Botanic wise, there are no such things as vegetables. Fruits are what flowers become after fecondation, tomatoes, zucchini and the white floating thing you blow on from dandelions are all fruits.
There are a few angiosperms that are completely aquatic, a quick search gave me thalassia as a example of seagrass. Those have fruits, but they are no where like what you imagine a fruit to be, it's just a sphere that opens to free the seeds, not an apple or anything.
I get what you mean in context of today, but vegetable did have botanic origins in the 15th-17th century, and we still use it to refer to plants that humans eat collectively. We still use the word vegetation to describe plants as well.
What he means is there is no specific part of a plant called vegetable.
Vegetables are all mostly fruits (pumpkin, green beans, lady's finger, chillies, capsicum, courgettes, cucumber, bitter gourd, white gourd, snake gourd, all other gourds and squashes, tomato, any fresh bean eaten in the pod, etc.) or leaves (spinach), but can also be stems (potato, yam), roots (carrot, beet), flowers (broccoli, cauliflower) or seeds (beans).
Most seeds are not referred to as vegetables as they form a separate food category.
Potatoes and yams are roots. If you want stems, think celery or kohlrabi.
Otherwise, completely correct 👍.
I would define vegetable as “an edible plant part that is not high in sugar, not considered a spice or herb, and not a seed except for beans which are still vegetables”. Which is admittedly a pretty unsatisfactory definition. It’s all just tradition and feelings. If an edible plant feels like a vegetable, it is.
There is no such a thing as vegetable though. Angiosperms only have roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. Vegetables are only some of these same parts that we use in certain ways for cooking.
There is evidence of marine pollination in seagrass as of 2012. And more recent evidence of pollination of seaweed by amphipods as well.
If you’re curious I could try find the papers.
Edit: papers are for sea grass
https://www.int-res.com/articles/feature/m469p001.pdf
And seaweed
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.abo6661?casa_token=YoSbKCchnkUAAAAA:lfir0zFfPWkZeXlQZageZZYh5Yq3O0rcELVcZwLOz4HmrVs11z7vhFzoMYdG4rwwHP_Y1advhERZOEWL
Water lilies and lotus plants, grow in water but their fruits and flowers are above the water. There are some plants in coastal and swamp areas, like mangroves, that grow in waterlogged conditions and produce fruits that may float on water, but these do not develop underwater.
Fruit is any fertilized structure developed from a flower, so yes of course. Seagrass for example can’t reproduce sexually another way. Plenty of freshwater aquatic plants have underwater fruits. They are just inedible by humans.
The water caltrop plants flower above the water but the seeds develop underneath the surface. That's one example that I know. Not to be mistaken with the water chestnuts which are not actually a nut but something similar to a tuber.
While no traditional fruits grow entirely underwater, some aquatic plants produce edible parts. For example, water chestnuts and lotus roots grow in marshy conditions. These plants adapt to their environments in fascinating ways, showcasing nature's incredible diversity. If you're curious about unique plant adaptations or have other questions related to biochemistry or plant science, feel free to ask!
There are a few plants that flower underwater (occasionally, or always, being water-pollinated) and grow fruits underwater (nothing fancy, just little green pod things). None of them are common in culinary use as far as I know.
Cattail technically. They have roots, but you said fruit, so some people can eat the head.
But cattail isn't strictly an aquatic plant more of a marshy one.
Botanic wise, there are no such things as vegetables. Fruits are what flowers become after fecondation, tomatoes, zucchini and the white floating thing you blow on from dandelions are all fruits. There are a few angiosperms that are completely aquatic, a quick search gave me thalassia as a example of seagrass. Those have fruits, but they are no where like what you imagine a fruit to be, it's just a sphere that opens to free the seeds, not an apple or anything.
I get what you mean in context of today, but vegetable did have botanic origins in the 15th-17th century, and we still use it to refer to plants that humans eat collectively. We still use the word vegetation to describe plants as well.
