Looking for a list of all fruit names in English? You’ve come to the right place. We’ve listed out the most common fruits in the English language with pictures so you can help learn them.
Types of Fruits
Fruits can be classified using many different systems depending on the subject people are discussing and the person’s background. Some classification methods are highly technical, but in this article, we will focus on those you are most likely to encounter in everyday life or when studying below a collegiate level.
Possible fruit categories include:
- Accessory
- Achene
- Aggregate
- Berry
- Bush
- Caryopsis
- Citrus
- Drupe
- Legume
- Multiple
- Nut
- Orchard
- Simple
- Tree
- Vine
- Vineyard
List of All Fruit Names (A to Z)
Some of the names listed here may sound foreign, but American English is an adaptive language that regularly adopts words from other tongues. Depending on what region you live in, all of these fruits are available in the U.S.
A
African Medlar
Alibertia
Apple
Apricot
Araza
Avocado
B
Bael Fruit
Banana
Barbados Cherry
Barberry
Bell Pepper
Bignay
Bilberry
Biriba
Black Sapote
Blackberry
Blackcurrant
Blueberry
Boysenberry
Breadfruit
C
Calabash
Canary Melon
Cantaloupe
Cape Gooseberry
Casaba
Ceylon Gooseberry
Chalta
Champedak
Charantais
Cherry
Christmas Melon
Clementine
Coconut
Cranberry
Crenshaw
Cucumber
Currants
Custard Apple
D
Date
Dragon Fruit
Durian
E
Eggfruit
Eggplant
Elderberry
Elephant Fruit
Emu Apple
European Pear
F
Feijoa
Fig
G
Galia
Gandaria
Genipap
Giant Granadilla
Golden Apple
Grape
Grapefruit
Green Pepper
Guava
H
Hog Plum
Honeydew
I
Ice Apple
Ice Cream Bean
Indian Gooseberry
Indian Jujube
Indian Mango
Ita Palm
J
Jaboticaba
Jackfruit
Jamaica Cherry
K
Kechapi
Kepel
Ketupa
Kiwano
Kiwi Fruit
Kumquat
L
Leech Lime
Lemon
Lime
Loganberry
Loquat
Lucuma
Lychee
M
Malay Apple
Mamey Apple
Mamey Sapote
Mandarin
Mango
Mangosteen
Melon-Pear
Minneola
Monkey Bread
Morinda
Mountain Soursop
Musk Melon
N
Nance
Nangka
Nashi Pear
Nectarine
Net Melon
O
Ogen Melon
Olive
Orange
Otaheite Gooseberry
P
Papaya
Passion Fruit
Peach
Peach Palm
Pear
Persian Melon
Persimmon
Philippine Rose Apple
Pineapple
Pitahaya
Plum
Pomegranate
Prickly Pear
Pummelo
Q
Quandong
Quince
R
Rambai
Rambutan
Raspberry
Rose Apple
Russian Melon
S
Sala
Salak
Sansapote
Santoli
Sapodilla
Satsuma
Satsuma
Sea Grape
Sharlyn
Soncoya
Soursop
Star Apple
Star Fruit
Star Nut Palm
Strawberry
Sugar Apple
Surinam Cherry
Sweet Granadilla
Sweet Melon
Sweet Pepper
Sweetsop
T
Tamarillo
Tangelo
Tangerine
Tomato
Tree Tomato
U
Ugli
V
Velvet Tamarind
Voavanga
W
Water Apple
Watermelon
Wax Melon
Winter Melon
Wood Apple
X
Xigua
Z
Zucchini
Fruit Names In English With Pictures
A
African Medlar
The African medlar is native to eastern and southern Afrotropic regions but is now grown in Florida and parts of Texas. The fruit has a sweet-sour taste and mealy texture similar to a pear.
Alibertia
Alibertias grow best in moist tropical climates, but cultivation is possible in subtropical regions. Its fruits have a taste very similar to a sweet quince and are very nutrient-dense.
