Is a coconut a fruit???

[nailpolish]

?

so coconuts ARE fruit

the brown bit is the seed/stone.

it comes in a fibrous case covered in a tough green outer layer (i.e. a green coconut). The fibrous bit starts off white and evenutally dries out to the brown hair on a coconut-shy -style coconut.

See - I refer you to my post of 5:15.

so what makes the nuts that cause allergies different from other fruit stones/seeds?

a coconut is a simple dry fruit known as a fibrous drupe (not a true nut)

the whole cocnut is a giant seed. The three marks on the bootom is the place the radical appears form if the cocnut germinates. In theory (and given some sub-tropical weather in the UK) you could plant a coconut and grow a coconut palm.

Not sure CM - since the worst culprit of the lot ie the peanut, is also not a true nut but is IIRC a legume.

some green coconuts

so this means i owe dh a tenner

really StG? how baffling

absolutely true peanuts are not nuts but legumes more closely re;lated to peas and beans. The allergy is to the protein in peanuts those no-one know why it is such a strong allergen. Other legumes rarely have the saem effect but this could be becuase their protein cocntent is so low compared to peanuts which are 25-30% protein.

Oh why didn't you say np. Of course the coconut is a nut, everyone knows that! (just don't let dh see this thread)

would you like us to lie for you nailpolish? we would of courese expect a share of the tenner

My understanding is that a fruiy develops from the plants overy (the structure that grows the sex cells) and that the seed develops from the ovule (the actual gamete or sex cell)

Worse still in the strawberry....a false fruit which develops from the swelling of the torus, the actual fruits on a strawberry are the small 'sseds' of the surface.

ooh mb - I was just googling for strawberries as I remembered them being 'false fruits' from school biology

iota, I am so glad you were listening in the lesson. Well done

hows this

I got an A for o level biology

what about sweetcorn? is the cob a fruit?

My apologies for mentioning strawberries. I of course meant raspberries, which as we all know are actually aggregate fruit of numerous small drupelets.

Phew, is this why kids take apples for the teachers, so there is no argument about fruit/veg/nuts?

depends what you mean by 'fruit'

but an apple is a swollen pericarp, not the true fruit

have a Mrs Matianbishp says well done stamp!

I actualy have one of these, but with my real name. The kids think it is fab!

Iota, I think your knowledge of false fruit is bordering on obcession m'dear

Damn, knew I was making a mistake adding the question to the end iota