So, is strawberry a vegetable or fruit? It is evident that the majority of citizens only know that strawberry is purely a kind of fruit. However, you will wonder how and why strawberries can be regarded as vegetables. Luckily, I am here to show you what they actually are.
And after you clean up this mystery, you will gain quite a bit of knowledge about botany, and there is more than meets the eyes. This post will give you the answer!
Strawberries: Weird Plant
What is strawberry, and where does it come from? When is the best season to buy strawberries?
Strawberries appeared 250 years ago after hybridizing the male Fragaria chiloensis and the female Fragaria virginiana. It is a commonly cultivated cross-bred species of the genus Fragaria, collectively known as the strawberries, and often grows in groups due to its flowering habits.
In more detail, strawberries are a genus of over 20 flowering plants in the rose family and even their edible fruits.
There are a wide variety of strawberries, and they can be found almost in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. These plants are cultivated widely in the world, but the most well-known ones are found in California.
The incredible history of strawberries that may blow your mind.
What Are The Definitions Of Vegetable And Fruit?
To know more about the botanical world, first of all, there are some definitions you need to know.
What Is A Vegetable?
Vegetable or you can understand easily it is the edible part of a plant that other creatures, including humans, consume. So, in terms of the culinary aspect, vegetables are a kind of food that originates from plants. It is even more than a botanical definition due to its function.
Being derived from plant parts like stems, leaves, flowers, and even fruits, this modification is broader than what you could have known.
How To Definite Fruit?
Clearly, fruits are similar to vegetables somehow. It also develops and ripens from trees or plants. The first requirement for being a berry is containing edible seeds, or else (some other kinds of seeds).
While the vegetable is a non-seed plant, the opposite is apparently applied to fruits, the ones with seeds. But somehow, these comparisons and definitions can not be used arbitrarily due to some botanical sorting and even culinary sorting.
People’s Doubtful Statement
Opinions differ as to what is actually a vegetable and what is fruit, and it made people confused about those definitions.
Until now, every single individual insists that fruit is a plant with sweet and sour-tasting flavor while the one that is non-flavor and edible is a vegetable. Even though almost all vegetables are not sugary, some others with no sugar are not considered vegetables and vice versa.
In this case, strawberries fail to fit themselves in either of those classifications. They are out of the botanical terms for “fruit” and “vegetable”. Botanists call them “multiple fruits”.
This fruit is a mature and thickened ovary which is a seed or achene container. Its fleshy part, which can be known as “pulp” is an accessory. But interestingly, those parts can be consumed by humans and animals.
In terms of the botanical definition of some sorts of food, particularly fruits and vegetables, you might wonder how some fruits are considered just a single berry, nothing more than a plant with tasty fleshy parts and vice versa.
This is illustrated by rhubarb’s appearance, which is casually sorted into the fruit group. But beyond all you have known, instead of being a berry, it is merely a vegetable.
Another example, such as tomatoes, this vegetable turns out to fit the modification of berries, which is the same when compared to avocados and eggplants.
Can Strawberries Be Sorted To Vegetable-Plant?
To clear the mind’s mist, the part consumed by humans and animals is the fleshy pulp with seeds inside that only fruit has.
Unlike the common acceptances of the living of this plant, it originated from a flower as the ovary. No matter if its color is black or white, the flower’s petals will be removed in order to expose the bright red color from the stigma and stamen.
Take all the definitions together, strawberries are edible fruit. This ovary-one is a part of the strawberry flower that does not fit any requirement to be a vegetable, even leaves, stems, roots, or fruits.
What Is Actually A Strawberry? Are Strawberries Merely Fruits Or Beyond That?
So should you consider strawberries as normal berries or vegetables, or even beyond those definitions? Are raspberries and strawberries the same?
Commonly, you probably think that it is just a berry, nothing more than achene. But looking at more details, you can find it is different from other regular fruits. Like other berries that consist of raspberries and blackberries, they are not considered berries by botanists.
