# Pumpkins: Fruit or vegetable? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2017, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151 "2017-10-17T19:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/21 "2017-10-18T16:37:34Z")
It’s both a floor wax and a dessert topping! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/22 "2017-10-18T16:51:57Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > The latter are best eaten in their raw form rather than cooked. Chinese winter melon is usually cooked…ditto nara melon. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/23 "2017-10-18T17:01:55Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > In fact, a lot of vegetables are better raw. Basically, anything you put in a salad. And lettuce in general would be gross cooked. Putting lettuce in soup at the last minute is very nice. Although escarole is more traditional. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/24 "2017-10-18T17:29:41Z")
Vegetables do not have seeds. Corn is not a vegetable. Cucumbers are, though. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/25 "2017-10-18T17:40:33Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > When I have pumpkin soup it’s a vegetable, when I have pumpkin pie it’s a fruit. It’s a kind of squash and thus a vegetable either way to me; in a pie it’s just got a lot of sugar to try to _fool_ me into thinking it’s a fruit. But it’s still a veggie, dammit! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/26 "2017-10-18T17:49:27Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Vegetables do not have seeds. Corn is not a vegetable. Cucumbers are, though. Green peppers, eggplants, green beans, zuchinni, and snow peas aren’t vegetables? What is corn? A fruit? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/27 "2017-10-18T18:03:15Z")
Corn is a grain. And green peppers: fuck that poison. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/28 "2017-10-18T18:34:35Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Pumpkin is a variety of squash and no one questions if the other squash are vegetables so vegetable it is. I’d have written this had I been the first respondent to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/29 "2017-10-18T19:17:29Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > Zyada, why don’t you share with us how you distinguish between the two, and why it matters in a culinary sense? In the botanical sense, i. e. the scientific sense, the part of the plant that holds the seeds is the fruit (I don’t know enough about this part of science to know - does it have to be fleshy? Is the shell of a walnut a fruit? ) Thus, pumpkins are fruit, but so are tomatoes, okra, cucumbers and avocados. And carrots are roots, spinach is leaves, and broccoli is stalks and buds. The culinary sense is more about common usage (and how they end up grouped in the grocery store). In general (there’s always an exception), vegetables are served as a savory dish with the main part of the meal, whereas fruit are served as part of a sweet dessert or a sweet snack. But mostly the division is about what you grew up with. Thus, apples are fruit but tomatoes are vegetables. Because that’s what you grow up with, until you get a pedantic teacher who insists that tomatoes are fruit because only science matters. Yum, tomato cobbler. Now we get to pumpkins. I have always considered pumpkins fruit, because pumpkin based dishes are always sweet around here. And I thought that was true for everyone but then I noticed that Brits call them vegetables, and then I found Americans that call them vegetables. Apparently, I’m in the minority. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/30 "2017-10-18T19:54:14Z")
Pumpkin is a fungus, closely related to truffles. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/31 "2017-10-18T20:05:04Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **DrCube** : > > And yes, sweetness is a big part. “Sweet plant matter which can be eaten raw” might be a good enough definition for me. That still includes carrots, beets, and onions. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/32 "2017-10-18T20:46:23Z")
And where does that leave [quince](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quince)? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/33 "2017-10-18T20:47:54Z")
Where’s the option for “Devil’s Fruit?” I freaking HATE pumpkin and pumpkin spiced anything. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/34 "2017-10-18T21:20:29Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > Is the shell of a walnut a fruit? Had you a walnut tree, you would know. Walnut fruit is a drupe. To the best of my knowledge, it is not edible, and if you neglect the tree’s leavings, the fruit will become a vile black slime on the ground by late fall. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/35 "2017-10-18T22:25:03Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That still includes carrots, beets, and onions. I never really thought of any of those as particularly sweet (they have about half the sugar of an equivalent amount of apple, pear, banana, or orange, although beets can get close). I’ve never heard anyone bite into a carrot and say “my, that’s a sweet carrot!” But, then again, we have sour fruits that have less sugar than those veggies, like lemon and lime, that we definitely consider those fruits, so sweetness isn’t the sole factor (but it does seem to be the most obvious one.) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2017, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/36 "2017-10-18T23:28:38Z")
what do you call my aunts accidental mutant cross between a spaghetti squash and a pumpkin … ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/37 "2017-10-19T00:25:48Z")
Of course carrots are sweet, hence carrot cake. I think there are – or were; numerous breeds eaten by precolumbians are now extinct – sweet pumpkins. Some really old colonial-era pumpkin recipes are desserts that don’t call for any sweetener at all. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/38 "2017-10-19T02:13:01Z")
> [@Trancephalic](#): > > Of course carrots are sweet, hence carrot cake. But there’s also zucchini cake, and I don’t think of zucchini as sweet. But, then again, you do have sweet potatoes, which I do find cross into the “sweet” category per my tastes on their own. And probably sweetcorn, too. I mean, yes, carrots are sweet for vegetables, but there’s something else going on there that either tempers the sweetness for me or doesn’t make me think of them as “sweet,” even though I do understand how some people label them as such. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/39 "2017-10-19T06:59:22Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > Is the shell of a walnut a fruit? No, the walnut is the seed, there’s[a fruit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walnut#/media/File:Juglans_regia_2009_G2.jpg)around that. Like **eschereal** said, it’s a [drupe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupe), or stone fruit - think of the walnut as like a peach pit or cherry stone. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151/40 "2017-10-19T15:22:47Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > No, the walnut is the seed, there’s[a fruit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walnut#/media/File:Juglans_regia_2009_G2.jpg)around that. Like **eschereal** said, it’s a [drupe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupe), or stone fruit - think of the walnut as like a peach pit or cherry stone. So basically the shell around the walnut is the same as the skin on an apple seed, effectively considered part of the seed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pumpkins-fruit-or-vegetable/799151.md?page=3)