Which berry is not a berry

So, bananas are berries and raspberries aren't. Who knew? Greta Lorge , '97, is a freelance writer and editor in San Francisco. Related Categories. Culture Science. You May Also Like. For more information about Triple B Farms, call Visit the Kitchen Theater at Carnegie Science Center to learn more about the science of cooking, and get a taste of what we're cooking and a recipe to take home. For a schedule of daily cooking shows, check the schedule board in the Science Center lobby on the day of your visit, or call Be sure to ask if there is a guest chef appearing.

Boil sugar, cornstarch and water until clear about 10 minutes. Mix well with strawberries and spoon into pie shell. Refrigerate three hours. Top with whipped cream if desired, and serve. If most fruit have these 3 layers, then why are berries special? Although not exactly quantified, berries generally have thin endocarps and fleshy not dry pericarps.

This group encompasses apricots, mangoes, cherries, olives, avocados, dates and most nuts. From its name you probably guessed that this bunch includes apples, as well as pears.

Some examples of this are pineapple, figs and mulberries. These fruits turn out to be part of a greater group called accessory fruits , in which the fruit or many fruiting bodies is not derived from the ovary, but some other part of the developing plant. Bananas fulfill all of these requirements. They develop from a flower containing one single ovary, have a soft skin and a fleshy middle.

Bananas develop from a flower with one single ovary, have a soft and sweet middle and contain one or more seeds. Therefore, they fulfill the requirements of botanical berries. Most people think of berries as small fruits that can be picked of plants, such as strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. Though this classification now exists, most people remain unaware of it.

To add to the confusion, botanists also sometimes disagree on the exact classification of some fruit 1 , 4. Fruits were named thousands of years before botanists came up with an official classification. Here are other unexpected fruits that are considered berries — botanically speaking 2 :. Just like bananas, all of the fruits above develop from flowers containing one ovary, have a fleshy middle and contain one or more seeds.

This makes them botanical berries, despite rarely being thought of as such. Tomatoes, grapes, kiwis, avocados, peppers, eggplants and guavas are some other fruits that fulfill the requirements to be considered botanical berries.

Berries are a subcategory of fruits, the sweet, fleshy, seed-holding structures of a flowering plant. Bananas develop from a flower with a single ovary and have a soft skin, fleshy middle and small seeds.

As such, they meet all botanical requirements of a berry and can be considered both a fruit and berry.