More than that, the way they develop and ripen is also unique. Clearly, strawberries are more than that instead of being pure berries.
Why Do Strawberries Have More To Discuss Than Other Fruits?
Even strawberries are intrinsically fruit, but these multiple ones are more controversial than others.
Casually, strawberries are mostly considered berries. But beyond every other fruit which has inside-out seeds, this weird one attaches its seeds outside. And these attachments can be called “Achene”. Each strawberry holds approximately 200 achenes on its skin.
Looking into its developing process, it begins with the yellow part emerging from the white strawberry flower. Then it continues to grow up right after the flower blooms and forms into a red fleshy one when ripped.
Intelligibly, the sweet fleshy part plays a containing role for achenes – the dry and small strawberries. Despite being attached outside the fruit, it is not too different from other seeds. Being cultivated, growing, developing, and ripening. At all, it is just a seed, but outside.
Scientific Facts About Strawberries
To begin with, these “weird berries” can still play a fruit role, but a false fruit. Overall, it is unique in its characteristics, structure, and how it grows.
From a botanical view, it is an aggregate accessory fruit which means the fleshy part originates from the receptacle. It covers the ovaries instead of coming from the creature’s ovaries. In short, the edible part is called a seed receptacle. (1)
Looking outside, the green and little dots are actual fruits called achenes. This achene is the same compared to one of the flower’s ovaries, with a seed inside.
More interesting facts about these weird berries that you may never know.
Achene? What Are Those Seeds Attached To Strawberries’ Skin?
To clarify, the green and small dots attached to strawberries’ skin are botanically achenes. So what are they? What is achene?
Following the common definition, achene is a one-seed-small dry fruit formed inside the shell. Closely, inside the seeds of the strawberries, you could find another seed inside each, which is actually achene.
“Lab Grown-Berries”
Besides its bizarre class, there is one more fact that you should know about this weird fruit.
The fact that strawberries are man-made, or you can call it “artificial-berry”. Technically, strawberries are not natural at all. Its scientific name is Fragaria. The name belongs to a kind of wild strawberry flora species. The one you eat today is just another version of that wild one.
Historically, strawberries were first found in the 1700s. It was first cultivated and developed into the primary version of all strawberries in the early 17th century. Wild strawberries used to be the “strawberries producer”.
Then, French botanists found out that they could make this fruit grow stronger and 20 times bigger than its original size.
After many times being “upgraded” and changed, the modern strawberry appeared in 1764. Before that, Antoine Nicolas Duchesne had done his own research, which was about cross-breeding between the Fragaria moschata and chiloensis.
Nutritional And Medicinal Value
Like other fruit and vegetables, strawberries are the best choice for a nutritious meal or extra meal out of its functions.
Nutrition
Fresh strawberries are a very good source of vitamin C, with 12% of the Daily Value in a cup of chopped fruit. Weight Watchers points for this fruit are very low, and it contains only 31 calories per cup of chopped fruit.
According to USDA, 100g of raw strawberries contains 32 calories.
It is a good source of antioxidants and other phytonutrients. It is also a good start for those having high-fiber and a portion of low-calorie food.
| Nutrients | 1 cup of raw strawberries (144g) |
| Calories | 46 |
| Total fat 0.4g | 1% |
| Sodium 1.4mg | 0% |
| Total carbohydrates 11g | 4% |
| Protein 1g | 2% |
| Vitamin D 0.00mcg | 0% |
| Calcium 23.04mg | 2% |
| Iron 0.59mg | 3% (2) |
Medicinal Value
Medically, strawberries are useful for preventing urinary tract infections and also play a key role in the treatment of both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
This fruit is also used in the treatment of cold and flu, as well as in reducing the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and in lowering high blood pressure. It is also beneficial in the treatment and prevention of eye diseases, including cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.
