Beans Are Fruits Too?!
Sort of! The bean pod is technically a fruit, and the beans inside are seeds. And yes, that means the magical fruit song was closer to the truth than we realized.
Related Rabbit Holes
Read Further
Beans, beans, the magical fruit...
You know the rest.
We've been singing that ridiculous little song since childhood, and apparently nobody thought to mention that there was actual botany hiding in it.
Because the bean pod really is a fruit.
Here's how that works.
A bean plant produces flowers. After pollination, the flower's ovary develops into a pod. That pod is a fruit called a legume.
And the beans rattling around inside? Those are its seeds.
So when you're eating green beans, you're eating the whole immature fruit. When you're eating kidney beans or black beans, you're eating just the seeds.
Peas work the same way.
Which means we've been eating fruit with our mashed potatoes and calling it a vegetable.
And the magical fruit song?
Still ridiculous. Still funny. But botanically, not nearly as wrong as you'd think.
Further Reading