Red Fruits with Pictures and Names – Identification Guide

Red fruits come in all shapes and sizes. The most common red fruits are red apples, red pears, strawberries, raspberries, red cherries, and red plums. Some examples of exotic red fruits include red cactus fruit and red passion fruit. Other exotic fruits include red dragon fruit and lychee with its bumpy red skin and white fleshy center. Pomegranate is a tasty red fruit that is full with seeds encased in sweet red juice.

Red fruits are not only appetizing to look at and delicious to eat, but they are also extremely healthy. In many pomes, citrus fruits, drupes, and berries, the red color comes from anthocyanins and carotenoids. These antioxidants in purple or red fruits and vegetables, and natural vitamin C and other minerals, are vital for good health. Depending on the anthocyanins content, fruits can range in color from orange to bright red or dark, almost purple-red.

This article is a guide to identifying various types of red fruits. Some of these sweet red fruits are relatively common, and you’ll find them in the local store. Other exotic or tropical red fruits may be harder to find.

What Fruits are Red in Color?

Red fruits are typically divided into categories like drupes (stone fruits), citrus fruits, berries, pomes, and pepo. In addition, it is possible to divide red fruits into exotic, tropical, or everyday fruits among these categories. There are also some red fruits that we tend to think of as vegetables; however, they are botanically classified as red berries.

For example, common red berries are cranberries, red currants, or red chokecherries. However, botanically, a tomato is also a type of juicy red fruit that grows on vines. Also, watermelon is a red pepo fruit with green skin. However, orange pumpkins and green cucumbers are also fruits in a botanical sense.

There are some other red fruits that we usually think of as red berries, but they aren’t actual berries. For example, red cherries look like large berries, but they are, in fact, a type of drupe. Other drupes with red skin or flesh include a red mango, red plums, and many nectarine and peach varieties that have red skins.

Common Types of Red Fruit

Let’s look at common types of red fruit that you can grow in your garden or buy in your local store.

Strawberry (Fragaria ananassa)

Strawberries are a common type of bright red fruit with tiny seeds on the outside. The triangular-shaped or round juicy fruits have a sweet caramel aroma and fruity taste synonymous with summertime. Biting into a ripe, juicy strawberry releases a burst of sweetness with a slight acidity.

Although called a berry, red strawberries are a type of aggregate fruit. The distinguishing feature of strawberries is the minute seeds pressed into the skin.

Strawberries are fast growing fruit that are popular in summer desserts or preparing preserves, pies, ice cream, and candy bars.

Raspberry (Rubus)

Raspberries are small bumpy red fruits with a fresh sweet taste and hints of tartness. Removing soft red raspberries from the bush reveals they have a hollow core. The berry-like fruit consists of small red receptacles containing a single seed. Like strawberries, raspberries are not a true berry, but they are a type of aggregate fruit.

Although raspberries are typically a bright red to dark red color, they can come in other colors. For example, raspberries can also be yellow, purple, black, and pink fruits.

Red Apple (Malus domestica)

Red apples are one of the most common types of red fruits in temperate climates. The round crunchy fruits can be as small as 0.8” (2 cm) or as large as 4” (10 cm) in diameter. Depending on the variety, large red apples can have dark red, mottled skins, and bright yellow flesh. Or they can have red and green, sometimes yellow skins.

Here are some varieties of red apples:

• Pink Lady—Bright red waxy skin with tiny white speckles. The apples have a tart taste with a sweet finish.
• Envy—A medium-sized crunchy apple with ruby red and yellow skin and a sweet taste.
• Red Delicious—Dark burgundy red skins with a mildly sweet taste and very little tartness.
• Honeycrisp—This variety of red apple has mottled skin with bright red, yellow, and green colors. This crunchy flesh has a delightful balance of sweet and tart juiciness.

Related reading: Types of crabapple trees for your garden.

Red Cherry (Prunus cerasus or Prunus avium)

Cherries are small red fruits with a sweet or sour taste, depending on the variety. Typically, varieties of sweet cherries have dark red or crimson colors and are delicious straight off the tree. Sour cherries can be various shades of red, ranging from dark red (Morello cherry) to light red (Amarelle cherry).

Apart from enjoying the delicious red drupes, an advantage of growing cherry trees is their stunning white spring blossoms. Cherry blossoms fill gardens with pinkish-white flowers and give off a sweet floral aroma. There are also beautiful types of dwarf weeping cherry trees for compact gardens.

