Fruit: Types of Fruit

Of the thousands of species of edible fruits growing wild and cultivated throughout the world, more than seventy are grown commercially or in home gardens in the United States. Fruits are generally classified by growing region as follows:

• • Temperate fruits: pome fruits, such as apple, pear, and quince; stone fruits, such as apricot, cherry, peach and nectarine, and plum; small fruits and berries, such as blackberry, blueberry, currant, grape, raspberry, and strawberry; melons, such as cantaloupe and watermelon; and rhubarb

• • Subtropical fruits: citrus fruits, such as grapefruit, lemon, lime, mandarin, and orange, and others, such as avocado, cactus fruit, date, fig, kiwifruit, mulberry, olive, persimmon, and pomegranate

• • Tropical fruits, such as banana and pineapple