Some Berries, Aren’t Really Berries At All
On my long drive to work each morning and again only a long drive home, I listen to podcasts. I find myself drawn to news podcasts like NPR, The Daily, The Journal, and The Morning Announcements. But, when the pandemic started, I began listening to science podcasts as well. One of my favorites is Shortwave.
The podcast is hosted by scientist, Maddie Sofia. Basically, in short bursts, she and various guests discuss science topics in short spurts. They explain things in simple and funny ways that make them easy to understand. A topic that really amazed me, among many of them that do, was titled, Yep, We Made Up Vegetables.
The vegetable stuck out to me because she reveals that, first of all, vegetables are not a real scientific, botanical term. We made it up to classify the plants we grow to eat. It's not a real thing. The other thing that shocked me was that strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries are NOT actually berries at all. But, bananas ARE berries. WHAT?!?!?
Even though I trust Maddie, implicitly, I still had to look it up so that I could read it for myself. According to lifescience.com, to be a true berry, the fruit has to have two or more seeds and come from a flower with one ovary.
...plants, such as the blueberry, have flowers with just one ovary. Hence, the blueberry is a true berry... Tomatoes, peppers, cranberries, eggplants, and kiwis come from a flower with one ovary, and so are also berries...
The article went on to explain that, just like bananas, oranges, for the above reason, are also berries.
See, science is so interesting. Who knew our Q Crew Question could spark so much controversy? Only those who said blueberries really answered the question correctly.♀️
I can't believe no one said that a tomato is their favorite berry.