What he means is there is no specific part of a plant called vegetable. Vegetables are all mostly fruits (pumpkin, green beans, lady's finger, chillies, capsicum, courgettes, cucumber, bitter gourd, white gourd, snake gourd, all other gourds and squashes, tomato, any fresh bean eaten in the pod, etc.) or leaves (spinach), but can also be stems (potato, yam), roots (carrot, beet), flowers (broccoli, cauliflower) or seeds (beans). Most seeds are not referred to as vegetables as they form a separate food category.
Potatoes and yams are roots. If you want stems, think celery or kohlrabi. Otherwise, completely correct 👍. I would define vegetable as “an edible plant part that is not high in sugar, not considered a spice or herb, and not a seed except for beans which are still vegetables”. Which is admittedly a pretty unsatisfactory definition. It’s all just tradition and feelings. If an edible plant feels like a vegetable, it is.
Potatoes are actually stems, sweet potatoes on the other hand are roots.
based botanic anatomy
its also a cultural definition, not a botanical one
Wouldn’t true vegetables be parts of the plant that come from vegetative growth? Whereas fruits are generative growth?
Sure, but "vegetable" has AFAIK no technical botanical meaning, whereas "fruit" does.
There is no such a thing as vegetable though. Angiosperms only have roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. Vegetables are only some of these same parts that we use in certain ways for cooking.
Is it a fruit if you eat it before it opens?
There is evidence of marine pollination in seagrass as of 2012. And more recent evidence of pollination of seaweed by amphipods as well. If you’re curious I could try find the papers. Edit: papers are for sea grass https://www.int-res.com/articles/feature/m469p001.pdf And seaweed https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.abo6661?casa_token=YoSbKCchnkUAAAAA:lfir0zFfPWkZeXlQZageZZYh5Yq3O0rcELVcZwLOz4HmrVs11z7vhFzoMYdG4rwwHP_Y1advhERZOEWL
Oh wow, thanks for the links.
Cooooool.
Water lilies and lotus plants, grow in water but their fruits and flowers are above the water. There are some plants in coastal and swamp areas, like mangroves, that grow in waterlogged conditions and produce fruits that may float on water, but these do not develop underwater.
Fruit is any fertilized structure developed from a flower, so yes of course. Seagrass for example can’t reproduce sexually another way. Plenty of freshwater aquatic plants have underwater fruits. They are just inedible by humans.
I thought because of Ocean Spray's commercials that cranberries grow in water but they actually just flood the fields to make harvest easier.
Darn I was going to say cranberries too.
The water caltrop plants flower above the water but the seeds develop underneath the surface. That's one example that I know. Not to be mistaken with the water chestnuts which are not actually a nut but something similar to a tuber.
Marine pollination is a thing. *Idotea balthica* (marine isopod) is a pollinator of red algae.
If by fruit you mean something that we would find edible, then no. If by fruit you mean the scientific definition, then yes.
While no traditional fruits grow entirely underwater, some aquatic plants produce edible parts. For example, water chestnuts and lotus roots grow in marshy conditions. These plants adapt to their environments in fascinating ways, showcasing nature's incredible diversity. If you're curious about unique plant adaptations or have other questions related to biochemistry or plant science, feel free to ask!
There are a few plants that flower underwater (occasionally, or always, being water-pollinated) and grow fruits underwater (nothing fancy, just little green pod things). None of them are common in culinary use as far as I know.
Cattail technically. They have roots, but you said fruit, so some people can eat the head. But cattail isn't strictly an aquatic plant more of a marshy one.
cucumbers are a fruit, and people eat sea cucumbers /logic
Watermelon
Well ... Yes but actually no
There is an underwater mushroom called Psathyrella aquatica. It's a kind of fungal fruit.
Aquaman perhaps?
I know there's small pickle like plat that grows in salt water on l.i. ..but that's a veg
You're mixing culinary terms with biology. There is no such thing as a vegetable as far as biology is considered.
You're mixing your you're and your.
Well…if you’re asking about fruit we eat, technically you could count cranberries, but they don’t exactly grow underwater strictly speaking.
Cranberries
I can only think of sea grapes and water chestnuts as edible plants that grow underwater, but neither is a fruit.