Are Gourds a Fruit or Vegetable?

You May Be Surprised!

We've all heard the question asked, is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Well now I have asked, are GOURDS Fruit, or Vegetable? Thanks to someone's comment on one of my gourd articles, I did a little research to find out if a gourd was a fruit or a vegetable, and here is what I found out about both the tomato, and the gourd, as well as all fruits and vegetables.

A gourd, a tomato, squash, pumpkin, and cucumbers, are all, (are you ready for this friends?), from a botanical perspective, they are all FRUITS!!! Yes, that's right, fruits! Shocking isn't it? That is what I thought when I read what I read on this horticulture web site. According to this site, (sorry, it was an info page, and I couldn't find the name), what makes a fruit a fruit, is how, or I should say where the seed grows. Fruits grow their seeds on the inside of the fruit. Vegetables do not. Vegetables grow their seeds on the plant, usually on a stalk that grows from the plant, and inside of a flower.

Are GOURDS Fruit, or Vegetable? - Let's look at this a little closer, and I think you will see the connection, just as I did. Here is a list of fruits, I would like you to think about each one, and where you would find their seeds..., oranges, pears, apples, watermelon, papaya, mango, peaches, cantaloupe, strawberry, (the seed is on the outside, but still inside the fruit), kiwi, plums, tangerines, nectarines, and cherry. I have left out a few, but you get the idea.

Are GOURDS Fruit, or Vegetable? - Let's look at what we know to be a vegetable now... Let's see, there are, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, pumpkin, (some believe pumpkins are a veggie), lettuce, celery, cabbage, spinach, cauliflower, and broccoli.

Okay, we have our fruits and our veggies separated above, or do we? Look at these two groups, and think about where you find their seeds. Yes, all the fruits listed above, are indeed fruits by botanical standards, but are the vegetables really all vegetables? As we now know, they are not all vegetables. Tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, these are NOT vegetables, they are fruits, because their seeds grow on the inside, not on the stem or stalk of the plant.