Strawberries are not actually berries, but bananas, watermelons, and pumpkins are!

In science, a berry must grow from one ovary of a single flower and have three layers: a skin, a fleshy middle, and an inner part that holds the seeds. Bananas fit this rule perfectly because their seeds are tucked deep inside the soft pulp. Even though the bananas we buy at the store have tiny seeds that don't grow, their wild ancestors in the jungle have big, hard seeds inside.Strawberries are different because they are 'aggregate fruits.' When a strawberry flower grows, the part of the stem that holds the flower swells up to become the red part we eat. The little crunchy dots on the outside are called achenes. Each one of those dots is actually a tiny individual fruit with a seed inside! This means when you eat one strawberry, you are really eating dozens of tiny fruits at once.Watermelons and pumpkins are a special kind of berry called a 'pepo.' These are berries that have a very tough outer skin or rind. In 2015, scientists mapped out the watermelon's DNA and confirmed it grows from a single ovary, just like a berry should. This puts them in the same family as cucumbers and cantaloupes.The confusion happens because we use the word 'berry' differently in the kitchen than scientists do in the lab. In cooking, we call any small, squishy fruit a berry. But for biologists, the structure of the plant is what matters most. This is why blueberries are true berries, but raspberries and blackberries are not—they are made of many tiny parts just like strawberries.