Apple
Apples are one of the world’s favorite fruits and are grown on every continent except for Antarctica. Juicy and delicious, they are highly nutritious.
Apricot
Apricots come in many varieties, and it seems that each one has its unique taste. They can range from slightly to sugary sweet. People typically eat apricots fresh, but the dried fruit retains much of its flavor and nutrition.
Araza
The fruit of the araza tree is rarely eaten fresh due to its high acidity, but food companies process the fruit into several juice blends and candies.
Avocado
Avocados are smoothed skin fruits commonly used in Mexican and South American cuisine. Whether added to sweet or savory dishes, people consider avocados taste one of the most refreshing available.
B
Bael Fruit
Bael fruit is native to India and traditionally eaten fresh, dried, or drank as a juice. Fusion chefs in the U.S. are significantly expanding their uses.
Banana
Bananas are one of America’s and the world’s favorite fruits. People love their sweet taste and creamy texture and use them in a wide variety of ways.
Barbados Cherry
The Barbados cherry is a small round fruit with a succulent pulp surrounding three seeds. The most remarkable thing about the Barbados cherry is its flavor is a Cherry Starburst Fruit Chew.
Barberry
Barberry fruits grow in clusters on a thorny shrub of the same name. People used barberries as a sour culinary ingredient before lemons became widely available.
Bell Pepper
People usually consider bell peppers to be a vegetable, but in truth, they are fruit. The flavor of bell peppers can go from bitter to sweet, depending on the ripeness of the fruit.
Bignay
Bignay is a small slick skinned berry-like fruit that closely resembles crabapples in appearance and taste.
Bilberry
People often refer to bilberries as Europen blueberries, and they do look very similar to blueberries. However, bilberries are highly acidic, and their taste is very different.
Biriba
Biriba fruits have a greenish-brown leathery skin covering a juicy white pulp. Slightly sweet the biriba is eaten fresh, and natives in Peru use its juice to make wine.
Black Sapote
People refer to black sapote as chocolate pudding fruit because the fruit’s flesh is dark brown to black and does indeed taste like chocolate pudding.
Blackberry
When blackberries are ripe, they are sweet and juicy with a mild tartness and earthy undertone. Otherwise, they can be pretty sour or even bitter. Some people prefer slightly underripe blackberries for making jellies and jams.
Blackcurrant
Blackcurrants are well suited to growing in the northern regions of the United States. They withstand cooler temperatures well but are sensitive to overheating.
Blueberry
Blueberries are one of America’s favorite fruits. People often describe their taste as having the sweetness of red grapes combined with the tartness of green grapes.
Boysenberry
Boysen berries are man-made berries developed by crossbreeding blackberries, loganberries, and raspberries. Rudolph Boysen created them in the 1920s.
Breadfruit
People describe the taste of breadfruit as a very sweet cross between bananas and honeydew melon.
C
Calabash
Calabash has a light green smooth skin and an exceedingly mild flavor similar to immature guava and pineapple.
Canary Melon
Canary melons have pale yellow skin and shape very much like a football. The taste of the canary melon is mildly tangy and very sweet.
Cantaloupe
Cantaloupe is an orange-fleshed member of the rockmelon family. People generally eat them by simply slicing, scooping out the seeds, and consuming raw.
Cape Gooseberry
Cape gooseberries are small yellow fruits that grow inside a husk, much like tomatillos. They have a tangy-sweet flavor that pairs well with honey or stevia glaze.
Casaba
Casaba melons can weigh 3-8 pounds and have wrinkled corrugated skin. They have a musky, sweet flavor with just the essence of a cucumber taste.
Ceylon Gooseberry
A small (0.5-1 inch) berry with fuzzy bitter skin, Ceylon gooseberries rarely get eaten fresh. The majority of those produced each year find their way into commercially produced jams and jellies.
Chalta
Also known as elephant apples due to their large size, chaltas have greenish-yellow skin and reach up to 5 inches across. They are used to make pickled chutney, jams, and juices.