Enhance Heart Function
According to some research, strawberries’ compounds consist of anthocyanin, catechin, quercetin, and ellagic acid. Those are good for your cardiac system and help inhibit the growth of bad cholesterol, which results in the shrinking of cardiovascular diseases.
Improve Eyes And Skin Care
This false fruit prevents the eye from dryness, vision defects, and macular degeneration due to the tremendous amount of vitamin C it contains.
Even with skin, it serves as a shield to shelter your skin from such culprits as UV or pollutants. Strawberries can be used as a face mask by mixing the crushed pulp with honey to soothe your skin.
May Enhance Immunity
With vitamin C, strawberries can be a great source of vitamin that helps boost the immune system or even aid common cough and cold.
Help Lose Weight
Being a low-calorie fruit, strawberry is one of the best choices for your healthy diet. They are popular with everyone who wants weight loss. Helping boost the generation of adiponectin and leptin, it can burn fat and reduce the rate of obesity.
Strawberries can be a substitution for medicinal treatment.
Strawberry Recipes For Health Care
Strawberries are wonderfully versatile in the kitchen and can be used in place of any other berry in your favorite desserts. A refreshing strawberry cocktail is also a good idea. Here are a few recipe suggestions to get you started:
Sweet Strawberry Topped Yogurt
It is one of the easiest strawberry recipes that you can do yourself. With the sour taste mixed with a little bit of sweetness and its balanced nutrition, strawberry-topped yogurt can be your family’s healthy diet.
I have some tips for you. To make yogurt more thickened, keep the yogurt in the strainer for 4-5 hours. Use red and ripe strawberries for better taste.
You may be surprised because this sweet strawberry yogurt is so easy to make.
Strawberry Pie
First, you have to bake the pie crust. In a bowl, fresh strawberries with sugar. In a separate bowl, make the dough for the lattice top using all-purpose flour, sugar, and baking powder.
Then, stir in cold butter. Combine ice water with vinegar and pour over the flour mixture. Add the combination of water and vinegar at a time and use a spatula to combine the dough.
Finish with a lattice top. Return the pie to the oven and bake. Remove and cool on a rack before serving.
How to make a fresh dessert for your family from strawberries?
Spinach And Strawberries Salad
Toss together spinach and strawberries in a bowl. Note: strawberries should be cut into slices.
Put all materials together in a bowl. Pour the spinach and strawberry mixture into the bowl and toss to coat. Now you are ready to serve.
Making spinach strawberry salad is one of the most simple things you may know.
Are Strawberries Nuts?
To begin with this section, you have to know what a nut is. To explain, nuts are a kind of fruit with a firm shell originating from a tree or bush.
Similar to nuts, strawberries are edible. Looking closer, the fleshy part (pulp) is surrounded by a “shell” with lots of small seeds attached to it. Interestingly, those seeds-achenes are sorted to the nut-relation.
Evidently, strawberries grow as organs of flowers, and ovaries. Even if they come from a kind of bush, or on vine-like other berries, there is no evidence that strawberries have their own hard layer covering outside or nut-like shell. So, taken altogether, strawberries can not be nuts, at all.
FAQs
In terms of whether strawberry is a fruit or vegetable, there are thousands of questions relating to this matter. Here is some short Q&A that I think you may need.
Strawberry: The “Weirdo”
Taken all together, strawberries are fruits, but the evolved one or called “multiple fruits”. There is not any exact definition for these berries until now.
Strawberries are a good choice for your healthy diet thanks to their excellent benefits. And they also can be the main ingredient for some delicious and easy-to-do dishes.
Besides my article, there is some extra research that you can consult to know more about this fruit.
Finally, if you have any problems you’re still wondering about, please leave your comments here and spread this article to others so they can know more about this fruit. Thank you so much.
References
- Britannica.com. Strawberries’ facts
- foodgardening.mequoda.com 2022. Nutrition facts of strawberries
