.  And what got me started on writing this quiz when I saw it referenced in an article.  The seeds must be in there somewhere.  Bonus factoid:  bananas are slightly radioactive.

Avocado: Getting weirder now – yes, it’s classified as a true berry.  Look it up on the Wikipedia link above if you don’t believe me.

Eggplant:  Just like its relative, the tomato, the eggplant gets the nod because it’s a fleshy fruit that comes from one flower with a single ovary.

Pumpkin: A berry.  By now you might have suspected that.  Like other members of the family Cucurbitaceae (cucumbers, zucchini, melons, etc.), pumpkin is yet another edible classified botanically as a berry.  By far the easiest “berry” to turn into a jack o’ lantern, the humble field pumpkin.

Persimmon: One more in the “berry” column, this time from the Ebony family of trees.  Pictured is ABG volunteer Shannon Wirth with a bowl of Izu persimmons, which her family will soon devour.