Champedak
A tropical fruit native to Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia, chempedak is kin to jackfruit and has a comparable taste.
Charantais
Also called French cantaloupes, charantais are softball-sized melons with a thin green rine and pink to orange flesh. Their taste is much like cantaloup but more intense.
Cherry
One of the most recognizable fruits in the world, cherries come in many varieties ranging in taste from tart to super sweet.
Christmas Melon
Christmas melons, sometimes called Santa Claus melons, look very much like watermelons with rough skin. However, their inner flesh is pale, and they have a taste closer to that of cantaloupes.
Clementine
Clementines are a mand-made hybrid between a mandarin orange and a sweet orange. They are typically juicy and sweet, with a taste closer to a tangerine than an orange.
Coconut
One of the most useful fruits on our list, coconuts provide food, shelter, furniture, drink, and medicine too much of the world. The U.N. estimates that farmers harvest over 50 billion coconuts each year.
Cranberry
Cranberries naturally grow in lowland marshes and bogs but have been cultivated since the 1700s. The majority of cranberries harvested each year get turned into juice or craisins.
Crenshaw
Winter melons with long shelf lives, Crenshaws have green and gold skin, Salmon-colored flesh, and a sweet floral flavor.
Cucumber
Cucumbers are long cylindrical fruits that grow on running vines. Most people classify cucumbers into three categories; pickling, slicing, and burpless.
Currants
True currants are small berries that grow on the Ribes family of flowering shrubs. They can range in color from deep purple to translucent white and have a rich berry flavor.
Custard Apple
Custard Apples are some of the oddest fruits we know. Mature specimens can be as small as 2.5 inches or as large as 5. They have no definite shape and can be found oblong, spherical, heart-shaped, or weird and lumpy.
D
Date
People in North Africa and the Middle East consider dates to be a staple. They use them in a variety of dishes, eat them dried and fresh. Dates are high in sugars but also in iron.
Dragon Fruit
Dragon fruit is a tropical fruit that has been gaining in popularity. Highly unique in appearance and taste, dragon fruits have a flavor that is a melding of kiwi, watermelon, and pear.
Durian
If you are going to eat durian, taste it before you smell it. Durian has a sweet tropical flavor but smells like dirty feet.
E
Eggfruit
Eggfruit is bright yellow and teardrop-shaped. Its name comes from the texture of its meat which is much like the yolk of a hardboiled egg.
Eggplant
Chefs love eggplant because the sponge flesh soaks up oils and flavors very quickly. Alone, eggplant has little taste and nutrition.
Elderberry
In most regions of the world, elderberries are grown for their medicinal properties. In the U.S., however, people use them in jellies, jams, and for making wine.
Elephant Fruit
Also called an elephant apple, elephant fruits can grow to five inches across. In Africa, the flesh of the elephant fruit is mixed with honey and eaten as a breakfast dish.
Emu Apple
Emu apples are native to Australia, and the aborigine tribes consider them a magical food. They have a very sour taste and can cause hallucinations when picked at the wrong point of ripeness.
European Pear
European pears are any pears that trace their roots back to the wild pears of eastern Europe. This includes most cultivated types both in the U.S. and Europe.
F
Feijoa
With their oval shape and dark green skin, feijoas are easily mistaken for guava. Their taste is a blending of pineapple, guava, pear, and starfruit.
Fig
Soft and pear-shaped with dark red flesh and thin skins, figs are a sweet fruit that is succulent fresh, and tasty when dried.
G
Galia
A man-made hybrid melon developed in Isreal, Galia melons are a cross between honeydew and cantaloupe. Inheriting the best of both parents, galias have an exceedingly sweet flavor.
Gandaria
Also called a plum mango, gandaria are small marble-sized fruits with a sweet-tart flavor, juicy yellow flesh, and slick yellow skin.
Genipapo
People rarely eat the fruit of the genipapo tree. Its gelatinous texture makes it unappealing. Instead, the fruits are juiced and used as a flavoring in drinks.
