(?) Are 'Mellons' a fruit? Or a vegetable...

[Greywolf]

I know, it's almost a random thought. I would think they'd be fruit, but I'm just not sure for some reason.

I'll be doing Cantaloupe, Honey Dew, and Giant Watermellon this year, but haven't got a clue which forum to post about them in!

EDIT: Halfway through waiting for this post to appear, I suddenly grew an extra brain and did a google search! The results were not necessarily helpful:

https://www.joedorman.com/pressreleases/watermelonfacts.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melon

~Even wikipedia seemed to be undecided, but it seems some are, while others are not fruit. Apparently I am not the first to be in this quandary...

(Quoting from WIKI): Although the melon is a fruit, some varieties may be considered "culinary vegetables".

[rainbowgardener]

Technically a fruit is the ripened ovary of a flower. This would include:

melons
tomatoes
cucumbers
squashes and zucchini
avocados
green, red, and yellow peppers
peapods
pumpkins

Culinary vegetable isn't a biological term; it just means that is how it is used in cooking and probably refers to the fact that there are some melons that are not sweet.

Just to keep it interesting, one type of fruit is berries. Wiki defines berry as:
The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary, such as a grape. The seeds are usually embedded in the flesh of the ovary.

As such it includes tomatoes! So while it is correct to say tomato is a fruit, it is more specific to say it is a berry.

[applestar]

Good answer, rainbowgardener!

[tomf]

Some time last month I looked up the difference on line and much of it had to do with the kind of sugar in it.