Clear Answers for Common Questions

Passion fruit is the edible fruit of the passion flower. Spanish explorers coined the name in honor of the passion of Christ. For them, the appearance of the passion flower symbolized many Christian beliefs. The fruit is also called parcha, markisa and konyal. There are two types of passion fruit ...

A type of tree that produces a tropical fruit, the mamey sapote is found in the northern section of South America and the southern portion of Mexico. These trees are known for their beautiful evergreen foliage, as well as for the tasty melon that is produced for a good part ...

The Pitaya is more commonly referred to as the dragon fruit. It is an extremely beautiful fruit that has dazzling flowers and an intense shape and color. The dragon fruit is usually a dark red color, although some types of this fruit are pink or yellow. The skin of the ...

Pitomba, Eugenia luschnathiana, is the fruit of an evergreen shrub native to Brazil. The fruit is little known outside of Brazil, despite several attempts to grow the plant in areas other than its tropical home. Pitomba fruit is reminiscent of apricots in shape, color, and flavor, although sometimes slightly more ...

Mamey, known sometimes as mamey sapote or just sapote, is a type of tropical fruit native to the Caribbean and Central America. It is cultivated in tropical regions in the Americas including Southern Florida, and is very popular among many Caribbean and Central American peoples. The firm, juicy flesh is ...

A jackfruit is a huge, spined, oval fruit that is believed to have been first cultivated in Indian rainforests. It's mostly grown in tropical climates, and is the largest fruit in the world, weighing up to 80 pounds (about 36 kg) with a length of up to 3 feet ...

A custard apple is a heart shaped tropical fruit native to Latin America. It has creamy flesh which is remarkably similar to custard in texture, and tends to be sweet and mildly flavored. In addition to Latin America, the fruit is also cultivated in many parts of Asia, where it ...

The papaya originated in Central and South America but now thrives in many countries with tropical or near tropical climates. When Columbus discovered the fruit on his travels, he described it as “the fruit of the angels.” Unlike some tropical fruits, the papaya appeals to most palates, and is quite ...

The elephant apple, or wood apple, is a tropical acidic fruit native to Southeast Asia. The fruit is eaten in both ripe and unripe stages, and it is common in chutneys and other pickled dishes. The fruit comes into season in the fall months, depending on the region, with maturity ...

Sapodilla refers to the deliciously sweet tropical fruit with a caramel or cotton candy taste, and the tree that produces it. The tree may have originated in or near Mexico, and its scientific name is Manilkara zapota. There are many different names for the fruit, which is now grown not ...

A mamoncillo is a tropical fruit filled with a creamy, tangy pulp which is often enjoyed directly out of hand, although it can also be used in desserts like fruit sorbets. This fruit is most commonly available in markets in South America, where the trees grows as a native, although ...

Carambola is an Asian tropical fruit which is also known as star fruit or starfruit. It has a crisp texture and a tangy flavor which makes it popular in salads, desserts, and relishes. In addition to the Asian tropics, carambola is also under cultivation in parts of Latin America, where ...

A pineapple is a tropical fruit with a sweet, slightly acidic flavor and very juicy flesh. Pineapples are native to Central American and the Caribbean, where they continue to be widely eaten and cultivated, and they are also grown throughout the tropics of the world, especially in the American states ...

An evergreen native to the West Indies, the soursop tree is known for the large, versatile fruit it produces. Soursops are highly popular around the world, but are rarely found fresh outside of the tropical areas in which they are grown. A member of the Cherimoya family, the soursop tree ...

Starfruit, or carambola, is a tropical fruit grown in Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Florida and Hawaii. It is golden yellow to pale green in color and typically 3-5 inches (13.7-15.2 cm) in length, with four to six outer ribs. Its flesh is the ...

A mango is a tropical fruit that originated in Southeast Asia. Food historians believe the mango has been cultivated for over 4,000 years in the areas in which it was initially found. It is now grown in most countries with tropical or near tropical climates. There are over 100 ...

A guava is the sweet fruit of the guava tree, which grows in tropical regions of America and Asia. The genus consists of about 100 small trees and shrubs, with the Psidium guajava species being the most cultivated for food. The fruit can be eaten raw or used to flavor ...

Known as the "King of Fruit," the durian is a tropical fruit rarely seen outside of Southeast Asia. The durian, named for an Indonesian word meaning "thorny," resembles an unripe coconut with spines covering its thick, green rind. Infamous for its strangely foul smell, the flesh of this fruit is ...

Most Americans are only familiar with lychee as an item on the dessert menu at Chinese restaurants. Often erroneously called "lychee nuts," the fruit is indigenous to China and popular for snacking or desserts. On the tree, it is protected by a bumpy, leathery rind that is inedible. This rind ...

The longan is a brown skinned fruit that is said to be the “little brother” of the lychee. It is native to China and South East Asia and is a little larger than an olive. The longan has a musky, grape flavor and is sweeter than a lychee but not ...

Also known as black kokum, cocum, and kokam, kokum is a small round fruit that has its origins in India. As a tropical fruit that is grown on an evergreen variety of trees, it is usually dark purple to black in color, and normally does not have a diameter of ...

A loquat is both a tree and its fruit, thought to have originated in China. At least 1,000 years ago, the Japanese began to cultivate the loquat. Loquats are now grown in the Middle East, parts of Europe and Africa, Brazil, Hawaii, and throughout California. Californians began to grow ...