Red Plum

Red plums are round drupes with dense red or yellow flesh covering a large stone. Dark red plums have smooth skins, sometimes with a waxy surface, giving the plum a cloudy appearance. The medium-sized fruits measure between 0.8” and 2.7” (2 – 7 cm) in diameter. The fruit shape is typically round or oval.

Like cherries, round red plums can have a sweet or tart taste. In addition, the oval or round fruits can have wine red or dark red skins and orangey flesh.

Some unusual varieties of red fruits are plums that are crossed with other drupes. For example, there are plumcots, apriums, and pluots—types of plum and apricot hybrids. For example, a pluot looks like a red apricot that tastes like a plum.

Related reading: Delicious types of plums.

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)

Watermelon is a huge green-colored fruit with juicy red flesh. Watermelons are recognizable due to their large size, round to oval shape, and light green skin with dark green stripes. However, cutting through the thick skin reveals sweet flesh that is pink to deep red filled with black seeds (seedless watermelon varieties are available too).

Watermelon is a type of pepo berry that grows on a long, ground-spreading stem. Varieties of watermelon can grow up to 24” (60 cm) in diameter.

Red Pear (Pyrus)

Red pears grow on fruit trees, and the pomes can have dark wine-red skin. Like all colors of pears, these red-colored pomes have a distinctive shape with a wide, rounded bottom and thinner top. In addition, some pear varieties have green skin with red blushing. Pears are also incredibly juicy fruits with flavors ranging from spicy to sweet to tangy.

The most common red variety of red pear is the red Anjou. These medium-sized egg-shaped red fruits measure about 3” (8 cm) in diameter and have a short, squat appearance with a wide base tapering to a rounded top.

Related reading: Types of ornamental pear trees.

Red Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana)

Red chokecherries are small round dark red or black berry-like drupes that grow on small trees. The clusters of red fruits have an astringent taste described as sour and bitter. Chokecherries contain high levels of anthocyanins, resulting in their dark red to black color as they ripen. Red chokecherry fruits measure 0.25” to 0.5” (0.6 – 1.4 cm) in diameter.

Types of Red Citrus Fruits

Red Grapefruit (Citrus x paradisi)

The red grapefruit is a subtropical citrus fruit with deep orange skin and dark red tangy flesh. The large red citrus fruit has a sour to semi-sweet, acidic taste. Red grapefruits grow in clusters on the tree, and the oval or round fruits mature at 4” to 9” (10 – 15 cm) in diameter.

Varieties of tangy red grapefruit include ‘Ruby Red,’ ‘Redblush,’ ‘Rio Red,’ and ‘Ruby-Sweet.’

Blood Orange (Citrus x sinensis)

Blood orange is an unusual red citrus fruit because citrus fruits tend to lack large quantities of anthocyanins. As a result, blood oranges have a bright orange peel with dark red blushing. Cutting through the citrus skin reveals a dark red flesh. Another distinctive feature of blood oranges is their unusual taste, that has a raspberry-like citrusy flavor.

Types of Red Spiky Fruits

Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum)

Rambutan is an unusual small red spiky fruit with a distinctive shaggy appearance. The weird-looking prickly fruits grow in large drooping clusters on evergreen rambutan trees. The spiny red fruits are round or oval with leathery skins surrounding a translucent white or light pink flesh similar to lychees.

Exotic rambutan fruits have a sweet taste like fresh grapes. Each drupe measures approximately 1.1” to 2.3” (3 – 6 cm) long and up to 1.5” (4 cm) wide.

Red Durian Fruit (Durio)

Red durian fruits are uncommon red fruits because they are only found in Sabah, Borneo. Also called Sabah durians, the red fleshy fruit has a spiky green or orange covering, like a horse chestnut fruit. The red durian fruit is only a wild species, so it is rare to find them in local stores.

With their spiky green or yellow casings, these large red fruits are elliptic to oblong in shape and grow 4” – 7” (10 – 18 cm) long.

Red durian fruits have an aroma of fermented wine and have a more robust flavor than the traditional yellow durian.

Types of Red Berries

Cranberry (Vaccinium subg. Oxycoccus)

Cranberries are tiny red berries that grow in clusters on small creeping shrubs or vines. Red cranberry fruits are well-known for their tart, acidic flavor. The sour red fruits have smooth skin, are round or oval, and measure about 0.5” (1.3 cm) in diameter.

Typically, cranberries are a red winter fruit because they are usually ready for harvesting in late October.

Redcurrant

Red currants are related to gooseberries, and they are tiny round red fruits that grow in bunches on small bushes. The red berries have shiny, smooth skins surrounding tart red flesh. Because of their sharp, sour taste, redcurrants are usually used in making jams, jellies, and sweet preserves.

