Which Nuts Aren't Really Nuts?
Peanuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios, and walnuts aren't true botanical nuts! They're legumes or seeds from other types of fruits. Botanists are apparently very particular about their snacks.
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Imagine buying a bag of mixed nuts, only to discover half the contents are impostors.
Welcome to botany.
In everyday life, we call something a nut if it's small, crunchy, and generally requires teeth or a determined squirrel.
Botanists have stricter standards.
A true nut is a dry fruit with a hard shell that doesn't naturally split open when ripe. Usually, it contains one seed.
Acorns, hazelnuts, and chestnuts qualify.
But some familiar snack-time celebrities don't.
Peanuts are legumes, related to peas and beans. They develop in pods underground.
Almonds are seeds inside a type of fruit called a drupe.
Cashews are seeds from drupes that grow beneath the swollen, apple-like part of a cashew plant.
Pistachios are seeds from drupes.
Walnuts are commonly called nuts, but botanically they're generally classified as seeds from drupe-like fruits.
So why do we call them all nuts?
Because culinary names describe how we use foods, while botanical names describe how plants produce them.
Your trail mix doesn't care about taxonomy.
And frankly, neither does the squirrel stealing it.
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