Giant Granadilla
Giant granadillas are large relatives of passion fruit. They can weigh up to 10 pounds and have a light floral taste and gentle sweetness.
Golden Apple
Golden apples are tropical fruits with greenish-yellow skin, golden flesh, and a pineapple scent. People often refer to golden apples as June plums.
Grape
Grapes are a widespread fruit in the United States and are readily available year-round. They come in various flavors, from sweet to tangy and colors from deep purple to nearly white.
Grapefruit
A hybrid of the pomelo and sweet orange, grapefruit have a bitter taste and flesh that can be pale yellow to dark pink.
Green Pepper
Green pepper is a general term used to describe any member of the capsicum family with green skin. In culinary circles, green pepper most often refers to green bell peppers.
Guava
Guava is a tropical fruit with slick, dark green skin and flesh ranging from white to dark pink. On the tongue, guava has a flavor that is a cross between pears and strawberries.
H
Hog Plum
Hog plums, also called June plumes, come in an array of colors, and people value them as much for nutritional content as for their delicate flavor.
Honeydew
A close cousin of the casaba melon, honeydews have smooth skins and flesh that is pale green. Exceptionally sweet, honeydews lack the musky taste and smell that most rock melons exhibit.
I
Ice Apple
Closely related to lichi, ice applies have juicy translucent flesh—many governments in Asia plant sugar palm trees in parks supplying free ice applies to citizens.
Indian Gooseberry
Many people consider Indian gooseberries a superfruit due to their high vitamin C content. They are very sour and rarely eaten alone. People usually use them as a flavor enhancer.
Indian Jujube
Indian Jujube is round or oblong, yellow to yellow-green fruits with a flavor that ranges from a subtle sweetness to sour.
Indian Mango
Indian mangoes never turn sweet like other mangoes. Even left on the tree until ripe, they still have a sour taste. Typically, Indian mangoes are picked green and eaten raw with salt or turned into chutney.
Ita Palm
Ita Palm nuts have a scally reddish-brown covering over yellow flesh. People use Ita fruits to make jam, juice, ice cream, and wine.
J
Jaboticaba
Jaboticaba berries grow directly on the tree trunk and can completely cover the tree. Dark purple with tender white flesh, Jaboticaba contributes heavily to South American deserts.
Jamaica Cherry
Jamaica cherries grow on an evergreen tree native to Mexico but are now widely cultivated globally. Small and exceedingly sweet the fruits are used in jellies, jams, and many deserts.
K
Kechapi
Also called a lolly fruit, kechapi have a pale yellow downy skin covering juicy translucent white flesh.
Kepel
Kepel fruits have brown leathery skin, grow between three and six centimeters across, and have a tropical flavor with coconut, mango, and papaya tinges.
Ketupa
Mainly grown in moist subtropical regions, ketupa have thick dirty yellow skins, segmented fruits with milky white flesh, and sweet sticky juice. The typical way people eat ketupa is to half-peel the fruit and suck out the juice.
Kiwano
Kiwano, or horned melon, is brilliant orange and covered with spikes when ripe. Their flesh is gelatinous, lime-green to yellow in color, and full of seeds. For fruits, kiwanos contain high levels of protein.
Kiwi Fruit
About the size of a healthy egg and fuzzy brown-skinned, kiwi fruit is an odd-looking fruit inside and out. Completely edible from peel to seed, kiwi has a unique taste that is tropical but hard to describe.
Kumquat
Kumquats seem to have their flavors turned inside-out. The edible skin is sweet and tasty, while the flesh and juice are tart and sometimes bitter.
L
Leech Lime
Sometimes called a Thai lime, leech limes are bell-shaped, bumpy-skinned citrus fruits with a very sour taste. Compared to most of their relatives, leech limes contain very little juice, and it is mainly the zest and peel that people use in cooking.
Lemon
One of the most useful fruits we have, lemons are prized in cooking for their tart flavor, and the juice makes an excellent cleaning compound.
