How many fruits start with H that you can think of?
Five, ten, or less?
Worry no more because we can give you more than you can count with your fingers!
This post will introduce 17 names of fruits that start with the letter H.
You will discover what they are like, where they are cultivated, and how they are used in different ways.
​​What Are Fruits That Start With H?
1. Hairless Rambutan
First on our list of fruits that start with H is the hairless rambutan fruit.
The hairless rambutan (Nephelium xerospermoides) is a variety of drupe fruit that tastes like the hairy rambutan.
They’re about the size of a ten-cent coin, and their skin is akin to lychees. You can actually consume them fresh from the tree.
Unlike the hairy rambutan variety, the hairless rambutan is not usually grown for commercial use. This is a seasonal fruit tree that only bears fruit once in three years.
Other names for hairless rambutan are hutan, buah Keri, buah mujau, or San hong Mao Dang.
2. Hala Fruit
From the Pandanus species, the Hala fruit (Pandanus tectorius) or Tahitian screwpine is native to the coastal lowlands of Eastern Australia, Malesia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
The fruit of the Hala tree can grow up to 12 inches long, and it comes with numerous phalanges or segments attached to the fruit’s core.
It has a delicate and sweet taste as the paste version made from its leaves. The pulp of the Hala segments is edible, but you need the claw of a hammer to remove them from the fruit.
How To Use:
The Hala fruit has a sweet and delicate taste as the paste version made from its leaves. You can eat it fresh, boil it, make some juice or ground it into a paste.
3. Hardy Kiwi
Unlike the fuzzy or hairy kiwi you find in grocery stores, the hardy kiwi has a smooth and smaller appearance. Yes, hardy kiwi, not hairy at all!
Hardy kiwi (Actinidia arguta) or Chinese gooseberries is mostly cultivated in Asian countries (Japan, Korea, and Northern China) and Russian Far East.
How To Use:
You can eat them whole with hardy kiwi and even use them as a topping in fruit pizza recipes.
4. Hawthorn Fruit
Also known as thornapple, May-tree, whitethorn, haw berry, or quickthorn, the hawthorn (Crataegus rhipidophylla) of the Rosaceae family is native to areas where the climate is temperate.
You can find hawthorn in Northern Europe, North Africa, North America, and Asia.
How To Use:
The Hawthorn fruit has a mildly sweet and tarty taste, and they are commonly used in making homemade wine, jellies, jams, or sauces.
5. Hazelnut
Hazelnuts (Corylus avellana) are also called cobnuts or filberts based on their species. The largest producer of hazelnuts in the world is Turkey.
Nuts like hazelnuts are botanically fruits of the hazel tree. Hazelnut is a dry fruit that contains a seed, a hard shell, and a protective husk.
But if we talk about nutrition, we classify them under nuts as they naturally contain protein, monosaturated fats, and fat-soluble vitamins.
How To Use:
You can use hazelnuts for making desserts, baked goods, confectioneries like praline and chocolate truffles, Frangelico liquor, and hazelnut cocoa spread. Yes, your favorite Nutella is made of hazelnuts. The hazelnut oil can also be used as cooking oil or making salad dressings.
6. Heirloom Tomato
Botanically, tomatoes are classified under fruits. However, they’re often used as a vegetable in cooking. Tomatoes are edible berries, and they’re relatives of strawberries.
The heirloom tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) or heritage tomatoes. It is referred to as “heirloom” as the seeds are saved from year to year or passed down from generation to generation.
They come in different colors, textures, tastes, and sizes, which vary from species to species.
7. Himalayan Mulberry
This mulberry species is native to the Himalayan regions and in the mountainous areas of China.
The Himalayan mulberry (Morus macroura) is an edible drupe fruit that’s two to three centimeters long. (*)
The germination of Himalayan mulberry may take from weeks to a few months, but you’ll need to wait for several years for it to bear its first fruit.
How To Use:
It has a pleasant, tasty flavor that’s similar to black mulberry. The Himalayan mulberry is usually eaten fresh, just like any kind of berry, and you can cook it as well.
8. Hog Plum
Under the Anacardiaceae family, the hog plum (Spondias mombin) or yellow mombin is grown in the tropical regions of America, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Africa, and Indonesia.
How To Use:
The hog plums ripen, the fruit pulp is either eaten fresh or made into jellies, concentrate, sherbet, smoothie, or juice.
Additionally, the hog plum is also used for medicinal purposes – for treating sores. It can also be taken as a heart tonic.
