You may think you know the difference between a fruit and a vegetable. Fruits are sweet; veggies are savory, right? Bzzt. Botanically speaking, many plant foods we call vegetables — even cereal grains — are actually fruits. Vegetable is a culinary term for the stem, leaf, or root of a plant, says Almuth Tschunko, PhD, a professor of biology at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio. Fruits, on the other hand, develop from the flower and contain one or more seeds. For example, in scientific terms, a carrot is a root, whereas each kernel of corn is an individual fruit. Likewise, a sunflower “seed” is simply a dried fruit. The exception: The fruit of the tomato plant was legally classified as a vegetable in the U.S. in 1893, when the Supreme Court ruled that because they were eaten in entrées, tomatoes should be subject to the same tariffs as vegetables.

Stealthy fruits

coconuts

eggplants

green peppers

hazelnuts

okra

pumpkins

string beans

vanilla beans

wheat