FRUITS

Fruits that contain C

48 fruits containing the letter C — each with origin, classification, and notes.

List of Fruits That Contain C

    1

    Acai

    Euterpe oleracea

    A small dark purple Amazonian palm berry that briefly conquered Western health foods in the 2000s — the actual fruit is mostly pit, with a thin, oily, antioxidant-rich pulp.

    2

    Acerola

    Malpighia emarginata

    A small bright-red Caribbean cherry-like fruit packed with extraordinarily high vitamin C — used in juices and supplements rather than fresh eating because of its short shelf life.

    3

    Ackee

    Blighia sapida

    A West African red-skinned fruit that opens to reveal yellow custard-textured arils — the national fruit of Jamaica, but lethally toxic if eaten before fully ripe.

    4

    African Cherry Orange

    Citropsis articulata

    A small, thick-skinned wild African citrus with intensely fragrant peel and tart pulp — used more for marmalade and traditional medicine than fresh eating.

    5

    American Mayapple

    Podophyllum peltatum

    An odd umbrella-leafed forest plant with a single yellow fruit hidden under its canopy — edible only when fully ripe, and toxic in every other part.

    6

    Apricot

    Prunus armeniaca

    A small velvet-skinned orange stone fruit with a brief season — eaten fresh, dried, or jammed across cuisines from Persian to Provençal.

    7

    Avocado

    Persea americana

    A creamy single-seeded berry from Central America, beloved for its buttery flesh and unusually high content of monounsaturated fats.

    8

    Black Sapote

    Diospyros nigra

    A green-skinned Mexican fruit whose ripe interior turns into a thick chocolate-pudding-like brown mash — eaten with a spoon or used as a vegan chocolate substitute.

    9

    Blackberry

    Rubus fruticosus

    A glossy black aggregate fruit of bramble vines — fierce wild thickets across temperate regions and the most-foraged fruit in many countries, with intense sweet-tart flavor and abundant seeds.

    10

    Blackcurrant

    Ribes nigrum

    A small intensely-flavored European berry that's a household staple in Britain and Eastern Europe but virtually unknown in the US — banned for decades to protect the timber industry.

    11

    Cactus Pear

    Opuntia ficus-indica

    A magenta-fleshed prickly cactus fruit (also called prickly pear or tuna) with a sweet melon-watermelon flavor — heavily harvested in Mexico, Sicily, and the American Southwest.

    12

    Calamansi

    Citrus × microcarpa (syn. Calamondin)

    A tiny citrus from Southeast Asia — a cross between mandarin orange and kumquat, producing a small round fruit with orange flesh and a thin green skin; intensely sour with aromatic orange notes, indispensable in Filipino and Malaysian cooking.

    13

    Canistel

    Pouteria campechiana

    A bright orange Caribbean fruit (also called egg-fruit) with the dry mealy texture of a hard-boiled egg yolk — eaten fresh, in shakes, or as a chilled custard.

    14

    Cantaloupe

    Cucumis melo var. cantalupensis (European); var. reticulatus (American)

    An orange-fleshed netted melon — the muskmelon of summer markets, named after a papal estate in Italy, eaten chilled with prosciutto or as a breakfast staple.

    15

    Carolina Reaper

    Capsicum chinense

    A bred-for-extreme chili pepper that held the Guinness record as the world's hottest from 2013 to 2023, with an averaged 1.6 million Scoville heat units.

    16

    Caviar Lime

    Citrus australasica

    An Australian rainforest citrus whose elongated finger-shaped fruits burst with translucent pearl-like vesicles — a high-end garnish that exploded in popularity with molecular cuisine.

    17

    Cempedak

    Artocarpus integer

    A close cousin of jackfruit grown across Malaysia and Indonesia — smaller, sweeter, more pungent, and rarely seen outside Southeast Asia because of its overpowering smell.

    18

    Cherimoya

    Annona cherimola

    A heart-shaped Andean fruit with green dimpled skin and creamy custard-like flesh — described by Mark Twain as "the most delicious fruit known to men," with a flavor that combines banana, pineapple, and strawberry.

    19

    Cherry

    Prunus avium (sweet) / Prunus cerasus (tart)

    A small stone fruit of the rose family, with sweet eating varieties and tart pie varieties — pitted and bright in pies, preserves, and liqueurs.

    20

    Chico Fruit

    Manilkara zapota

    Another name for sapodilla — a small brown Mexican-Filipino fruit with grainy sweet flesh tasting of brown sugar and pear, tied to the same tree that produces chicle (chewing-gum sap).

    21

    Chile Pepper

    Capsicum (genus, multiple species)

    A diverse family of fiery fruits from the Capsicum genus — used fresh, dried, smoked, ground, and fermented across nearly every world cuisine.

    22

    Citron

    Citrus medica

    The ancient ancestor of all citrus fruits — a large, rough-skinned yellow fruit valued more for its thick, fragrant pith and essential oil than its sparse, acidic juice; the etrog used in Jewish Sukkot ritual and the source of candied peel worldwide.

    23

    Clementine

    Citrus × clementina

    A small, easy-peeling, seedless winter mandarin — accidentally created in an Algerian orphanage garden in 1902, now the most popular winter snack citrus in Western countries.

    24

    Cloudberry

    Rubus chamaemorus

    A rare orange-amber Arctic berry that grows in remote bogs across the boreal north — Scandinavia's most prized wild berry, with no commercial cultivation despite decades of attempts.

    25

    Coco-de-Mer

    Lodoicea maldivica

    The largest seed in the plant kingdom — a giant Seychelles double-coconut weighing up to 25 kg, so rare that each individual fruit is government-tracked.

