Watermelon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Watermelon
Watermelon
Watermelon cross section
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Cucurbitales
Family:	Cucurbitaceae
Genus:	Citrullus
Species:	C. lanatus
Binomial name
Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai
Watermelon output in 2005

A watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is a popular fruit that first grew in Africa. People around the world love to grow and eat it. There are over 1,000 different kinds of watermelons!

Watermelons are very sweet because about 6% of their weight is sugar. Most watermelons have a green outer rind and bright red or pink flesh inside. They usually have brown seeds, but some types have yellow flesh or no seeds at all.

You usually don't eat the green rind. However, it can be cooked like a vegetable. People sometimes stew or pickle it. Watermelons are often oblong (like an oval) or spherical (round). In Japan, farmers even grow watermelons in fun, different shapes!

Healthy Benefits

Watermelons are super healthy for you! They are packed with important vitamins and minerals.

Here are some of the good things in watermelon:

• Vitamin A
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin B6
• Vitamin B1
• Potassium
• Magnesium
• Carotenoid antioxidants
• Lycopene

Eating watermelon helps your body in many ways. For example, the vitamin C in watermelon makes your immune system stronger. This helps your body fight off sickness. Vitamin B6 also helps your immune system make special cells called antibodies. These antibodies protect you from germs. Vitamin A is good for your eyes and helps make red blood cells.

Images for kids

• 

  A tsamma in the Kalahari Desert

• 

  Still Life with Watermelons, Pineapple and Other Fruit by Albert Eckhout, a Dutch painter

• 

  Seedless watermelon

• 

  Watermelon in a 17th-century painting by Giovanni Stanchi

• 

  Watermelon cubes

• 

  Watermelons with dark green rind, India

• 

  Watermelon flowers

• 

  Watermelon leaf

• 

  Watermelon plant close-up

• 

  Watermelon baller

• 

  Watermelon with yellow flesh

• 

  'Moon and stars' watermelon cultivar

• 

  Watermelon and other fruit in Boris Kustodiev's Merchant's Wife

• 

  Watermelon for sale

• 

  Watermelon out for sale in Maa Kochilei Market, Rasulgarh, Odisha, India

• 

  Watermelon grown in Buryatia, Siberia

• 

  Watermelon rind curry

• 

  Roasted and salted watermelon seeds

• 

  Watermelon seed under a microscope

See also

In Spanish: Melón de agua para niños