What Kind of Fruit Is a Cherry?

Only two types of cherries are common for eating.

A cherry is a type of fleshy fruit, in contrast to dry fruits. Cherries grow on trees in temperate climates. Cherries are in the same category as fruits such as peaches and plums. They are also categorized with olives and almonds.

Identification

A cherry is a drupe, a type of fruit that contains a stone inside, enclosing a seed.

Genus and Family

Cherries are in the genus Prunus and the family Rosaceae, or rose family. The genus Prunus includes mostly small trees that produce sweet fruit.

Types

A wide variety of foods are categorized as drupes. They include apricots, mangoes, nectarines and elderberries. Almonds are defined as drupes, and some botanists also consider walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and pistachios as drupes.

Fleshy Fruits

A cherry is not a berry or a pepo -- a fruit with a hard, thick rind, such as a watermelon. It is also not a hesperidium -- a fruit with a leathery rind and sections separated by partitions, such as an orange -- or a pome -- a fruit with a core surrounded by edible tissue, such as an apple. These are the other kinds of fleshy fruit.

Eating

Many species of cherries exist. However, nearly all cherries that are eaten are Prunus avium, also known as the wild or sweet cherry, or Prunus cerasus, the sour cherry.

References

• Palomar Community College: Identification Of Major Fruit Types
• University of California, Los Angeles: Cherries, Peaches and Related Drupes