I agree – it takes of a moment of adjustment to think of the tomato as fruit let alone as to what type – but there are specific terms for these things so I thought I’d name them. And throw in the botanical definition of a fruit which is a ‘seed receptacle developed from an ovary’.
The tomato is a Succulent, Berry fruit. Translated this means fleshy and containing lots of seeds. Seems accurate enough. It’s also classed as a Simple fruit; this means each flower bears only a single ovary.
It’s the ovary which grows to form the mature fruit. The ovules within the ovary form the seeds.
The purpose of the ovary is to protect the seeds. In time the fruit ripens and is either eaten by a dispersal agent who digests and passes the seeds (that’ll be the squirrels who live in the trees at the bottom of the garden who must have a giant tomato patch somewhere based on the amount of digesting they managed last year) or breaks down around the seeds, leaving them exposed. This is known as an indehiscent action. This allows the seeds to germinate and begin the process all over again.
I think Elton John may have even been moved to pen a song about it all…