A red banana is a banana with a distinctive red to purple skin, rather than the more conventional yellow. These bananas originate in Costa Rica, where they are extremely popular, and they are widely eaten in other parts of Central America. Many large markets also carry red bananas, to cater ...

While to the consumer it may seem that there are a few different types of coconuts, there is really only one species of coconut plant. The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is the only type of palm tree that produces coconuts. Within this species, however, there are dozens of different varieties ...

Miracle fruit is an exotic tropical plant native to West Africa which produces red berries containing a substance which causes sour flavors like lemon and lime to taste sweet. The evergreen plant is sometimes grown decoratively, and is also usually featured in botanical collections because of its interesting properties. The ...

A pawpaw is a fruit indigenous to North America, also called the sweetsop or the prairie banana. Though the name may have originated from the Spanish term papaya, these two fruits are not related. The trees that grow the pawpaw are the largest Native American fruit trees, ranging in height ...

The feijoa, or pineapple guava, is a tropical plant native to Brazil. It prefers subtropical zones and will suffer from frost damage. Feijoa is frequently used to make hedges and screens, because it is attractive and relatively fast growing. The fruit is considered subacid, with a pineapple-like flavor that ...

Rambutan (Nephelium Lappaceum) is a fruit grown primarily in Southeast Asia, and is cousin to the longan and the lychee. It grows on trees that are 10-20 feet (3.05-6.1 m) high. The trees are prized in landscaping because they are evergreens. The rambutan produces two crops ...

Breadfruit is a staple fruit across much of the South Pacific, spread by Polynesian people across the Southern Seas during their long sojourns. It can be found in Hawaii, Micronesia, and a variety of other places in between, as long as the weather is warm, because breadfruit cannot tolerate cool ...

The mangosteen is a round, purple fruit slightly smaller than a tennis ball, but it has absolutely nothing to do with a mango—a mangosteen is not known to taste anything like mangoes, nor does it look like one. The fruit originated in Malaysia and grows on trees in ...

A coconut is the fruit of the coconut palm, Cocos nucifera. These plants are believed to be native to Southeast Asia, where they have been cultivated and used in food for centuries. Various coconut products can be found in the cuisine of many Asian nations, and they appear in other ...

Camu-camu berries are the fruit of the camu-camu tree native to the Amazon rainforest of Peru and Brazil. They have a red or purple skin, white flesh, and large seeds. Though they resemble the cherry in appearance, they are much more sour and are not usually eaten plain ...

The bael fruit has been cultivated in India for over 4,000 years and is highly valued for its perceived medicinal qualities. The flavor of the fruit, unfortunately, leaves something to be desired, like many plants with healing properties, but all parts of the tree are used in a variety ...

The fruit of the avocado tree is the duck-billed platypus of the plant world. It is considered a fruit but is closer to a berry in botanical terms. Avocados are primarily used as a vegetable, yet they contains enough fat to pass as a meat substitute in sandwiches and ...

It’s hard not to like a watermelon, whether you purchase tiny ones with yellow flesh, long heavy ones that take up a shelf in your refrigerator, or many of the varieties in between. Made of almost 92% water, this melon well lives up to its name. It is enjoyed ...

Savor the sweetness of history with each bite of date fruit, a delectable treat hailing from the date palm tree. Indigenous to Northern Africa and the Middle East, this ancient fruit has been a staple for millennia. While fresh dates offer a succulent experience, dried dates, which are available year ...

Acerola is a plant native to Southern and Central America. It produces small edible fruits which strongly resemble cherries, leading to the common alternate names of Barbados Cherry, Puerto Rican Cherry, and West Indies Cherry. The fruits are widely consumed in South America in fresh and preserved forms. Products of ...

Acai berries are berry fruits from the acai palm, which is native to Northern Brazil. The berries have formed an important part of the diet of Brazilians and Native Americans for centuries, and began to be processed and exported for general global consumption in the 1990s. Many health food promoters ...

Cherimoyas are a very unusual type of fruit, native to the Andes mountain range in South America. The mountain area stretches from Colombia to Bolivia. Cherimoya is an Inca word meaning “cold breast”. The fruit is so called because the Incas used cherimoyas to pacify children. There are only a ...

The cupuacu is a type of fruit tree which grows wild in the the Amazon rainforest. It is also grown for fruit production in some other areas with similar climates. In the wild, cupuacus generally reach 49 to 65 feet (15 to 20 m) in height, but cupuacu trees used ...

The jujube is a type of fruit common across much of Asia. It is sold both fresh and dried, with the dried version sometimes called a Chinese Date, due to its sweet granular texture and single seed. The jujube has over four hundred cultivars in China, where it was grown ...

A kumquat is a fruit which resembles a miniature orange. It is sometimes mistaken for a citrus fruit, but actually belongs to the genus Fortunella. The kumquat, also spelled cumquat, has a thin, sweet skin with a tart, sour flesh. The kumquat can be eaten whole, though some find its ...

Mung beans are small green legumes. Legumes are seeds from the pods of plants in the Leguminosae family and also the Fabaceae family. When sprouted, they are usually just called bean sprouts. Like many other legumes, this bean can be eaten raw when sprouted, or else eaten cooked with the ...

Anyone who has ever accidentally eaten plantains instead of bananas will most likely not have a problem telling the two fruits apart. If bananas are the dessert, then plantains would be the mashed potatoes. They look very similar to their sweeter banana cousins, but they are much starchier in consistency ...