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It’s a well known fact that pineapples don’t grow on trees. They grow very near to the ground from a little sharp-leaf plant. This was something that I knew growing up surrounded by them. When I was younger, it was interesting to discover that a lot of people didn’t know this. Now that I’m a working adult, looking back on this fact made me wonder about other misconceptions that people had about different plants. I decided to take it upon myself (with the help of social media and the internet) to conduct some research and find some interesting misconceptions I want to share with you.
Hala tree
[http://www.deeproot.com/blog/blog-entries/impressive-tropical-trees-from-a-visit-to-kauai]
Those Aren’t Berries!
We already mentioned a little bit about pineapples not being grown from trees. The fruit that many associate that with is actually the pandan plant, in Hawaiian, called the Hala. Pineapples are also berries, at least from a botanical perspective.
Pineapples
Did you know what isn’t considered a berry, even though it has “berry” in its name? Strawberries and raspberries! Confused? So was I until I read an article published by Stanford. Botanically speaking, fruits are portions of a flowering plant that develops from its ovaries. True Berries are defined as being from one flower with one ovary and multiple seeds. Both strawberry and raspberry come from a plant that one flower with multiple ovaries.
[https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/strawberries-in-raspberry-sauce]
Nuts are Fruits!
Speaking of things that also aren’t what they seem. Another comment I received stated that cashews are fruits. Did you know that all nuts are fruits? This confused me greatly when I first learned that. According to the U.S. Forest Service, nuts are defined as “dry, single-seeded fruits that have high oil content.”
[https://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/blogs/cashews-in-raw-not-what-youd-expect]
Where the Dragon Fruit Grows!
Just as many people didn’t know where pineapples came from. I too didn’t know about the growing habits of one of my favorite fruits – dragon fruit. This sweet and mild fruit is actually produced by a type of cactus. It threw me for a loop the first time I saw one budding off of the cactaceae strips. Strangely this fruit is native to the Americas, but grown primarily in Southeast Asia.
[https://www.etsy.com/market/dragon_fruit_cactus]
Related Only by Name!
After reading all the responses that were sent to me for this blog, I noticed something about botanists and gardeners. They like to play word games! Strawberries and raspberries are not berries in the botanical sense; all nuts are considered fruits; sweet potatoes and potatoes aren’t related, etc. That’s right potatoes and sweet potatoes come from different plant families. Sweet potatoes are actual from the Convolvulaceae family, which the morning glory vine belongs to. The non-sweet variety come from the Solanaceae family, like the tomato.
[https://www.medicaldaily.com/sweet-potato-vs-regular-potato-which-better-your-health-357898]
It was quite interesting to hear what kinds of common fruit and vegetable misconceptions our community had. Even at my age, I am learning new things about the food I had taken for granted. Did you already know about the misconceptions we talked about? Or do you have some misconceptions that I haven’t mentioned? Please share them with me in the comments section down below.
Informational sources.
https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=63171
https://www.livestrong.com/article/351168-what-are-nuts-a-fruit-or-a-vegetable/
https://www.precisionnutrition.com/regular-vs-sweet-potatoes
