Despite its name, the strawberry isn't a true berry. Neither is the raspberry or the blackberry. But the banana, it turns out, is a berry, scientifically speaking, as are eggplants, grapes and oranges.

So what's the deal? Why are berries so hard to define?

The discrepancy in berry nomenclature arose because people called certain fruits "berries" thousands of years before scientists came up with a precise definition for the word.

By botanic definition, a berry has three distinct fleshy layers: the exocarp (outer skin), mesocarp (fleshy middle) and endocarp (innermost part, which holds the seeds). For instance, a grape's outer skin is the exocarp, its fleshy middle is the mesocarp and the jelly-like insides holding the seeds constitute the endocarp. The same layered structure appears in other berries, including the banana and watermelon, although their exocarps are a bit tougher, taking the form of a peel and a rind, respectively.

In addition, to be a berry, a fruit must have two or more seeds. Thus, a cherry, which has just one seed, doesn't make the berry cut.

Moreover, to be a berry, fruits must develop from one flower that only has only one ovary. Plants, such as the strawberry and the raspberry, have flowers with more than one ovary.

Raspberries have these little subunits. Each one of those little subunits comes from an individual ovary. These subunits are called drupes.

So, the next time you peel into a banana, you're actually eating a berry!

More Info: www.livescience.com