Fruitful talk: Bananas are berries, strawberries are not

Not all fruit is as it seems, especially when berries are involved! Here’s some “berry” fleshy table talk for your next ice-breaking social endeavour: a banana is more a berry than a strawberry will ever be, from a scientific perspective.

What the heck are berries anyway?

This brings us to our second point of order: if bananas are, in fact, berries and most fruit containing “berry” in their name are not, then what the heck are berries anyway?

Well, common usage of the term “berry” differs from the scientific or botanical definition. Technically speaking, “berry” is a botanical term for a fruit produced from the ovary of a single flower in which the outer layer of the ovary wall develops into an edible fleshy fruit. For fruit to be considered as a berry, it must have three layers of flesh. And guess what has all those layers? The yellow-peeled, cream-fleshed, seed-carrying banana!

So, in a botanical sense, strawberries, mulberries, blackberries and raspberries are not berries at all – they are merely “accessory fruits”, albeit still tasty and delicious!

Scientifically speaking, avos, eggplants, grapes, oranges, tomatoes, peppers, cranberries, kiwis, watermelons and pumpkins are all berries. The only fruit with “berry” in its name that is actually a berry is a blueberry. The only true berry – the truest, bluest berry of them all!