Fruits and vegetables

The terms fruit and vegetable are somewhat confusing because they have both a botanical and a common usage. Botanically, a fruit always develops from a flower and is composed of at least one ripened ovary. Botanically, a vegetable is any edible part of a plant other than the flower. In popular usage a fruit is an edible plant part that is sweet and eaten as a dessert. The popular use of the term vegetable is a plant part that is edible, but not particularly sweet. Many fruits, such as tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, corn, and eggplant, are popularly called vegetables. However, only one vegetable, rhubarb (the edible petiole), is used as a fruit.