If you were surprised to hear that the pumpkin was a fruit (and not a vegetable), you'll probably be even more surprised to be told that it's a berry. So if you're ever asked what's the largest berry, the answer is also a pumpkin.
Questions about berries are a minefield for quizzers. Many of the things we call berries are not berries; and many things are berries that you would never have thought were.
Wikipedia points out that "In everyday English, a 'berry' is any small edible fruit ... usually juicy, round, brightly coloured, sweet or sour, and [without] a stone or pit, although many small seeds may be present." But "In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit without a stone (pit) produced from a single flower containing one ovary."
The pumpkin is a variety of squash. It's a winter squash, meaning that it's eaten when the seeds within have matured fully and the skin has hardened into a tough rind. At this stage, most varieties can be stored for use during the winter. Other types of winter squash include the butternut squash and the courgette, or zucchini.
All squashes originated in north–eastern Mexico and the southern United States. Other genera in the same family include the cucumbers, watermelons and loofahs. These (including the squashes) are all known botanically as pepos – a type of fruit that has a hard outer rind but unlike the citrus fruits, or hesperidiae, is not divided internally into segments.
Grapes, currants (including redcurrants and blackcurrants), tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines (eggplants) and bananas are all berries. Strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are not; they're aggregate fruits. Botanically, this means that the fruit develops from the merger of several ovaries that were separated in a single flower.
Just about the only true berry that's known in everyday English as a berry is the gooseberry. The redcurrant and blackcurrant belong to the gooseberry family, and (as we've already seen) are true berries.
© Haydn Thompson 2023