The edible redcurrant fruits measure around 0.5” (1.3 cm), and up to ten glossy red berries grow in each cluster.

Red Grape (Vitis)

Red grapes are a type of small red berry that grows in large clusters. Typically, dark-colored grapes have deep red to purple skin and a dark red flesh. The small red grape berries have many uses, including making red wine, grape juice, jelly, currants, or raisins.

Large red grapes like the ‘Red Globe’ or ‘Crimson Seedless’ are classed as table grapes and are delicious for snacking. The firm, sweet fruits can have a brick red to pale red color.

Types of Exotic Red Fruits

Red Prickly Pear — Red Cactus Fruit (Opuntia humifusa)

Also called red cactus pears, a red prickly pear is an unusual fruit with a bright reddish-pink bumpy skin. The unusual red fruits grow on cactus pads, and the fruits emerge green and mature to a deep rosy red color. The rough red skin covers a vibrant magenta-colored flesh containing several dark edible seeds.

A ripe red cactus pear is an aromatic fruit with a sweet flavor like watermelon. Red cactus pears measure between 2” to 4” (5 – 10 cm) long.

Red Passion Fruit (Passiflora)

Red passion fruit is an exotic, tropical fruit with a spherical shape measuring approximately 3.5” (9 cm) in diameter. The deep reddish-purple skin covers juicy green pulpy flesh containing many seeds. The reddish-purple variety of passion fruit is smaller than the yellow fruit variety. Passion fruit is famous for its sweet, tasty flesh and juice.

Pomegranate (Punica granatum)

A pomegranate is a large round red fruit filled with seeds. Each seed is in a capsule of sweet red juice and is known as aril. Red pomegranates have thick, leathery skin and are about the size of a large, round red apple. A distinctive feature of pomegranates is the crown-like structure on shiny red rounded fruit. Pomegranates can contain between 200 and 1,400 seeds.

Red Tamarillo (Solanum betaceum)

A red tamarillo is a rare exotic fruit with a tart, and almost citrusy taste. The red fruits from the small tamarillo shrub are egg-shaped and grow 1.5” – 4” (4 – 10 cm) long. Due to the unusual shape of the red fruit, the plant is sometimes called the tree tomato, blood fruit, or Dutch eggplant.

Types of Tropical Red Fruits

Red Banana (Musa acuminata ‘Red Dacca’)

Red bananas are uncommon tropical fruits because we tend to think of bananas as having yellow skins. However, red bananas are smaller and plumper than traditional eating bananas. Their skin is dark reddish-purple, and they have pinkish-white flesh. The taste of red bananas is sweeter than yellow varieties and has a hint of raspberry.

Red bananas measure 6” to 7” (16 – 18 cm) long, and around 80 of the dark red tropical fruits grow in a bunch.

Lychee (Litchi chinensis)

Lychees are small round tropical fruits with a thick bumpy red skin and a white center. The roughly textured lychee skin is relatively thick and leathery. Inside the tropical red fruit is sweet, white, crisp flesh with a firm texture that tastes deliciously fresh. The taste of lychees resembles a cross between a watermelon and strawberry.

The red heart-shaped or oval bumpy red fruits measure 2” (5 cm) long and 1.6” (4 cm) wide.

Red Dragon Fruit – Pitaya (Selenicereus costaricensis)

Red dragon fruit is an unusual tropical fruit with a bright reddish-pink skin and deep magenta seed-filled flesh. This weird red fruit has a texture like a kiwifruit and a sweet, juicy taste. Also called the ‘Fire Dragons’ fruit, the vibrant red flesh with black specks of seeds looks stunning in a tropical fruit salad to add exotic flavor and color.

Pitaya is a fruit that grows on species of cactus. Typically, the bright red skin with green bracts covers milky white flesh. However, you should look for the Selenicereus costaricensis variety if you want to enjoy this tropical red-skinned fruit with vivid red flesh.

Red Mango Fruit (Mangifera indica ‘Irwin’)

Mangos are large, oval tropical fruits with leathery red, green, and yellow skin, and tasty orange flesh. The red mango cultivar grown in Florida is the ‘Irwin’ variety with dark red coloring when the delicious tropical fruit is mature. The red mango skin covers sweet yellow flesh that has a spicy aroma. Typically, red mangos are oval to egg-shaped tropical fruits that weigh between 12 and 16 oz. (340 to 450 g).

Other varieties of tropical red mango fruits are Osteen, Palmer, and Kent.

Related articles:

• Green Fruits – Identification
• Types of Citrus Fruits
• Dwarf Fruit Trees to Grow Indoors or Outdoors