The main ways to classify vegetables
There is no single official classification of vegetables. Different people group them for different jobs: cooks and nutritionists by the part of the plant you eat, botanists and gardeners by plant family, and growers by the season and temperature a crop needs [2][4]. Most of these systems overlap, and one vegetable can sit in several groups at once.
| System | Groups | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Part of the plant eaten | Roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds and pods | Cooks, shops, school courses, diet guides |
| Botanical family | Brassicas, nightshades, cucurbits, legumes, alliums, umbellifers and others | Botanists, gardeners planning crop rotation |
| Hardiness or season | Hardy, semi-hardy and tender; or cool-season and warm-season | Farmers and gardeners deciding when to sow |
| Cultural needs | Groups grown the same way, such as cole crops, cucurbits, root crops, salad crops and perennial vegetables | Commercial growers and horticulture courses |
| Life cycle | Annual, biennial and perennial | Growers |
The Pop Chart Lab poster The Various Varieties of Vegetables uses the first system. It sorts more than 400 crops into eight groups by the part eaten, then into families and named varieties, which is a good way to see how many different vegetables fall into each group [1].
Classification of vegetables by the part eaten
This is the classification most people learn first, and the one Britannica gives as the usual way of grouping vegetables [2]. The groups below follow that system, with examples.
| Group | Part of the plant | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Root vegetables | Taproots and tuberous roots | Carrot, beetroot, radish, parsnip, turnip, swede, cassava, sweet potato |
| Tubers | Swollen underground stems | Potato, Jerusalem artichoke, yam |
| Corms and rhizomes | Other underground stems | Taro, water chestnut (corms); ginger, turmeric, lotus root (rhizomes) |
| Bulbs | Layered leaf bases around a short stem | Onion, garlic, shallot, leek, spring onion |
| Stems and stalks | Above-ground stems and leaf stalks | Asparagus, celery, rhubarb, kohlrabi, bamboo shoots, fennel |
| Leaf vegetables | Leaves | Lettuce, cabbage, spinach, kale, chard, rocket, watercress |
| Flower vegetables | Flower heads and buds | Broccoli, cauliflower, globe artichoke, capers, courgette flowers |
| Fruit vegetables | The fruit of the plant | Tomato, pepper, aubergine, cucumber, courgette, squash, okra, avocado |
| Seeds and pods | Seeds, usually of legumes | Peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas, sweetcorn |
| Sprouts | Young germinated seedlings | Alfalfa, mung bean and fenugreek sprouts |
Sources: Britannica [2], Wikipedia [3], Tamil Nadu Agricultural University [4]. Some lists also add fungi (mushrooms) and sea vegetables (seaweeds), which are not plants but are cooked and eaten as vegetables [3].
Roots, tubers and bulbs are not the same thing
Everything that grows underground tends to get called a root vegetable, but botanically there are three different things. True roots, such as carrots and beetroot, are roots. Tubers, such as potatoes, are swollen stems: the eyes on a potato are buds that grow into new shoots. Bulbs, such as onions, are a short stem wrapped in fleshy leaf bases.
This is where the Pop Chart Lab poster slips up in a couple of places. It puts sweet potato with the stem tubers, but sweet potato is a tuberous root, and it puts kohlrabi with the bulbs, but kohlrabi is a brassica eaten for its swollen above-ground stem [4]. Sweet potato belongs with cassava and yacon as a tuberous root, and kohlrabi with the stem vegetables. The poster also puts okra and quinoa in its pods and legumes group. Okra is a fruit from the mallow family and quinoa is a seed from the amaranth family, so neither is a legume.
Fruits that are eaten as vegetables
A lot of common vegetables are fruits in the botanical sense. A fruit is the part that develops from the ovary of a flowering plant and holds the seeds, so tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, okra and avocados are all fruits [3]. They are called vegetables because of how they are eaten: in savoury dishes, as part of a main meal, rather than as a sweet or a snack [3].
The question even reached the US Supreme Court. In Nix v. Hedden in 1893 the court ruled unanimously that tomatoes should be treated as vegetables for the import tariff of 1883, while accepting that botanically a tomato is a fruit [3]. That is why most classifications, including Pop Chart Lab’s, keep a “fruit vegetables” group alongside roots and leaves [1].
