Seeds, Nuts, & Drupes?
It’s OK if some of you are confused as to what exactly differentiates nuts from seeds. I know I am. And why are peanuts classified as legumes? And what the heck are drupes?
Nuts: botanically speaking, nuts are hard-shelled pods that contain both the fruit and seed of the plant. The fruit does not open to release the seed to the world. Examples of botanical nuts are chestnuts, hazelnuts, and acorns.
Drupes: typical drupes include olives, peaches, plums, and cherries.
The coconut is also a drupe, but because of a fibrous husk this type of fruit is classified as a simple dry fruit, a fibrous drupe.
Bramble fruits (such as the blackberry or the raspberry) are aggregates of drupelets.
Seeds: a seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering called the seed coat. For example, sunflower seeds have a hard wall or seed coat or “fruit”, which must be split open to reach the seed.
Interestingly, cashews are a seed, not a nut. Why? Because technically the cashew is not surrounded by a fruit, as you can see in the photo below:
The reddish, pear-shaped cashew apple is an edible sweet fruit. It is too delicate for transport and thus cannot be found in markets, although that may be changing soon.
Peanuts: peanuts are in fact legumes. Peanuts actually grow underground, as opposed to nuts like walnuts, almonds, etc. that grow on trees (and are sometimes referred to as “tree nuts”).
Peanuts, along with beans and peas, belong to the single plant family, Leguminosae. Legumes are edible seeds enclosed in pods. As a group, they provide the best source of concentrated protein in the plant kingdom.
So there you have it! Cashews are seeds, peanuts are legumes, and drupes need a hard shell (but bramble fruits don’t). Not exactly the simplest thing in the world.
Originally published at www.tuktuksnacks.com on August 16, 2014.
