Interesting Facts You May Not Have Known About Watermelons

Interesting Watermelon Facts

Would summer be summer without watermelon? Probably not, since almost everyone looks forward to a refreshing watermelon when the days start to get particularly blazing.

However, there is much more to watermelons than might originally be assumed. If you care to dig a little deeper, it turns out that there are more than a few interesting facts to learn. Here are a few that you might not have already known.

Fruit Or Vegetable?

There are no shortage of smart folks out there that will argue about which fruit is which, and which is actually a vegetable. Don’t even get started on the tomato actually being a fruit.

But did you know that the watermelon similarly lives in a limbo between the fruit and vegetable families?

They grow from flowers, contain seeds, and are obviously very sweet in taste. So this makes them fruits, right? Not necessarily. Watermelons are classified as gourds, which puts them right alongside pumpkins, squash and cucumbers.

Most will still assume fruit, but it is an interesting dilemma.

A Full Meal

You are hardly likely to chomp down on watermelon rinds, but it is, in fact, very healthy to do so, and they’re a green meal all on their own. The rinds are packed with nutritional value, and many even consider the rind the healthier part of the fruit as a whole.

In China the rinds are often stewed, and it is also common to find pickled rinds in some areas in the South. You will also find that the seeds can be roasted and eaten, which is a meal that is equally as beneficial in terms of health.

What’s In A Name?

This one is obvious, but it never hurts to be reminded. Watermelons have the name they do because, according to studies, as much as 92% of the fruit is pure water. That is exactly what makes them so refreshing on a hot summer day, and also why you can feel so bloated after chomping down a few slices. Your belly is bursting with water!

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How Many?

So how many kinds of watermelon are there? A handful, right? Wrong. There are as many as 1200 different kinds, and that number is on the low side, since new types are being categorised all the time. Good news for those on plant-based diets for sure!

Though to keep things easy to understand, there are only four main types that most are familiar with. This includes the icebox variation, yellow/orange variation, seedless, and seeded. The kind you’re most likely familiar with is referred to as Crimson Sweet.

However, some interesting sub-categories include the Golden Midget, and the Cream of Saskatchewan.

All Natural

Lastly; you may have heard that the seedless variety of watermelon is due to genetic engineering, but that is not at all true. Seedless watermelons are a natural result of hybrid breeding, with no genetic tinkering of any kind.

The same goes for the extra-large watermelons that grow to impossible sizes; all natural. Speaking of which, the biggest in recorded history weighed 350 pounds, and was grown by Chris Kent in Tennessee, 2013.