    26

    Coconut

    Cocos nucifera

    The seed of a tropical palm, technically a drupe rather than a nut, source of oil, milk, water, flesh, and one of the most-used ingredients in tropical cooking.

    27

    Crab Apple

    Malus sylvestris (European wild crab); Malus hupehensis and others (ornamental crab varieties)

    The wild ancestor of all cultivated apples — small, intensely sour or bitter fruits from wild and ornamental trees, generally too harsh to eat raw but exceptional for making jelly, cider, and crab apple wine; the pectin-rich juice gels easily and the flavour — honeyed, floral, and tart — is unlike any cultivated apple.

    28

    Cranberry

    Vaccinium macrocarpon

    A small, intensely tart red berry of North American wetlands — turned into Thanksgiving sauce by colonial Americans and into urinary-tract-infection folklore by mid-20th-century medicine.

    29

    Grewia Asiatica

    Grewia asiatica

    The botanical name for falsa — a small purple South Asian summer berry, also known as Phalsa, used in cooling drinks and Ayurvedic medicine across the subcontinent.

    30

    Huckleberry

    Vaccinium membranaceum and others

    A wild dark berry of the western North American mountains — beloved by hikers, hunted by bears, and impossible to cultivate, sustaining a regional Pacific Northwest jam-and-pie economy.

    31

    Jabuticaba

    Plinia cauliflora

    A Brazilian wonder fruit that grows directly on the trunk and branches of its tree — dark purple berries that look like grapes glued onto bark, with mild grape-lychee flavor and a brief shelf life.

    32

    Jackfruit

    Artocarpus heterophyllus

    The largest tree-borne fruit in the world — up to 35 kg — with sweet yellow flesh when ripe and a meaty texture used as a vegan meat substitute when unripe.

    33

    Lucuma

    Pouteria lucuma

    A subtropical Peruvian fruit with pale yellow flesh, a sweet flavour of maple, sweet potato, and vanilla combined, and very low sugar content despite its sweetness — a pre-Inca sacred fruit now popularised as a health-food sweetener globally.

    34

    Lychee

    Litchi chinensis

    A small Chinese fruit with rough red shell and translucent white flesh of perfumed sweetness — a 2,000-year-old delicacy referenced in Chinese poetry and one of the most prized tropical fruits.

    35

    Miracle Fruit

    Synsepalum dulcificum

    A small West African red berry that **temporarily makes sour foods taste sweet** — chewing one transforms lemon and vinegar into sugary treats for about an hour.

    36

    Momordica Fruit

    Siraitia grosvenorii

    A bumpy bright-orange East Asian fruit (also called luo han guo or monk fruit) — its concentrated extract has become a popular zero-calorie sweetener that's hundreds of times sweeter than sugar.

    37

    Monstera Deliciosa

    Monstera deliciosa

    The fruit of the Swiss cheese plant — a fragrant tropical curiosity that ripens over 12 months, tastes like pineapple-banana, and is mildly toxic until fully ripe.

    38

    Nectarine

    Prunus persica var. nucipersica

    A smooth-skinned variant of the peach, the same species genetically with one gene difference, often slightly more tart and aromatic than its fuzzy cousin.

    39

    Peach

    Prunus persica

    A fuzzy-skinned stone fruit of the rose family with sweet aromatic flesh and a single woody pit, originating in China and now grown in temperate orchards worldwide.

    40

    Plumcot

    Prunus salicina × Prunus armeniaca

    A 50/50 plum-apricot hybrid created by Luther Burbank in the 1880s — the original parent of pluots, apriums, and the entire modern stone-fruit hybrid family.

    41

    Quince

    Cydonia oblonga

    A pear-shaped, fragrant, hard-fleshed fruit eaten almost exclusively cooked — the basis of Spanish *membrillo* paste and a foundational ingredient in Mediterranean and Persian sweets.

    42

    Redcurrant

    Ribes rubrum

    A small, jewel-like red berry — translucent, intensely tart, and a classic Northern European garden fruit used in jellies, sauces for game, and showcase dessert garnishes.

    43

    Sea Buckthorn

    Hippophae rhamnoides

    A thorny coastal shrub producing dense clusters of tiny bright orange berries — extraordinarily rich in vitamin C (ten times more than oranges), omega-7 fatty acids, and carotenoids; the astringent, intensely sour berries are too sharp to eat raw but make vivid orange juice, jams, and syrups popular across Northern Europe and Russia.

    44

    Serviceberry

    Amelanchier canadensis (and other Amelanchier species)

    North America's versatile wild fruit — small, blueberry-sized purple-red berries from the Amelanchier shrub/tree, with a sweet, almond-flavoured flesh beloved by birds and foragers; also called Juneberry, Saskatoon, or Shadbush.

    45

    Surinam Cherry

    Eugenia uniflora

    A small red ribbed Brazilian backyard fruit (also called pitanga) with intense complex flavor between cherry, raspberry, and tropical resin — extreme polarity between underripe (terrible) and ripe (delicious).

    46

    Victoria Plum

    Prunus domestica 'Victoria'

    Britain's most beloved plum — a large, oval, red-yellow plum with sweet yellow flesh and a clingstone; named after Queen Victoria, and accounting for the majority of all plum trees grown in British gardens and orchards.

    47

    White Currant

    Ribes rubrum (white-fruited variant)

    A pale translucent variety of redcurrant — sweeter, less acidic, eaten fresh more than its red sibling, and once a fixture of Victorian dessert tables for its jewel-like appearance.

    48

    Zucchini (botanical fruit)

    Cucurbita pepo

    Botanically a fruit (a *pepo* berry) though treated culinarily as a vegetable, the zucchini is the most-grown summer squash and a green-skinned, tender-fleshed kitchen workhorse.

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