Fruit: Common

Apple

The apple is one of the most important fruits in the world and grows in thousands of varieties. It stores well and is rich in fibre and vitamin C.

💡 Did you know? An apple is about 85 percent water: yet it floats, because it contains a lot of air.

Pear

The pear is a juicy pome fruit closely related to the apple. Its flesh turns soft and sweet as it ripens.

💡 Did you know? Unlike apples, pears ripen best after picking: on the tree they often turn mealy.

Banana

The banana grows on a giant herb in the tropics and provides quickly available energy. Harvested green, it ripens during transport.

💡 Did you know? Botanically the banana is a berry and the plant is a herb, not a tree.

Orange

The orange is a sweet citrus fruit and an important source of vitamin C. It originally arose as a cross between mandarin and pomelo.

💡 Did you know? The word 'orange' first referred to the fruit and only later to the colour.

Lemon

The lemon is a very sour citrus fruit whose juice and peel are widely used in cooking. It is extremely rich in vitamin C.

💡 Did you know? On long sea voyages sailors ate citrus fruit against scurvy, the dreaded vitamin-C deficiency disease.

Mandarin

The mandarin is a small, easy-to-peel citrus fruit with a sweet aroma. It often has hardly any seeds and is especially popular with children.

💡 Did you know? The seedless, hardy cultivated form is the clementine: named after a French monk.

Grapefruit

The grapefruit is a large, slightly bitter citrus fruit with pink or yellow flesh. It arose as a cross between pomelo and orange.

💡 Did you know? It can intensify the effect of some medicines: which is why package inserts sometimes warn against it.

Strawberry

The strawberry is a sweet, red fruit that grows close to the ground. It tastes best freshly picked and is rich in vitamin C.

💡 Did you know? Botanically it is not a berry: the true fruits are the tiny yellow 'seeds' on its surface.

Raspberry

The raspberry is a delicate, aromatic aggregate fruit made of many small drupelets. It bruises easily and must be eaten quickly.

💡 Did you know? When picked, the white core stays on the bush: which is why the raspberry is hollow inside.

Blueberry

The bilberry is a small, blue-purple berry that grows wild in forests and as a cultivated form in gardens. It is regarded as very healthy.

💡 Did you know? The wild forest bilberry stains tongue and fingers deep blue: the large cultivated blueberries hardly at all.

Blackberry

The blackberry grows on thorny canes and bears shiny black aggregate fruits in late summer. It is closely related to the raspberry.

💡 Did you know? Unlike the raspberry, the core stays inside the blackberry: so it is not hollow inside.

Currant

The currant bears small berries hanging in clusters in red, white or black. The red ones are tart and fresh, the black ones aromatic and pungent.

💡 Did you know? In German it is named after St John's Day (24 June), around when it usually ripens.

Cherry

The cherry is a sweet or sour stone fruit that ripens in early summer. Sweet cherries are eaten fresh, sour cherries more often cooked in cakes and jam.

💡 Did you know? In spring the cherry trees first delight with lavish white-to-pink blossom, long before the fruit ripens.

Plum

The plum is a juicy stone fruit with a mostly blue-purple skin. Dried, it becomes the prune.

💡 Did you know? The elongated, firm damson is a special form of plum that is well suited for baking.

Peach

The peach is a juicy stone fruit with velvety, downy skin and sweet flesh. It originally comes from China.

💡 Did you know? The smooth-skinned, hairless variety of the peach is the nectarine.

Apricot

The apricot is a small, orange stone fruit with velvety skin and a mild, sweet flavour. It ripens in high summer.

💡 Did you know? Dried, it makes an energy-rich snack as a dried apricot.

Grape

Grapes grow in bunches on the vine and are eaten fresh, dried, or made into wine. There are seedless and seeded varieties.

💡 Did you know? Dried grapes are raisins: seedless varieties make sultanas and currants.

Watermelon

The watermelon is a large, sweet fruit with red flesh and a green rind. It is almost entirely water and is refreshing on hot days.

💡 Did you know? Its flesh is over 90 percent water: hence the name.

Honeydew melon

The honeydew melon has a yellow rind and sweet, pale-green flesh. Unlike the watermelon, it belongs to the same genus as the cucumber (Cucumis).

💡 Did you know? It tastes best fully ripe, because after picking it barely gets any sweeter.

Pineapple

The pineapple grows as a low, ground-level plant in the tropics and bears a single large fruit with spiky skin and a crown of leaves. Its flesh is sweet and tangy.

💡 Did you know? It contains an enzyme that breaks down protein: which is why fresh pineapple sometimes 'stings' the tongue.

Kiwifruit

The kiwi has a brown, furry skin and bright green flesh with tiny black seeds. It is very rich in vitamin C.

💡 Did you know? It originally comes from China and was once called the 'Chinese gooseberry': the name kiwi only arose in New Zealand.

Mango

The mango is a sweet tropical fruit with orange, juicy flesh and a large flat stone. It is one of the most eaten fruits in the world.

💡 Did you know? In India, its country of origin, the mango is regarded as the 'king of fruits'.