Is Lemon A Fruit Or Vegetable?
If you’re gonna ask a lot of people if a lemon is a fruit or vegetable, most of them will answer it’s a fruit. People base it on the appearance and the taste of the lemons and other factors. Most of the fruits are being picked from the tree.
But how can you say that a fruit is a fruit and a vegetable is a vegetable? There are differences when it comes to culinary and botanical standpoints about whether a lemon is a fruit or not.
Is Lemon A Fruit Or Vegetable?
Lemon is a fruit and not a vegetable. The lemon belongs to the citrus family and it produces fruits that are oval-shaped, yellow when ripe, and has around 5 to 10 seeds inside.
Most fruits have seeds and they are developed from the ovary of a flower. Lemons are also developed from the ovary too, pollination occurs and the flowers turn into lemons.
The lemons are growing on the tree, green when young, and become bigger when mature. When lemons are getting ripe, they started to change their skin color to yellow. Most of the lemons taste sour and are high in citric acid but there are also varieties like Meyer lemon that taste a bit sweeter.
Differences Between A Fruit And Vegetable
In botanical fields, a fruit is formed from the ovary of a flowering plant and contains seeds. When a plant bears flowers and then the pollen enters the flowers’ stigma, the fruit will be produced.
The pollinated flowers will grow small during the early stage and become bigger when they mature. The flowers can be self-pollinated or open-pollinated. Self-pollinated plants can pollinate themselves without the help of pollinators like bees whereas open-pollinated plants need pollinators.
In the botanical field, a vegetable is any plant or parts of a plant such as leaves, roots, stems, stalks, etc. There are many vegetables out there like kale, spinach, cabbage, lettuce, etc. which are green leafy vegetables. Some other vegetables are in the root category like beets, turnips, and potatoes.
From a culinary standpoint, fruits are commonly eaten raw especially when they are ripe. Fruits are colorful, taste sweet, and are most commonly used to make sweet dishes like cakes, cookies, salads, etc. While vegetables are being cooked and mixed with other ingredients. Most vegetables taste sour or bitter and are different compared to fruits.
So in this matter lemons are not vegetables, and are fruits.
Is Lemon A Berry?
Yes, lemon is classified as a berry. In the botanical field, berries have three fleshy layers and two or more seeds. The lemons have three layers: the exocarp (the outer part, rinds, or peel), mesocarp (the white layer under the rinds or skin also called pith), and the endocarp (the flesh or innermost part). The lemons also have seeds of around 5 to 10 inside. That is why lemon is classified as a berry.
There are many popular berries that taste great. It is enjoyable to eat them. The lemon is also classified as a berry and it also tastes awesome.
Is Lemon A Herb?
No, lemon is not a herb, it’s a tree while the lemon plant is called a shrub. Herbs are commonly small and most of them are soft and leafy. The lemon plant when it becomes a tree has harder stems and a trunk.
Most herbs don’t produce fruits. There are many health benefits that you can get from consuming herbs. Lemons are not herbs but you can also get vitamins and minerals despite the sour taste.
Is Lemon A Natural Fruit?
No, lemon is not a natural fruit. It is a hybrid fruit which is a genetic cross between two fruits. The lemons are a hybrid between bitter orange and citron fruit and those trees help to produce lemons.
Growing a lemon tree is usually done through grafting and budding and it is rarely grown from seeds. The seeds of lemon from a grafted tree are not true to type. Not true to type seeds means that when the lemon tree grows, it will not grow the same as the parent tree.
You will not see a great quality lemon tree and they will produce low kinds of fruit. There are also chances that it will never produce a single fruit at all.