Classification of vegetables by plant family
The botanical classification groups vegetables by family, so it brings together crops that look nothing alike. Cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, turnip, swede and radish are all brassicas, and several of them are just different forms of one species, Brassica oleracea [3][4]. These are the families most vegetables come from.
| Family | Common name | Vegetables |
|---|---|---|
| Brassicaceae | Brassicas, cabbage family | Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, turnip, swede, radish, mustard greens |
| Solanaceae | Nightshades, potato family | Potato, tomato, pepper, chilli, aubergine |
| Cucurbitaceae | Cucurbits, gourd family | Cucumber, courgette, pumpkin, squash, melon, bitter gourd |
| Fabaceae | Legumes, pea family | Peas, broad beans, French beans, runner beans, lentils, chickpeas |
| Amaryllidaceae (also listed as Alliaceae) | Alliums, onion family | Onion, garlic, leek, shallot, chives |
| Apiaceae | Umbellifers, carrot family | Carrot, parsnip, celery, celeriac, fennel, parsley |
| Asteraceae | Daisy family | Lettuce, chicory, endive, globe artichoke, Jerusalem artichoke |
| Amaranthaceae (formerly Chenopodiaceae) | Beet family | Beetroot, spinach, Swiss chard, orache |
| Convolvulaceae | Bindweed family | Sweet potato |
Sources: Tamil Nadu Agricultural University [4], Wikipedia [3]. The family matters most in the garden. Pests and diseases tend to attack one family year after year, such as clubroot in brassicas, so the Royal Horticultural Society advises rotating crops in groups: brassicas, legumes, onions, the potato family and roots [5]. Swedes and turnips go with the brassicas, not the roots, because of their family [5].
Classification by hardiness and season
Growers also sort vegetables by how much cold they can take, which tells you when to sow them. Hardy vegetables tolerate frost and are cool-season crops. Tender vegetables cannot survive frost and need warm weather [4].
- Hardy: asparagus, cabbage and other brassicas, garlic, leek, onion, parsley, peas, radish, rhubarb, spinach.
- Semi-hardy: carrot, celery, beetroot, globe artichoke, lettuce, parsnip, potato.
- Tender: okra, aubergine, chilli, cucumber and other cucurbits, tomato, sweet potato, yams.
These groupings come from the horticulture course of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University [4]. The same split shows up in UK and US gardening guides as cool-season and warm-season crops. In the UK it is why broad beans and garlic can go in during autumn, while tomatoes, courgettes and squash wait until the risk of frost has passed.
Varieties within each vegetable
Below the group and the family sits the variety, and this is where the numbers get large. A single crop can have hundreds of named varieties bred for flavour, colour, size, disease resistance or the season they grow in. The Pop Chart Lab poster shows how wide that goes: it gives more than two dozen named lettuces, two dozen cucumbers and over a dozen potatoes, from Russet and Yukon Gold to Bintje and Huckleberry [1]. Tomatoes split into standard, plum, cherry, cocktail and beefsteak types before you get to individual varieties such as San Marzano and Brandywine.
In gardening the correct term for most of these is a cultivar, short for cultivated variety, meaning a plant selected and kept going by growers. Varieties within one crop can also need different conditions, so the season classification is a guide, not a rule [4].
Questions about the classification of vegetables
How are vegetables classified?
Most often by the part of the plant you eat: roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds [2]. Vegetables are also classified by botanical family, by hardiness or growing season, by how they are grown and by life cycle [4].
What are the 7 families of vegetables?
There is no fixed list of seven, but the families that supply most vegetables are the brassicas (cabbage family), nightshades (potato and tomato), cucurbits (cucumber and squash), legumes (peas and beans), alliums (onion and garlic), umbellifers (carrot and celery) and the beet family (beetroot and spinach). The daisy family, which includes lettuce, is often added as an eighth [4].
Is a potato a root vegetable?
In the kitchen it is usually treated as one, but botanically a potato is a stem tuber, not a root. Sweet potato, despite the name, is a tuberous root from a different family, the Convolvulaceae, so it is not closely related to the potato [4].
Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?
Botanically a tomato is a fruit, because it develops from the flower and contains the seeds. It is used as a vegetable in cooking, and in 1893 the US Supreme Court ruled it should be taxed as a vegetable for that reason [3].
Are mushrooms and seaweed vegetables?
Not botanically, because mushrooms are fungi and seaweeds are algae, but both are cooked and eaten as vegetables and often included in vegetable classifications [3].
Sources
- Pop Chart Lab, The Various Varieties of Vegetables, product page (Wayback Machine copy, 13 October 2016).
- Britannica, Vegetable.
- Wikipedia, Vegetable.
- Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, HORT 281 Lecture 03, Vegetable classification.
- Royal Horticultural Society, Crop rotation.
Last reviewed 9 November 2026