Lime
Mainly cherished for their juice, people use limes much as they do lemons. They make excellent desserts, and their juice is a common ingredient in many tropical cocktails.
Loganberry
A man-made hybrid created by James Logan, loganberries were created by crossing American blackberries with European raspberries. They have a taste closer to the blackberry but a dark red color like the raspberry.
Loquat
Eating loquats is like getting an entire fruit salad in every bite. The yellow pear-shaped fruit has a complex citrusy flavor but contains shades of pineapple, apple, apricot, pear, and berry sweetness.
Lucuma
Shaped like an inverted teardrop and bright yellow, lucuma has a citrusy flavor with a tad of maple syrup sweetness.
Lychee
Lychee has pebbly dark skin covering a succulent white flesh and a single seed. Most often, people eat them fresh.
M
Malay Apple
Red and bell-shaped, people prize Malay apples for their uniques rose hip flavor. Farmers also use them as a companion crop to divert birds and insects from crops.
Mamey Apple
Mamey apples can be as large as apples and have rough speckled skin that ranges from light tan to dark brown. Depending on the degree of ripeness, the flesh can be firm and crisp or tender and juicy. Mamey apple’s taste is a blending of passion fruit and apricots.
Mamey Sapote
Mamey sapote can grow to five pounds or more and have brown papery skin covering a yellow to deep orange flesh. This flesh is sweet and creamy, and though delicious fresh, is even better used in smoothies and icecreams.
Mandarin
Many people believe the mandarin is a type of orange, but it is the parent of oranges which are hybrids. Mandarins have a well-balanced sweet-tart flavor, with some types exhibiting a subtle berry note.
Mango
Sweet and succulent mangoes are some of the most delicious fruits on earth. Their taste is unique but floral, and the majority of species have a tender, creamy flesh that melts on the tongue.
Mangosteen
Mangosteens have a thick, smooth, leathery, burgundy-colored skin covering a segmented, white flesh. Mangosteens have a singular taste that many people find hard to describe. It has strawberry, lychee, peach, pineapple, and caramel or butter elements combined in a well-balanced fruit.
Melon-Pear
The flavor of melon-pears is like a honeydew melon crossed with a cucumber. Melon-pears have slick pale yellow skin with distinctive purple speckled strips and the whole fruit, including the seed, is edible.
Minneola
The U.S. Department of Agriculture developed the minneola in 1931 by crossing a Duncan grapefruit with a Dancy tangerine. Noted for its low seed count and exceptional sweetness, the hybrid never caught on commercially.
Monkey Bread
Monkey bread fruits come to us from the BaobabTree. They have a green suede-like husk and grow to the size of coconuts. The flesh of the monkey bread has a slightly acidic taste, with some people describing it as grapefruit sprinkled with vanilla
Morinda
Also called noni fruit, morindas have semi-transparent skin ranging from pale yellow to lime green. The flesh of the morinda is a lumpy white gelatinous mass with a foul smell and bitter flavor.
Mountain Soursop
People sometimes refer to mountain soursop as wild custard apples. They have spiny segmented skin that covers fibrous flesh. While people do eat mountain soursop, it is most often juiced.
Musk Melon
The name musk melon refers to a large group of melons, with cantaloupe being the most familiar. Musk melons get their name from having a musky scent which sweet melons lack.
N
Nance
Nance looks much like yellow or orange cherries. They are 0.5 to 1 inch in diameter and have a distinctive aroma and sweet taste ranging from fruity to cheesy.
Nangka
Nangka is a close relative to jack fruit and shares many of the same characteristics. Spiny and growing quite large, they have thick skin covering a segmented flesh, usually pale yellow in color when ripe.
Nashi Pear
Nashi pears are a species of Asian pears shaped more like apples and have speckled golden-colored skin. The taste of nashi pears is similar to new world pears but sweeter and smoother in texture.
Nectarine
Nectarines are beautiful fruits being green at their base and flowing to deep red in a mottled pattern at the top. They are highly aromatic and have a well-balanced sweet-tart flavor.
