Drupe Fruit

A drupe is a fruit with a thin outer skin, a fleshy middle layer, and a hard, woody inner shell (the pit or stone) that encloses a single seed. The term comes from the Latin drupa, meaning an over-ripened olive, and olives are the fruit for which the category is named.

Common drupes include peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, mangoes, olives, and almonds - in almonds, it is the seed inside the pit, not the fleshy layer, that is eaten. Drupes are eaten fresh, baked into pies and cobblers, made into preserves and jams, or used in savory dishes; their flesh separates easily from the pit, which makes them well suited to canning and freezing.

A drupelet is a single small drupe unit within an aggregate fruit like a raspberry or blackberry, distinct from a whole drupe such as a peach.