Umm... watermellon is a vegetable actually. Just because ot tastes sweet doesn't mean it's a fruit. You see, all vegetables can't be harvested more than once (one plant=one product). Fruit grows in a bush or on a tree and gives multiple fruit to harvest while the plant doesn't wither and die but gives fruit every year. In that case watermellon is actually a vegetable (and tomato is a fruit)
Fruits are the reproductive part of the plant. Vegetables are the plant. Berries are the reproductive parts that are surrounded by pulpy flesh like blueberries. Blackberries and the such are technically "aggregate fruits" because they're really a bunch of fruits bunched together. A non-berry fruit is an apple. A nut is a fruit with a hard shell surrounding a seed.
Watermelon is a fruit and a vegetable. It is a fruit because it grows from a seed, it has a sweet flavor and refreshing qualities. It is a vegetable because it is harvested and cleared from the field like other vegetables and because it is a member of the same family as the cucumbers, pumpkin and squash.
That doesn't make it a vegetable. A vegetable is simply the edible parts of a plant. And the fruit's also nonsense. Almost all plants grow from seeds. Hell, almost everything grows from seeds, from salt and diamond to animals and plants.
From what I understand, it's a vegetable legally but a fruit botanically (which sounds like absolute capitalist bullshit but never mind me for the sake of keeping this thread on rail). You may be arguing from a legal/culinary standpoint but I'm talking from a botanical one.
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The reason for it being a vegetable is because of the way it's grown and harvested. However, that (in my mind) doesn't make it a vegetable, we could do the same to all other plants as well. Grow an apple tree, harvest the first harvest, plow it all down, start over (impractical and wasteful but still -technically- possible). Thus, I still argue that the watermelon is closer to a fruit than a vegetable for all non-legal purposes.
Well... We never said we were smart people... (Born and raised Oklahoman)
I didn't actually know this was our state vegetiable but I feel kinda stupid now that I do..
Fruit=baby makers of plant
Berry=squishy fruit
http://www.whataboutwatermelon.com/index.php/2009/10/watermelon-a-fruit-or-a-vegetable/
All you have to do is do a little research.
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The reason for it being a vegetable is because of the way it's grown and harvested. However, that (in my mind) doesn't make it a vegetable, we could do the same to all other plants as well. Grow an apple tree, harvest the first harvest, plow it all down, start over (impractical and wasteful but still -technically- possible). Thus, I still argue that the watermelon is closer to a fruit than a vegetable for all non-legal purposes.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/apr/18/usa.matthewweaver
1. Florida
2. New Jersey
3. Mississippi
4. West Virginia
5. Oklahoma (recently added)
I didn't actually know this was our state vegetiable but I feel kinda stupid now that I do..