Net Melon
Frequently called a nutmeg melon, net melons are native to Korea and have thin dark green reticulated skin. The flesh of the net melon is deep emerald green and sugary sweet.
O
Ogen Melon
Ogden melons are a hardy type of musk melons developed to deal with Isreal’s dry conditions. When mature, Ogden melons are golden yellow with orange stripes running their length and a sweet taste similar to honeydew.
Olive
One of the most storied and longest cultivated fruits on this list, olives have been a staple of Mediterranean and Arabic cuisines longer than we have recorded history.
Orange
There are many different types of oranges, and they are the most frequently cultivated citrus fruits in the world. A man-made hybrid created by crossing pomelos with mandarins, oranges date back to the Tang Dynasty in China.
Otaheite Gooseberry
Otaheite gooseberries look nothing like their namesake. They are tiny yellow berries of the Phyllanthus acidus tree. The one way Otaheite gooseberries do resemble regular gooseberries is in taste. Both are incredibly sour.
P
Papaya
Papaya is a large family of tropical fruits with a long semi-ovule shape and dark green to golden skin. People often consume them green when the flesh is firm and tart and ripe when succulent, sweet, and creamy.
Passion Fruit
When passion fruit is fully matured, it can be either bright yellow or dark purple. Regardless of the color, passion fruits will have sweet, white tangy flesh that is gelatinous and full of seeds like a pomegranate.
Peach
Peaches are a classic summer treat. Ripe peaches have yellow-orange skin, are fuzzy, and yield slightly to the touch but are not soft. Peaches will not ripen once picked.
Peach Palm
Peach palm fruits look much like slick-skinned strawberries minus the seeds. The yellow flesh has a mild peach flavor, and people often juice and ferment the fruit for wine.
Pear
Pears are one of America’s favorite orchard fruits. Its flesh is mildly sweet, tart, and buttery when fully ripe.
Persian Melon
Persian melon is a collective term for a group of melons native to Iran. They are elongated melons with tan to yellow skins and light netting. Their meat can be pale green, white, or orange, and flavors are primarily sweet.
Persimmon
Green Persimmons are very astringent and have an acquired taste for many people. When ripe, persimmons turn soft and develop a crisp, sweet flavor.
Philippine Rose Apple
Called tampoy by natives, Philippine Rose Apples have a pale yellow color often tinged with pink or red. The flesh has a gentle sweetness and subtle rose aroma giving the fruit its name.
Pineapple
Pineapples are the third most widely cultivated tropical fruit in the world. A collective fruit, pineapples, consists of multiple fruits that grow together to produce a single fruit.
Pitahaya
A type of cactus fruit, pitahaya, is also known as dragon fruit. This native North American superfood has a taste that combines the best of kiwi, pear, and watermelon.
Plum
Most Plums are red to purple when ripe, but golden plums are not uncommon. Sugary-sweet, fresh plums are a favorite summertime treat across most of America.
Pomegranate
Pomegranates are deep red fruits with thick, slick skin, a segmented body containing multiple pulp-covered seeds, and a sweet-tart taste. Pom poms, also called grenada, give us grenadine.
Prickly Pear
Prickly pears are cactus fruits native to the American North and Southwest. Slick skinned and spiny, they have tastes that can range from strawberry to pineapple in nature.
Pummelo
Pummelo is the largest citrus fruit and one of few natural, non-hybrid citruses still cultivated. The parent of both oranges and grapefruit, pummelos have flavors that range from sweet in yellow-fleshed varieties to sour in pink ones.
Q
Quandong
Quandong is a bright red fruit native to Australia. They have a tart flavor similar to peaches mixed with apricots and make wonderful jellies and jams.
Quince
Raw quince has a strong astringent flavor and inviting orchard fruit aroma. Quince can be eaten fresh, but most people prefer them made into heavily sweetened jellies and jams.
