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Papaya
Carica papaya
A tropical melon-like fruit with vivid orange flesh, central black seeds, and an enzyme that tenderizes meat — eaten ripe and unripe in different cuisines.
If you've been searching for fruits that start with P, you'll find 16 detailed fruits below. We're not interested in giving you only a list of names — every entry on this page links to a full profile with the kind of detail you'd actually want to know.
For fruits, that means scientific name, family, fruit type, season, nutrition, and varieties.
List of Fruits That Start With P
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Paradise Pear
Pyrus communis
A Russian heritage cultivar of small ornamental-style pears, often used for preserves and country-style cookery, prized for hardiness in cold climates.
3
Passion Fruit
Passiflora edulis
A small purple or yellow tropical fruit with intensely fragrant pulp full of crunchy edible seeds — the wow ingredient of cocktails, sorbets, and Latin American desserts.
4
Pawpaw
Asimina triloba
An unexpected native North American tropical-tasting fruit — soft custardy yellow flesh, banana-mango flavor, and a baffling absence from American grocery stores despite being a beloved Appalachian forest fruit.
5
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.
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Pear
Pyrus communis (European); Pyrus pyrifolia (Asian)
A pome fruit of the rose family — closely related to apples but with grittier flesh and a teardrop shape, with thousands of varieties and a unique post-harvest ripening behavior.
7
Persimmon
Diospyros kaki (Asian); D. virginiana (American)
An orange-red fall fruit with two distinct varieties — astringent (must be fully ripe) and non-astringent (eaten firm) — central to Korean and Japanese autumn traditions, dried into kaki sticks.
8
Physalis
Physalis peruviana
The golden berry in a papery lantern — physalis (cape gooseberry) is a small, bright orange berry enclosed in a papery husk that peels back like a Chinese lantern to reveal the sweet-sharp fruit inside; used as a decorative garnish on desserts, eaten fresh, and made into jam; not related to the gooseberry despite the name.
9
Pineapple
Ananas comosus
A tropical multiple fruit with spiky armor and a crown of leaves, sweet and acidic, eaten fresh, juiced, grilled, or canned.
10
Pineberry
Fragaria × ananassa
A white strawberry with red seeds and intense pineapple-vanilla flavor — a re-bred near-extinct South American wild strawberry that's become a viral specialty fruit since 2010.
11
Pitaya
Selenicereus undatus
A stunning cactus fruit from the Americas — sold worldwide as dragon fruit — with brilliantly pink or yellow skin and speckled white or vivid red flesh dotted with tiny edible seeds, mild in flavor but extraordinary in color and nutrition.
12
Plantain
Musa × paradisiaca
A starchier cousin of the banana, eaten cooked across tropical cuisines from West Africa to Latin America to South Asia — fried, mashed, boiled, or grilled, but rarely raw.
13
Plum
Prunus domestica (European); Prunus salicina (Japanese)
A small to medium-sized stone fruit of the rose family, with hundreds of varieties from the deep purple Damson of Britain to the golden Mirabelle of Lorraine — eaten fresh, dried into prunes, or made into liqueurs and sauces.
14
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.
15
Pomegranate
Punica granatum
A tough-skinned fruit packed with hundreds of jewel-like seeds (arils), each surrounded by tart-sweet juice — a Persian native steeped in mythology.
16
Pomelo
Citrus maxima
The largest of all citrus fruits — a yellow-green Southeast Asian giant with thick pith and sweet, mild grapefruit-like flesh, an ancestor species of the modern grapefruit.
About fruits starting with P
That's our current list of fruits starting with the letter P. We add new entries every week — if you have a favorite fruit starting with P that isn't on this page, let us know and we'll write it up.
Looking for more? Try fruits that end with P, or contain P anywhere in the name.