Nut (fruit)
This article should be merged with nut.
Botanical definitions
A nut in botany is a simple dry fruit with one seed (rarely two) in which the ovary wall becomes very hard (stony or woody) at maturity, and where the seed remains unattached or unfused with the ovary wall. Most nuts come from pistils with inferior ovaries (see flower) and all are indehiscent (not opening at maturity). True nuts are produced, for example, by some plants — families of the order Fagales.
- Order Fagales
- Family Juglandaceae
- Walnut - esp. Juglans regia, the Persian Walnut
- Butternut (Juglans)
- Hickory, Pecan (Carya)
- Wingnut (Pterocarya)
- Family Fagaceae
- Family Betulaceae
A nut in cuisine is a much less restrictive category than a nut in botany, as the term is applied (or misapplied, depending upon the viewpoint) to many seeds that are not true nuts. Any large, oily kernel found within a shell and used in food may be regarded as a nut.
Some fruits and seeds that are nuts in the culinary sense but not in the botanical sense:
- Almond is the edible seed of a drupe — the leathery "flesh" is removed at harvest.
- Brazil nut is the seed from a capsule.
- Candlenut (used for oil) is a seed.
- Cashew nut is a seed.
- Coconut is a dry, fibrous drupe.
- Horse-chestnut is an inedible capsule.
- Macadamia nut is a creamy white kernel (Macadamia integrifolia).
- Mongongo
- Peanut is a legume and a seed.
- Pine nut is the seed of several species of pine (coniferous trees).
- Pistachio nut is the seed of a thin-shelled drupe.
See also: List of edible seeds
Gallery
Bowl of mixed nuts
References
Kellogg, John H. "Nuts May Save the Race." The Itinerary of Breakfast. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1920. 165–203.