R
Rambai
Native to the Philippines and Thailand, rambai are small, pale, smooth-skinned fruits with sweet, white gelatinous flesh. People most often eat them raw but also make jam from them.
Rambutan
Rambutan look like hairy golfballs. They have a tough reddish-brown shell covered in soft spines over creamy flesh with a single seed at their core. The taste of the rambutan is like a sweet grape with floral overtones.
Raspberry
What distinguishes raspberries from their cousins the blackberry is when picked, raspberries leave their core on the plant. Most varieties of raspberries have a fruitier taste than blackberries but not all.
Rose Apple
Rose apples give off an aroma much like fresh rose blooms and taste similar to rose water. They bear fruit year-round but have little commercial use as they perish very quickly.
Russian Melon
The skin of a Russian melon is a pale yellow to green with indistinct stips and rough netting. Their flesh is succulent and floral, with a honey sweetness.
S
Sala
Sala fruit grows in clusters, has a golden brown husk with spines, and is native to Thailand. The flesh of the sala is floral and sweet but often avoided because it has the aroma of body odor or dirty sweat socks.
Salak
Considered an emerging food crop, salak is similar in size and shape to a fig but has brown scaly skin. The flesh of the salak tastes almost identical to pineapple but is dry and closer to peeled garlic in texture.
Sansapote
Only recently domesticated, sansapote are native to the Central Americas. The fruits grow very large but take up to a year to mature, making them of limited commercial value.
Santoli
Santoli comes in two distinct varieties, red and yellow. Red Santoli is sour, has thick skin, and falls from the tree when ripe. Yellow Santoli is thin-skinned, very sweet, and very stubborn about leaving the tree.
Sapodilla
Most sapodilla grown in the United States come from Southern California. The 2-4 inch fruits have scruffy-looking brown skin. The flesh of the sapodilla can range in color from yellow to rust and has a flavor reminiscent of pears dipped in brown sugar.
Satsuma
Satsuma is a delightful citrus fruit with loose, easily peelable skin. Similar in size and taste to mandarins, a satsuma is more cold-resistant and can grow over a broader range of the country.
Sea Grape
Sea grapes are not actual grapes but the fruit of the Coccoloba tree. Common in coastal areas, people sometimes refer to them as bay grapes. When ripe, sea grapes turn red to purple and have a taste similar to muscadines.
Sharlyn
Bright yellow and netted when ripe, sharlyn melons grow to between three and five pounds and have succulent flesh. The seeds of the sharlyn are edible, but most people scoop them out and discard them before eating the meat.
Soncoya
Large, round to oval in shape, and covered in curved hooks, soncoya can be intimidating to look at. Inside, they hide pulpy flesh with a flavor close to mango in sweetness.
Soursop
Soursop is an irregularly shaped fruit that grows up to 15 pounds. The outer skin is leathery with small sines. Soursop flesh is fibrous, cream in color, and has a flavor tropical in nature.
Star Apple
Cut a star apple in half, and you will see where they get their name. The cells of its meat form a star. Highly variable in color, star apples have gelatinous flesh tasting of apple, lychee, and persimmon.
Star Fruit
Star fruits are beautiful yellow fruits with waxy translucent skin that grow in the shape of a five-pointed star. Their taste is unique in being sweet like orchard fruits but with a citrus acid edge that gives them good balance.
Star Nut Palm
Star nut palms are native to Panama and have dark green to black oval fruits with firm flesh, large central seeds, and tough outer skin. The Astrocaryum tree that bears them is covered in sharp thorns that reach eight inches in length.
Strawberry
The only fruit in the world that carries its seeds on the outside, strawberries are an American favorite and one of the most commonly cultivated berries in the country.
Sugar Apple
Sugar apples can weigh up to a half-pound and have a knobby rine. The fruit’s flesh is off-white to eggshell in color and has a flavor reminiscent of mint custard.
Surinam Cherry
Ripe Surinam cherries have a thin, corrugated, deep red to black skin over pale, firm flesh. They can be pretty tart, but the darker the fruit, the sweeter the taste.
