dj_mocok
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2003
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As the title says. I'm not sure if we consider mushrooms as vegetable or not.
Aren't mushrooms a type of fungus?
I thought they were an official staple of the endangered Hippie as of the 1960s.
Well, "vegetable" refers to the edible parts of a plant, exclusive of the reproductive bits (those are "fruit"). Since mushrooms are fungi, mushrooms are not plants. Therefore, they are clearly not parts of plants...and thus, mushrooms are not vegetables. The only way a mushroom can be a vegetable is to redefine the word "vegetable" or redefine the membership of the kingdom of plants to include fungus.
Regarding the definition of the word "vegetable," Wikipedia is somewhat wrong about the uncertainty of scope. Amongst botanists and other people who study plants for a living, there is really little ambiguity about the definition of the word "vegetable." This doesn't communicate well on the Internet, where people with no authority still enjoy expressing (and therefore propagating) uninformed opinion. Plant = vegetable parts + fruit parts. That said, you won't find botanists referring to plant parts with the generic label of "vegetable", just like you won't find surgeons referring to "guts"...more specific nomenclature is generally more useful.
As for using "vegetable" as a name for things you eat, call it whatever you like!
I thought they were an official staple of the endangered Hippie as of the 1960s.