Carrots were originally purple and yellow, not orange.

Food feed

Carrots of many colors cropped
Food

Purple

Carrots were originally purple and yellow, not orange.

Early cultivated carrots included purple and yellow forms, while familiar orange carrots became prominent later in Europe. Saying that every original carrot was purple turns a varied domestication history into an oversimplification.

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Inside a wild-type banana
Food

Berry

Bananas are berries. Strawberries are not.

Bananas are botanical berries, while strawberries are aggregate accessory fruits. The distinction depends on how a flower becomes a fruit, not on sweetness, size or the name on a grocery label.

Peanut plant roots with developing pods attached
Food

Legume

Peanuts are not nuts. They are legumes, like peas and beans.

Peanuts are legumes, in the same plant family as peas and beans, rather than true botanical nuts. Their unusual feature is that the flowers develop above ground but the pods mature below it.

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