If the fruit is still unripe, it is used as an ingredient in Mexican side dishes or added in fiery pickled relish.
9. Honey Locust
They call it the thorny locust or thorny honeylocust. The honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) is a tree native to the central parts of the USA.
How To Use:
The honey locust fruit is a long pod that turns brown or maroon when it reaches maturity. Then, the pulp of the fruit is sweet, succulent, and sticky as honey.
10. Honeyberries
Honeyberries (Lonicera caerulea) are popular amount North American and European gardeners.
It can also be referred to as mamoncillo or Spanish lime, haskap, blue-berried honeysuckle, or European nettle tree.
How To Use:
These are spring fruits that taste like juicy raspberries and blueberries combined. Just like many fruits, honeyberries are best eaten fresh, and you can add them to your ice creams, preserves, or other delicious recipes.
11. Honeycrisp Apple
It is an apple cultivar developed at the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station’s Horticultural Research Center.
How To Use:
The Honeycrisp apple (Malus pumila) is a prized commercial apple because of its sweetness, firmness, and tartness, making it the “perfect” crispy apple you can enjoy fresh.
The Honeycrisp variety can retain its pigment perfectly, and it can stay in storage for a long time as long as it is under cool and dry conditions.
12. Honeydew Melon (green melon)
It is either called green melon or honeydew melon (Cucumis melo). This is the American name for the White Antibes cultivar. The harvest season for honeydew melons in California starts in August and ends in October.
How To Use:
This beautiful soft melon variety has sweet and juicy flesh. You’ll love it when you add this fruit to your desserts like fresh fruit salad.
Honeydew melons are rich in vitamin B-complex, vitamin C, potassium, and other nutrients.
13. Horned Melon
The spiky horned melon (Cucumis metuliferus) is a cross between the cucumber and the melon family. (*)
This fruit was originally cultivated in South and Central Africa, but it is now widely found in the USA, Australia, and New Zealand.
This succulent melon has several names. It can be called the jelly melon, African horned cucumber, spiked melon, kiwano, or cuke-a-saurus.
How To Use:
When ripe, horned melon comes with an orange skin with a jelly-like pulp on the inside, which embraces the seeds. Everything you see inside the horned melon is edible!
14. Hottentot Fig
Sour fig, ice plant, or highway ice plant are the other names of Hottentot fig (Carpobrotus edulis). (*)
The Hottentot figs are ground runners or coastal creepers that grow on rocky outcrops and dunes.
Its triangular succulent leaves are about 5cm-long, and it grows a large purple flower that looks like a daisy.
How To Use:
The fruit of the Hottentot fig is succulent and edible. You can eat them raw, dried, turn them into jams.
15. Huckleberry
Huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) is a North American term for plants under the Ericaceae family.
They are often referred to as thin leaf huckleberry, mountain huckleberry, square-twig blueberry, or black huckleberry.
They look like blueberries and taste like blueberries, but the seeds of the huckleberries are a bit bigger.
How To Use:
You can make jams, jellies, pies, pudding, ice creams, and tea out from huckleberries.
16. Huito Fruit
Also called hagua, jagua, or genipapo, the Huito tree (Genipa Americana) of the Rubiaceae family is found in the tropical forest of the Americas and in the Caribbean.
How To Use:
The huito tree is grown for its fruit which can serve as the main ingredient in making desserts, syrups, jams, ice cream, and other desserts.
The huito fruit also contains medicinal properties to remedy bronchitis. All you need to do is make tea out from the fruit.
Furthermore, this unripe fruit contains coloring properties used as a dye or paint. The natives use this fruit for body-painting purposes.
17. Hyuganatsu
Classified under the citrus family, hyuganatsu (Citrus tamurana) is also called Konatsu, Tosakonatsu, or New Summer Orange.
Hyuganatsu fruit is a rare Japanese citrus variety. This is medium-size fruit that has a circular to oblong-ish shape. It is believed that this orange variety is a hybrid between yuzu citrus and pomelo.
How To Use:
The pulp of the hyuganatsu fruit is fragrant, juicy, and sweet, with a slightly sour taste.
Final Thoughts
How many of these H-fruits have you already tasted?
Which ones are your favorite?
If you think more fruits start with H that we missed in this article, let us know in the comment section below we’d be happy to get to learn more from you!
After checking a list of fruits with names starting with the letter H, you might also want to check another fruits name list: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, Q, W, S, T, U, V, X, Y, Z.
