A fruit tree is a tree bearing fruit — the structures formed by the ripened ovary of a flower containing one or more seeds. However, because all trees of flowering plants produce fruit (essentially all trees except tree ferns and gymnosperms), the term in horticultural usage applies to trees providing fruit as human food. Types of fruits are described and defined elsewhere (see Fruit), but would include fruit in a culinary sense as well as some nut bearing trees, like walnuts .
Temperate fruits
Fruits of temperate climates are almost always borne on trees or woody shrubs or lianas. They will not grow adequately in the tropics, as they need a period of cold (a chilling requirement) each year before they will flower. The apple, pear, cherry, and plum are the most widely grown and eaten, owing to their adaptability. Many other fruits are important regionally but do not figure prominently in commerce. Many sorts of small fruit on this list are gathered from the wild, just as they were in Neolithictimes.
The pome fruits
- Apple and crabapple (Malus)
- Chokeberry
- Hawthorn
- Loquat
- Medlar
- Pear
- Quince
- Rose hip
- Rowan
- Service tree
- Serviceberry
- Shipova
The stone fruits, drupes of genus Prunus
- Apricot
- Cherry, sweet, black, sour, and wild species
- Chokecherry
- Greengage
- Peach varieties and nectarine
- Plum
- Hybrids of the preceding species, such as the plumcot/apriplum, pluot, aprium, and peacotum
Other temperate fruits
- Boquila
- Elaeocarpaceae
- Goumi
- Keule
- Lardizabala
- Maqui
- Peumo
- Grape, Vitis labrusca
Berries
In non-technical usage, berry means any small fruit that can be eaten whole and lacks objectionable seeds. The bramble fruits, compound fruits of genus Rubus (blackberries), are some of the most popular of these that are not true berries:
Rubus
[1][2]Raspberries*Blackberry, including dewberry, boysenberry, olallieberry, and tayberry
True berries
The true berries are dominated by the family Ericaceae, many of which are hardy in the subarctic:
Other berries
- Currant
- Elderberry
- Gooseberry
- Hackberry
- Honeysuckle[6]
- Mulberry, including red and white mulberry
- Mayapple
- Nannyberry
- Oregon grape
- Sea-buckthorn
- Ugni
- Wolfberry
Mediterranean and subtropical fruits
Fruits in this category are not hardy to extreme cold, as the preceding temperate fruits are, yet tolerate some frost and may have a modest chilling requirement. Notable among these are natives of the Mediterranean:
Mediterranean natives
- Cornelian cherry
- Date
- Fig
- Grapes, Vitis vinifera and raisins
- Jujube
- Pomegranate
- Sycamore fig
Citrus
In the important genus Citrus (Rutaceae), some members are tropical, tolerating no frost. All common species of commerce are somewhat hardy: [5][6]Lemon*Blood Orange
- Citron
- Clementine
- Grapefruit
- Kumquat
- Lemon
- Lime, including Key, Persian and Kaffir lime
- Mandarin
- Naartjie
- Orange (sweet or sour)
- Pomelo
- Sweet Lemon
- Kabosu
- Oroblanco
- Tangerine
- Hybrids of the preceding species, such as the Orangelo, Tangelo, Rangpur (fruit) and Ugli fruit
Other subtropical fruits
- Avocado
- Carob
- Feijoa
- Guava
- Longan
- Lúcuma
- Lychee
- Passion fruit
- Peanut
- Pond-apple
- Strawberry guava
- Tamarillo
- Yangmei
- Néré