Is a banana a berry?
Yes. Botanically, a banana is a berry: it grows from one flower with a single ovary and has seeds inside. Strawberries and raspberries are not true berries.
In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit that develops from a single ovary of one flower and usually contains several seeds. Bananas fit the definition. The tiny black specks in the middle of a banana are the remains of seeds; wild bananas have large, hard seeds, but the varieties we eat were bred to be seedless.
Other true berries include grapes, blueberries, tomatoes, kiwis, avocados and even watermelons and pumpkins. Strawberries are not berries: each strawberry grows from a flower with many ovaries, and its seeds sit on the outside. Raspberries and blackberries are clusters of tiny fruits, called aggregate fruits.
Bananas are also herbs
Banana plants look like trees, but they have no woody trunk. The stem is made of tightly packed leaf bases, so botanists classify the banana plant as a giant herb. Most bananas sold worldwide belong to one type, the Cavendish.
Did You Know?
Bananas are slightly radioactive because they contain potassium, a small part of which is naturally radioactive potassium-40. The amount is harmless: you would need to eat millions at once for it to matter.