Stone fruit

A **stone fruit**, also called a **drupe**, is a fruit with a large "stone" inside. The stone is sometimes called the seed, but that is a mistake, as the seed is inside the stone. The stones can also be called a pit. These fruits are edible and used frequently in cooking.

### What makes a fruit?

A fruit is the matured ovary of a flower. Fruits consist of two main parts: the pericarp, or ovary wall, and the seed(s).

The pericarp has three layers: the exocarp (skin/rind), the mesocarp (bulk of the pericarp), and the endocarp (innermost layer).

### Berries vs. drupes

The two main classes of fleshy fruits are berries and drupes, or stone fruits.

Berries have a fleshy mesocarp and endocarp, and may have multiple seeds.

Drupes have a fleshy mesocarp, but a tough endocarp, and of course, a "stone" or "pit" at its center. Drupes typically have only a single seed.

## Examples of stone fruits

||Scientific name|Description|In pop culture|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Apricots|Prunus armeniaca||* St. Ives' Apricot Scrub * Stardew Valley|
|Apriums||apricot/plum hybrid||
|Blackberries|Rubus||* BlackBerry * Blackberry (_Watership Down_), a fictional rabbit * Blackberri, American singer-songwriter and community activist * Wren Blackberry, children's fiction author * "Blackberry" (song), by the Black Crowes * "Blackberry Way", by The Move * "Blackberry Blossom" (tune), a traditional fiddle tune|
|Cherries|||* cherry pie * Stardew Valley * I Kissed a Girl * cherry ChapStick * _Animal Crossing_|
|Coconuts|||* Coconut Mall * _Animal Crossing_ * _Stardew Valley_ * Coconut emoji: 🥥 * coconut bras 🥥🥥 * "Coconut" song by Harry Nilsson * "Midnight Margaritas" scene in the film Practical Magic in which the song "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson plays|
|Dates|||*poison dates in _Raiders of the Lost Ark_|
|Green almonds||the fruit of an almond tree, containing the pit or "nut" commonly referred to as an almond|* almond butter * "almond moms" * Almond Joy|
|Lychees|||* lychee martini|
|Mangoes|Mangifera indica||* _The House on Mango Street_ * the mango emoji|
|Marionberries||a cultivar of blackberries|* Marionberry pancakes in _Portlandia_|
|Mulberries|Morus||* _Mulberry Tree_, a painting by Vincent Van Gogh * A Babylonian etiological myth, explored by Ovid in Metamorphoses, attributes the red color of mulberries to the deaths of Pyramus and Thisbe, a pair of ill-fated lovers * The House on Mulberry Street * _And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street_|
|Nectarines|Prunus persica var. nucipersica|||
|Olives|Olea europaea||* Olive, the Other Reindeer * olive oil * Olive Oyl, fictional character from the _Popeye_ series * Olive Penderghast, fictional character from _Easy A_ * Green Olive, Papillon Fashion's 2025 color of the year * black olives on pizza|
|Peaches|Prunus persica||*Princess Peach, fictional character from the Mario franchise *The peach emoji * James and the Giant Peach * Peaches, a mammoth from the Ice Age franchise voiced by Keke Palmer *Animal Crossing *Stardew Valley *The Daring Book for Girls by Miriam Peskowitz contains instructions to create a peach pit ring *Peach-Pit *Peaches and cream *Peach motif in the 2017 film _Call Me By Your Name_|
|Plums|prunus domestica||* Sugar Plum Fairy * Stardew Valley * Professor Plum, a fictional character from the board game Clue|
|Pluots||plum/apricot hybrid||
|Salmonberry|rubus spectabilis||* Stardew Valley|