A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit. Botanically, a melon is a kind of berry, specifically a "pepo." The word melon derives from Latin melopepo, which is the latinization of the Greek μηλοπέπων (mēlopepōn), meaning "melon," itself a compound of μῆλον (mēlon), "apple, tree fruit (of any kind)" and πέπων (pepōn), amongst others "a kind of gourd or melon." Many different cultivars have been produced, particularly cantaloupes.
In botany, a fruit is a seed-bearing structure in flowering plants formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are how flowering plants disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits, in particular, have long propagated using the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship that is the means for seed dispersal for the one group and nutrition for the other; in fact, humans and many animals have become dependent on fruits as a source of food.