It’s a pretty well-known fact that all fruits grow with seeds inside or in some way attached to them. This is pretty much how we define what is a fruits with pits and what isn’t.
However, there can even be different types of seeds that grow with fruits that can categorize them even further.
A pit is an example of a type of seed that grows inside of a fruit. It’s often a lot larger and tougher than a normal seed and is, therefore, more protected against the elements and any pestering wildlife.
In fact, in most cases the pit serves as a protective shell for the seeds inside, naturally releasing them when the conditions for growth are just right.
Fruits with pits can also be known as drupes or stone fruits but regardless of how you want to describe them, they all have that same tough pit in common.
In this list, we’re looking at some of the most common and some rather unique fruits with pits.
Cherries
We’re kicking things off with one of everybody’s favorite fruits: the cherry!
The wonderful little red rounds are packed full of natural sugars and carbs which make them taste super sweet and delicious.
While you may have bought pitted cherries from a grocery store that have had their seeds removed, all cherries grow in the wild with a tough stone at their center.
This stone can do some serious damage to your teeth if you’re not expecting to bite into one so it’s fairly common that you’ll find pitted cherries in stores.
They are commonly used as decorative fruits for baked goods, as well as a delightful garnish in certain cocktails.
Plums
Another pretty common fruit for most people, plums are a little larger than cherries but have plenty more juice packed in, so eating them can get a bit messy!
You’ll often see dried, pitted plums sold as prunes in plenty of stores all over the world. These can make a great little snack that avoids all the mess of a juicy, fresh plum.
Plums are also known for having a particularly long growing season, meaning it’s much easier to get your hands on truly fresh plums all year-round than most other fruits.
Peaches
Easily one of the most popular and well-known stone fruits, peaches are always commonplace in childrens’ lunchboxes and eaten as snacks between meals.
They have a uniquely fuzzy outer skin which gives way to deliciously soft and sweet flesh inside.
It’s pretty difficult to miss the stone on the inside of each fruit, given how massive they are compared to the size of the fruit itself.
Interestingly, peaches can also come in clingstone or freestone varieties, meaning the stone will separate with difficulty or ease, depending on the type of peach.
Most other stone fruits are either one or the other so this certainly makes peaches even more unique and interesting.
Apricots
Whilst these little orange fruits are often confused with peaches, thanks to their similar appearance, apricots tend to be smaller on average.
They can be eaten on their own, as a light, juicy snack, but are more commonly used for making things like jam and marmalade.
Apricots also make for great baked goods, with plenty of tart and cake recipes calling for this fruit to be baked into a gorgeously fluffy pastry or batter.
Of course, you’ll just have to make sure the large, crunchy stone is removed from the center before adding apricots to your cakes!
Lychees
Certainly an uncommonly found fruit among North American and European stores, the lychee berry is a wonderful exotic treat that is native mainly to China.
Their spectacular appearance consists of a bright red/pink outer skin with small bumps all over the surface.
The interior flesh is a surprisingly bright white, and you’ll always find a shiny, brown pit at its center.
Lychee berries have massively risen in popularity in recent decades, with plenty of health benefits that the fruits provide.
Mangoes
Certainly a lot of peoples’ favorite exotic fruit, mangoes offer up some of the most delightfully sweet and juicy flesh of any fruit in the world!
As well as eating them on their own, you can easily blend up a fresh mango into a smoothie. Make juice from it, or even make it into a jam or jelly.
Mangoes don’t have a very big stone at their center. Especially in comparison to the size of the rest of the fruit.
They are technically still stone fruits, often having a very tough pit that is a similar color to the flesh.
Avocados
One of the world’s trendiest stone fruits. Avocados will frequently fill out your Instagram feed with its vivid bright green colors and multitude of different forms it can be served in.
You can slice an avocado, mash it up, or completely blitz it and make it into guacamole. Basically, there are endless possibilities of what you can do with one!
They’re also known as being the best source of potassium in the fruit world. Also containing high amounts of natural fat and carbs to provide you with plenty of energy.
Of course, avocados also have a very easily distinguishable brown pit at their center which is pretty easy to identify and remove.
Nectarines
Nectarines can basically be considered as another type of peach, only without the fuzzy outer layer. Instead, nectarines almost look like an apple with the same colors as peaches.
Like peaches, nectarines can also either be freestone or clingstone. Depending on the species or variety, which sets it apart from most other stone fruits.
You can also use these pretty much interchangeably with peaches. Either as a snack on its own or in all sorts of cooking recipes.
Raspberries
Now, this might seem like an unusual addition to our list. But technically raspberries are stone fruits, just like all the others we’ve looked at.
That’s because, instead of a single, large stone at its center, a raspberry is made up of clusters of miniature stone fruits.
Each little stone fruit in the cluster that makes up a raspberry has a tiny pit. It will often get stuck in your teeth as you eat them.
Raspberries make a delightful snack with some cream or sugar. But can also be made into a variety of different desserts and jams.
Blackberries
Blackberries will be an equally confusing addition to raspberries for most people but the reason for their inclusion is identical.
This is made up of clusters of tiny stone fruits. Each with a small pit inside (which will also get stuck in your teeth pretty easily).
Blackberries are consumed in much the same way as a raspberry. Either on their own as a snack or in plenty of different baked goods and desserts.
Olives
It’s a very common mistake to consider olives as vegetables rather than fruits. However, thanks to the tough stones you’ll find at their center, olives are technically also fruits.
They come in varieties of green or black. This can be in use for a variety of cooking purposes or simply as a snack.
Olives work great in sandwiches, on pizzas, in pasta sauces, or when made into some fantastic olive oil.
Coconuts
Just like some other fruits on our list, not a lot of people out there realize that this one is actually a fruit at all.
Coconuts all have three layers that enclose a large seed at the center. But when you pick one up from your local grocery store, you’re only buying the layer closest to the center.
Despite growing most frequently in tropical regions, coconut products are now commonplace in most of North America and Europe.
Plenty of people love the taste of coconut milk or coconut water as a drink. And there are also plenty of coconutty chocolate bars out there that people can’t get enough of.
Dates
The last fruit we’re looking at is the humble date. Much like the previous fruit that we looked at, these are also grown in tropical countries, on palm trees.
Thanks to their minuscule size and wonderfully sweet flavor. Dates are great for snacking on between meals and can be enjoyed in a variety of ways.
In parts of the world where dates grow prosperously, they are often consumed fresh, when they are nice and juicy.
However, this is often not possible in countries like the United States. Where they have to be dried to ship across the world.
Final Thoughts
We hope you’ve enjoyed our list and learning more about the natural world of stone fruits.
Of course, there are plenty of other fruits with pits out in the world but we didn’t have space to go over every single one.
If you can think of any other stone fruits that we haven’t included, you should consider yourself to have pretty good knowledge of the world of fruits.
If you want to learn more about the different varieties of fruits in the world, feel free to check out some of our other articles!
We hope you learned something from this article, here are other articles that you can learn from:
14 Fruits With Seeds (Including Pictures)
Pumpkins: Growth Time and Stages of Development From Seeds To Fruits
The majority of people who have no interest in the subject, and aren’t green fingered assume that all plants and vegetables require the same growing conditions. This is not the case at all. Each plant has its own unique and interesting history and growing process.
I hope you will find The Natural List useful, and that it will help educate you on the wide variety of different flower and plant species there are across the globe.
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