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.
Grapes, currants (including redcurrants and blackcurrants), tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines (eggplants) and bananas are all berries; but strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are not.
Wikipedia explains that "In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit without a stone (pit) produced from a single flower containing one ovary." It adds 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."
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.
Strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are not berries but 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.
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