The Wild World of Nuts from Hips to Haws and Drupes

We’re going to take you on a fun adventure today through the wild world of nuts. While pecans are obviously our favorite nut, the hilarious truth is that they aren’t actually nuts! The universe of nuts and seeds and even fruits and vegetables are quite complicated. Tomatoes aren’t vegetables. Strawberries aren’t berries… but bananas and pineapples are. And now pecans aren’t nuts! Has everyone gone mad? We understand if you are as confused as we were. That’s why we wanted to take a moment in today’s blog post to set the record straight and clear up all the confusion.

While there’s plenty of strangeness in the world of fruits and vegetables, we’re pecan people, so we’re going to focus more on nuts and seeds. You may remember we mentioned that pecans aren’t actually nuts, and that’s true. Pecans are, in fact, drupes. Now, don’t be duped by the drupe (pun very much intended)! This is one interesting class of consumables. But before we start on drupes, we have to go back to the beginning and start with the tiny, humble seed, then we’ll move to nuts and clear the air around drupes and more. Ready to get started? Let’s plant a seed.

What is a Seed?

When we talk about fruit, vegetables, nuts, and drupes, it is important to remember that these are all flora. They are botanical in origin. And all of them started with one seed. None of the delicious fruit, vegetables, and nuts we eat would be possible without the seed, and sometimes we even eat the seed, too. The seed starts it all. Now, this may seem like a super obvious question, but what is a seed?

The seed is the embryonic stage of a plant’s life cycle. All plants start with a seed. Most seeds consist of three parts: embryo, endosperm, and seed coat. The embryo is a tiny plant that has a root, a stem, and one or more leaves. Imagine it almost like a human fetus, formed but small. The endosperm is the nutritive tissue of the seed, often a combination of starch, oil, and protein. And the seed coat is a protective covering that can help seeds remain viable for long periods of time.

Now, here is where it gets fun. Most people avoid the seeds when they eat fleshy fruit. The sight of kids at the park munching on watermelons and spitting out the seeds is something many of us grew up with. Most edible legumes are seeds, such as lentils, beans, and peas. And while a nut is technically a fruit, people usually eat the seed and discard the fruit or shell. Brazil nuts and almonds are seeds, but they do not come from a nut. Nutmeg and mustard are seeds. But what about grains like rice and corn? Well, even grains are technically seeds! Grains are seeds that are fused to the fruit’s ovary wall, which makes them also a fruit! Here we are only eating the fruit when, in many cases, nearly all the nutritional value is in the seed.

Wow! Was that fun, or what? We probably didn’t clear much up but we’re going to keep trying. Now that we have muddied the picture with seeds, let’s graduate from the humble seed where it all began, and begin studying nuts.

What is a Nut?

You may think you know your nuts, but you might be surprised to learn what you don’t know, or thought you did. A nut, in botany, is a dry hard fruit that does not split open at maturity to release its single seed. Read that last sentence a little closer. A nut can also be classified as a dried fruit! That probably didn’t clear your confusion, but let’s dig a little deeper.

Have you ever heard of an achene? Achenes are dry, one-seeded fruits lacking special seams that split to release the seed. The tiny seeds in a strawberry, for example, are achenes because they do not split and release an interior seed. Does your brain hurt yet? Get ready because you are about to be a trivia master by the time you’re done with today’s post.

So, why are we talking about achenes? Because nuts resemble achenes, but they have some key differences. First, they develop from more than one carpel, they are also generally larger, and they have a tougher more woody shell wall. Nuts that actually meet the definition of a nut include chestnuts, hazelnuts, and acorns, which are all tree nuts.  Examples of true nuts are chestnuts, hazelnuts, and acorns.

In general usage and in a culinary sense, a wide variety of dry seeds are called nuts, but in a botanical context "nut" implies that the shell does not open to release the seed. If the shell opens to release the seed, then it most definitely is not a nut. Botanically speaking, pecans, almonds, walnuts, and several other varieties are actually not nuts. This leads us to the big question. If these things aren’t nuts, what are they? Well, they could be a number of things. Peanuts are actually legumes and pecans are, if you recall, drupes. Let’s revisit the drupe!

What is a Drupe?

We get it. We were supposed to clear all this up and we’re just making it worse. Especially now because this one is really going to twist your brain. Peaches and plums are drupes, but so are walnuts and pecans! Pretty wild, eh? So, what is a drupe?

A drupe is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell (what we sometimes call a pit) with a seed inside. That’s where you think of things like peaches, plums, and cherries. Pecans, almonds, and walnuts are the same thing, we just eat the seed inside of the pit instead of the fruit. Fascinating.

Now that we have covered seeds, nuts, and drupes, of which pecans fit multiple categories, what’s next? Get ready to hip and haw!

What are Hips and Haws?

This is getting pretty obscure, we get it. But we want to make sure we cover all the bases. When we refer to hips, we are talking about rose hips. Now, when we say rose hips, you may be thinking of actual roses, but did you know there is also a fruit called a rose hip? Pomegranates are quite like rose hips from a biological perspective.

Haw fruits come from the Hawthorn bush, also known as quickthorn, hawthorn apple, haw berry, or May tree. Haw fruits have their own specific category because there are hundreds of different varieties of haw shrubs and tree species. What’s even cooler is that every part of the hawthorn plant is edible, from the leaves to the fruits and the flowers. How cool is that?

The fruits of hawthorn, shortened to just haw, grow in berry-like clusters and are apple-like in appearance. The color of the fruit varies from yellow to red and black. The seeds of a hawthorn bush resemble peach pits. The one thing you cannot eat on a haw is the seed, which is far too high in cyanide content for human consumption.

Wow, what an adventure, right? The botanical family is full of all sorts of varieties of fruits, nuts, plants, seeds, and more. And while we are purely a pecan-focused company, we thought it might be nice to provide you with a bit of an “origin story”, if you will, explaining why pecans are not nuts, what they actually are, and other related seeds, nuts, and fruits. We hope you’ve enjoyed this deep dive into the botanical world. Get ready for the next trivia night with your friends and family because you’re about to run away with the big prize. And while you’re at it, enjoy a delicious bowl of savory toasted pecans to celebrate your victory!