[ehmish]

Hmm, I am not a botanist, but since watermelons have seeds, and botanically speaking seeds are in the fruit, aren't watermelon fruit botanically speaking?

[phonypc]

It's all kinds of confusing.

AFAIK there is no botanical notion of vegetable. It's a culinary/food term, which should just mean "edible plant matter". Which would make culinary fruit just a subset of vegetables. But for some reason popular usage dictates that the category "vegetable" excludes some sweet tasting fruit, staple starches and some other things.

[mgerdts]

Seedless watermelons still have seeds, they just aren't mature when the fruit is ripe. This means they are smaller and are soft enough that eating them does not give crunch.

[Ifkaluva]

You’re correct, the author of the article was confused. Probably got confused because watermelon are related to crops that are culturally considered to be vegetables, like cucumbers. Another thread mentioned the same.

[blacksmith_tb]

I agree, though I suppose you could make a case for "vegetable" around pickling the rinds...

[bloak]

Yes, it looks like they're fruit botanically and culinarily, but they're vegetables "agriculturally", whatever that means.

[jarenmf]

It is the fruit we eat. However, the fruit/vegetable distinction does not make a lot of sense botanically.

[AlbertCory]

I always tease vegetarians by saying "Evolutionarily, fruits want to be eaten and that's why they taste good (so animals will spread their seeds around). Vegetables don't want to be eaten, and that's why they taste bad."

[eru]

Well, many wild fruits don't taste that great either. Most of what we are eating today comes after a long line of artificial selection.

[AlbertCory]

True, but maybe the animals are less picky than we are.

[CRConrad]

Or just as picky, but simply have different taste. Perhaps that, too, co-evolves with the fruits.