which of these is a vegetable? corn, tomato, mac n cheese, strawberry

which of these is a vegetable? corn, tomato, mac n cheese, or a strawberry?

"Technically," said Marvin P. Pritts, chairman of the department of horticulture at Cornell University.

“The criteria is whether it comes from the reproductive part of a plant or the vegetative part of the plant,” Dr. Pritts said. “If it comes from the reproductive part of the plant, it’s a fruit. If it comes from the vegetative part of the plant, it’s a vegetable.”

Botanically speaking, corn is a caryopsis, or dry fruit — popularly known as a grain.

Dr. Pritts allowed that corn, like a tomato, is eaten like a vegetable, “so to a normal, everyday person, it’s a vegetable.”


I found this funny, and educational:
http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/corn-vegetable-fruit-or-grain/

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081126154351AAJAM34

Technically [a strawberry] is not a fruit but a false fruit. It's not even technically a berry. When you eat a strawberry, you are eating fruits, but the part you are really interested in is the red, fleshy, expanded receptacle. A receptacle is the end of the stem on which the flower (and later the fruit) is borne. The fruits are the little seed-like specks on the surface. Each one of these little things contains a seed surrounded by (and fused to) the ovary wall, making it a fruit.

Mac N Cheese, however, is usually listed among the vegetables at restaurants. Go figure.