04 Fruits and Vegetables

Most people know that carrots are vegetables and grapes are fruit. However, did you know that tomatoes are also a kind of fruit? Green beans and squash are also fruit! They are all called fruits because they contain seeds. If a plant contains seeds, scientists call it a fruit.

Fruit comes from the flowers of a plant and grows after a flower is pollinated and forms seeds. The fruit grows around the seeds and continues to grow after the flower dies. Because fruit tastes good, birds and other animals carry fruit away to eat. This helps seeds move to new places where they can become new plants.

Vegetables can be leaves, stems, or roots. Each part of the plant has a special job to help the plant grow. People and animals eat these plant parts so they can grow, too!

WordList

fruit : the part of a fl owering plant that includes the seed

vegetable : a plant part that can be eaten and has no seeds

seeds : the parts of a plant that can grow into a new plant

root : the plant part in the soil that absorbs water from the ground

stem : the part of the plant that connects and roots and the leaves

You Practice

I. Fruit or vegetable? Write F for fruit or V for vegetable.

apple _______ celery _______ carrot _______

cucumber _______ spinach _______

II. Answer the following questions.

1) How do we know that green beans are a fruit?

2) When does fruit grow?

3) What parts of a plant can be vegetables?

4) How do seeds move to new places?

5) Why do birds and other animals like fruit?

III. Fill in the blanks—Complete the following sentences with words from the reading.

1) Flowers make seeds after they are ____________.

2) You will fi nd ____________ inside fruit.

3) After a fl ower dies, the ____________ continues growing

4) If a plant contains seeds, it is a ____________.

5) Vegetables do not contain ____________.