When people search for hairy fruits — or fuzzy fruits — they usually mean one of three quite different things: everyday fruits with a soft fuzzy skin you can feel, exotic fruits wrapped in soft hairy spines, and a surprising group that are hairy on the inside. This guide covers all three, from the familiar kiwi and peach to tropical curiosities like rambutan and cocoa. The hairs themselves are usually harmless fine outgrowths of the skin (trichomes) or soft spines; whether you eat them depends on the fruit.
Fuzzy-skinned fruits (hairy on the outside)
These are the fruits most people picture first: a soft, felt-like layer of fine hairs over the skin. The fuzz is edible on some and rubbed off on others.
Kiwifruit
The classic fuzzy fruit — a brown, hairy skin over bright green or golden flesh. The fine hairs wipe off easily and the skin is edible once washed. Kiwi grows on a hardy, vigorous climbing vine — see growing kiwi fruit.
Peach
Peaches carry a soft, velvety down over the skin. A nectarine is simply the smooth-skinned form of the same species (Prunus persica), so the fuzz is the main visible difference. It is harmless and usually rubbed or washed off before eating — see growing a peach tree.
Apricot
Like the peach it is related to, the apricot has a fine soft fuzz over a golden-orange skin, though lighter and shorter than a peach’s — see growing an apricot tree.
Gooseberry
Many gooseberries are covered in fine bristly hairs over a translucent, veined skin; dessert varieties tend to be smoother while culinary types are hairier. The hairs soften on cooking — see growing gooseberries.
Kiwano (horned melon)
Strictly spiky rather than furry, the kiwano is often grouped with hairy fruits for its bristled, horned orange skin over a green, jelly-like pulp.
Hairy fruits from outside
Rambutan
Rambutan tree – yellow, orange or red with hairy soft spines, the fruits soft and have structure of onion, sweet and can be also bit sour, fruits can be used for, alcoholic beverages, eaten raw, ice pop & ice cream plants, jams, juice, the tree grow in tropical area and need high humidity, cannot survive frost, and also need female and male plants.
Pulasan tree
Pulasan – like rambutan looks hairy with strong spines, the fruit onion like structure and sweets, fruits can be used for, alcoholic beverages, eaten raw, ice pop & ice cream plants, jams, juice, tree is tropical but can survive little cold area, unlike the rambutan can bear fruits only with female tree, need also high humidity.
Hairy fruits from inside
Cocoa tree
Cocoa fruits growing in pods, the pods contain the fruits, the fruits are white and in order to eat them need to suck it out of the seeds, seeds are the base of chocolate as we know, it’s tropical plant, can grow indoor doesn’t like direct sun and loves water, to increase the amount of fruit better hand pollination.
Theobroma bicolor
Theobroma bicolor also known as white cocoa or mocambo, this fruit hairy and the pulp mostly go apart from the seeds the fruit are sweets, the seeds of the Theobroma bicolor not used for chocolate, the fruit is the main dish and grow in pods.
Monkey cocoa
Monkey cocoa fruit hairy in order to eat need to suck the fruit, fruit are sweets like the cocoa fruits, the seeds of the Monkey cocoa not used for chocolate, the fruit is the main dish and grow in pods.
Ice cream bean
Ice cream bean fruits grow in pods, the pod in color green to yellow, the size can be more than 5-100 cm, in one pod can be 3-50 fruits, the fruit pulp is white and hairy in some cultivars peel easy, tree very strong and aggressive.
Pithecellobium dulce
Pithecellobium dulce fruit grow in pods, the pod color is pink looks like scorpions tail, fruit pulp is white and hairy until 4-6 fruits in pod, in some cultivars peel easy, the seeds also edible, the tree is invasive and have thorns
Purple mangosteen tree
Purple mangosteen fruit hairy white with small seedling (not seeds) inside can be eaten, fruits are sweet, grow in hard shell, and well known for the health benefits, its tropical tree that need high humidity.
Mango fruit
Mango fruit – mostly are little bit hairy, but some cultivars are highly fibrous, in a case that you have hairy Mango tree, should consider grafting with better cultivars, Mango it’s easy growing tree that need tropical to subtropical climate.
Quararibea cordata
Quararibea cordata also known as Sapote chupa chupa and in free translation Sapote suck it’s refer to the hairy fruits the mostly connected to the seeds in order to eat need to suck the pulp out of the seeds, some cultivars are separate from the seeds, fruit color orange