Sweet Granadilla
Sweet granadillas are orange-yellow when ripe and sometimes have a purple blush and white specks on the skin. The pulp is firm and surrounds a hollow seed cavity like found in rockmelons.
Sweet Melon
Sweet melon is a descriptive category name that can apply to various fruits, including cantaloupe, rockmelon, or spanspek.
Sweet Pepper
Many members of the capsicum family include the word sweet in their names, but the only true sweet peppers are bell peppers. They cannot produce capsaicin, the chemical compound that makes peppers hot.
Sweetsop
Sweetsop is another name for sugar apple. These fruits have a segmented green husk over a firm white flesh that is almost sugary sweet in flavor.
T
Tamarillo
Tamarillos are sometimes called tree tomatoes. They are the bright yellow to red egg-shaped fruit of the shrub that bears the same name. Tamarillo tastes much like tomatoes, but the yellow and orange examples are sweeter than the red.
Tangelo
The name tangelo is a blended word combining tangerine and pomelo. The fruits of this man-made hybrid are juicier than most citrus but contain less pulp and have a taste that is tangy but still sweet.
Tangerine
Have through pout their history been classified as a type of orange. Botanists recently changed this as there are now enough sub-types for them to consider tangerines a separate species.
Tomato
Possibly, America’s favorite fruit, tomatoes, grace our tables in more ways than be counted. Most people think of tomatoes as vegetables, but they are, in reality, the berry of the tomato plant.
Tree Tomato
Tree tomatoes, also called tamarillos, are sweet-tangy fruit that tastes like a tomato crossed with a kiwi. Densior than true tomatoes, tree tomatoes can be toxic if not fully matured.
U
Ugli
Ugli fruit is a cross between a grapefruit and an orange developed initially in Jamaica. Sweet and tangy with just a touch of bitterness, uglies are quickly moving from novelty status to mainstream.
V
Velvet Tamarind
Velvet Tamarinds grow to the size of grapes and have a hard shell that you must remove before eating. They have the taste of tamarind and contain high levels of the antioxidant tartaric acid.
Voavanga
Voavanga is a reasonably large family of fruits from Rubiaceae plants. They can be round, egg-shaped, or oval and have slick skin or spines. The taste of most of the family is slightly acidic and subtly sweet, but some varieties can be bitter.
W
Water Apple
Water Apples are pear-shaped, have waxy skins, and firm but very juicy flesh. Their flavor is somewhat like an apple, but with a watermelon, sweetness added.
Watermelon
There are over 1,000 different varieties of watermelon cultivated worldwide. They can range in size from two pounds to over seventy pounds, and both their skins and meat can vary in color. The one constant among this large group is the flesh being sweet and juicy.
Wax Melon
Wax melons can grow to over 30 inches in length. When immature, they have fine hairs that slowly disappear as the wax coating that gives them their name develops. The taste of wax melons is sweet, and even when green, the firm flesh taste candied.
Winter Melon
Winter melon is a member of the gourd family native to India. Growing extremely large, people considered them a winter staple as their wax coating gives them a storage life of over a year.
Wood Apple
Very popular in Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine, wood apples are gaining acceptance from American chefs. They have a hard shell covering a flesh that looks like banana pudding left in the sun too long, and the smell isn’t much better. When mixed with sugar and spices, though, the taste is heavenly.
X
Xigua
Pronounced She-Gwah, Xigua are Chinese watermelons. They have a dark, almost black rind, fewer seeds than other watermelons, and a milder flavor. Some varieties can be lumpy, but all are slick-skinned.
Z
Zucchini
Zucchini is one of the most widely used culinary fruits in the world. Its mild grassy taste and ability to absorb other flavors make it ideal to use in many types of cuisines. A member of the squash family, zucchini are long, thin, and have dark speckled skin.
Hey, I’m Joey. I’ve been cooking since I was a little kid and love everything about it. You can find my writing about food, kitchen appliances (such as blenders) and much more. Thanks for stopping by!
