Beyond the Label
🍉 True Berries
A berry is a simple, fleshy fruit that develops from a single ovary and contains multiple seeds. The entire fruit is usually edible, including the outer layer (exocarp).
Bananas
Though often mistaken for a fruit of a tree, bananas grow on herbaceous plants and qualify as true berries.
Kiwi
Also called the Chinese gooseberry, this fuzzy fruit meets all berry criteria.
Caesar Salad
Grown on vines, grapes are classic true berries.
Tomato
Their juicy interior and multiple seeds classify them in this category.
🍓 Aggregate
Unlike true berries, aggregate fruits form from multiple ovaries of a single flower. Each ovary develops into a small fruitlet, and together, they create the whole fruit.
Strawberry
The tiny seeds on the outside (called achenes) are actually the real fruits, while the red flesh is an enlarged part of the flower.
Raspberry
Unlike strawberries, raspberries are fully made up of true fruits, just combined into one structure.
Blackberry
Each drupelet contains a tiny seed, making it a clustered fruit rather than a true berry.
Magnolia
The magnolia tree produces cone-like aggregate fruits where each segment contains a seed.
🥭 Drupes
A drupe is a fruit with a single seed (pit) surrounded by a fleshy outer layer. Drupes usually have three parts:
Peach
Classic example with juicy flesh and a large pit.
Avocado
Surprisingly a drupe! The seed inside is surrounded by soft flesh.
Mango
Has a thin outer skin and a fibrous, single-seed interior.
Cherry
Small, round, and contains a hard central seed.
Coconut
specialized drupe where the outer husk is the exocarp, and the inner shell protects the seed.
🍊 Hesperidiums
A hesperidium is a type of berry with a leathery rind, found in the citrus family. The inside is divided into segments filled with juicy vesicles.
Orange
One of the most common citrus fruits, with a segmented juicy interior.
Lemon
High in acidity and essential oils, with a thick outer peel.
Grapefruit
Larger than an orange, with a bitter-sweet flavor.
Lime
Small but packed with tart juice.
Tangerine
A smaller, sweeter relative of the orange.
🌰 Nuts
In botany, a true nut is a hard-shelled fruit that doesn’t open on its own to release the seed. Most things we call “nuts” are actually seeds or drupes!
Hazelnut
A classic example of a true nut.
Acorn
A nut from oak trees, containing a single seed.
Chestnut
Grows inside a spiky shell and is edible when roasted.
Not Actually Nuts
Peanut – A legume, not a nut! It grows underground like beans.
Coconut – A drupe, not a nut! The shell is the hard endocarp.
Almond, Cashew, Pistachio – Actually seeds of drupes!
Please inform us if any of these classifications are untrue.