Is cherry a berry or a fruit?

Such a dietary and valuable product as cherries has many good properties. It improves appetite, helps treat anemia with low hemoglobin, and is also used to treat the gastric mucosa. Cherry decoction is drunk for hepatitis, bronchitis, tracheitis and colds. Ulcers, rheumatism, poisoning, anemia and even cardiovascular diseases - cherries have a therapeutic and preventive effect for any of these diseases.

Content:

• How does a cherry grow and look like?
• Berry or fruit - that is the question
• So what is a fruit and what are its benefits?
• Fruit in botany
• Fruit in the kitchen
• What is a berry?

How does a cherry grow and look like?

The Black Sea, Crimean and Caucasian coasts are the birthplace of cherries. Getting there from Rome, it spread throughout Europe. Already in 1569, a collection in the field of medicine was published in Germany.Health Garden" It dedicated an entire article to cherries. There are about 130 species in the cherry genus. And if we use it most often in the kitchen, in medicine, referring to its medicinal properties, then, for example, in China, Japan or the Far East, this fruit is more decorative in nature. Ordinary cherry is resistant to frost, and the height of the tree can reach seven meters. The drupes are light red in color - these are the fruits of cherries. Its structure is similar to the fruit of a plum. Each fruit gives a refreshing and pleasant sweet and sour taste. The common cherry tree is now very extensive.

Cherry pulp contains a lot of useful substances. These are trace elements, minerals, pectin, organic acids, vitamins and sugars.Cherry pits are not wasted either. They are very useful and fatty and essential oils are obtained from them. The same applies to the bark - it contains a lot of tannins.

Berry or fruit - that is the question

We have been accustomed to this fruit since childhood. As soon as red berries appear on the tree, run to climb the branch and eat your fill. It became part of childhood years, and now - memories. But while enjoying the pleasant and unforgettable taste of sour cherries, we don’t always think about one question.

Is cherry a berry or a fruit? Many of us have been asking this question since childhood, and few people know the correct answer to it. Let's try to answer and start from the very beginning.

To begin with, it is worth determining that cherries are, first of all, cherry plant fruit. And there are fruits: pome fruits (apples, for example), nut fruits, subtropical and tropical fruits, berries and stone fruits, which include cherries. That is, from this division it is clear that a cherry is not a berry. But let’s turn to the definitions of berry and fruit.

So what is a fruit and what are its benefits?

Typically, a fruit is a fruit that consists of seeds and pulp that is formed in the flower ovary. They are juicy and usually edible. Grows on a tree or bush. Botanists believe that all fruits that contain seeds can be called fruits. For humans, fruits are an important nutritional component. They play a huge role in human nutrition. From five to ten percent sugars and a number of organic acids - we find these beneficial substances in fruits.

It’s hard to imagine human life without fruits. After all, they are the most important source of vitamins for the human body.

Their main advantage in front of vegetables is that, most often, all of them can be consumed ready-made, without being subject to chemical or heat treatment, which means that they will enter the human body with a minimum of loss of life-giving substances.

Fruit in botany

If you look at botany, then the term “fruit” refers to a ripened fruit along with seeds, with the help of which the plant spreads its seeds. Fruits are divided into three classes: fleshy fruits (apples, oranges and berries), stone fruits (cherries, plums) and dry fruits (nuts, peas). From this it becomes clear that cherries are a fruit.

Fruit in the kitchen

In cooking, a fruit usually means food - the fruits of plants that have pulp and a sweet taste. And here many questions arise at once. For example, from a botanical point of view, zucchini is a fruit, but in cooking it is a vegetable... And a cherry is a berry. And in agriculture it is customary to consider it a berry, since the cherry is small in size. Peaches and pears are fruits, and cherries, cherries, mountain ash, and shadberry are berries.

What is a berry?

A berry, as was written above, is also a multi-seeded fruit that develops from the ovary so that the extracarp during ripening turns into a thin film (grapes, blueberries, lingonberries). But, cherries do not have seeds, but have a pit. So cherries are not berries?

There is another opinion about what cherries are - household ones. It’s common for us to believe that everything that grows on trees is called fruit, and what they give shrubs and herbaceous plants - berries.

It was never possible to give an exact definition of what a cherry is - a berry or a fruit, since there are many opinions on this matter.But if we accept the scientific explanation, then, of course, cherries are a stone fruit, although it is traditional to call cherries a berry.

But, I must say, nothing will change depending on whether it is a fruit or a berry. Our children will continue to sit on cherry branches for days, gorging themselves on delicious fruits, and you and I will continue to make wonderful cherry jam, decoctions, compotes, or simply enjoy the taste of fresh and delicately sweet cherries.