Best Dark Fruited

Jaboticaba, Plinia cauliflora, is an evergreen fruit tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, native to southeastern Brazil. It is distinguished by cauliflory: flowers and round, dark-purple fruits develop directly on the trunk and older branches rather than only on new shoots. The fruits have pale, ju...

Morus nigra, native to southwestern Asia, has been cultivated for its large, richly flavored dark berries for at least 2,000 years and was the mulberry species prized for fruit rather than silkworm production in ancient Persia.

Grumichama, Eugenia brasiliensis, is an evergreen fruit tree in the myrtle family native to Brazil's Atlantic Forest region. It produces small, round fruits that ripen from green through red to dark purple or nearly black, with pale, juicy flesh surrounding one or more seeds. The fruit is eaten fres...

Allegheny serviceberry, Amelanchier laevis, is a deciduous shrub or small tree in the rose family native to eastern North America. It produces clusters of white flowers in spring, followed by edible fruits that ripen from red to dark purple or blue-black and are consumed by birds and other wildlife....

Morus rubra, native to eastern North America, is the only mulberry species indigenous to the continent and was an important food source for both Indigenous peoples and early colonists, though it is now declining in parts of its range.

Java plum, jamun, or Syzygium cumini is an evergreen tree in the myrtle family, native to the Indian subcontinent and parts of tropical Asia. It produces oblong fruits that ripen from green through reddish purple to deep purple or nearly black, with juicy, astringent flesh surrounding a seed. The fr...

A small black berry from the European elder tree, historically used in folk medicine and widely processed into syrups, wines, and immune-support supplements.

A single-stemmed Amazonian palm producing dark purple berries closely related to the commercial açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea), harvested widely across the Amazon basin.

Gaultheria shallon is an evergreen shrub native to the Pacific Coast of North America, whose dark purple berries were one of the most important plant foods for coastal Indigenous peoples and were dried in large quantities for winter storage.

A North American shrub native to eastern Canada and the U.S., bearing dark purple-black berries used in preserves, wines, and traditional Indigenous medicine.

A North American shrub, clove currant is prized for powerfully clove-scented yellow flowers and produces sweet black berries used in jams and preserves across its native range.

A dark purple berry native to southern Chile and Patagonia, used for centuries by the Mapuche people and noted as one of the highest known sources of anthocyanins.

A thorny Patagonian shrub bearing small tart blue-black berries central to Argentinian and Chilean folk legend, which holds that eating them guarantees a return to Patagonia.

A rainforest tree endemic to a restricted coastal area of New South Wales, Australia, producing intensely sour dark fruits prized in gourmet bush food products.

A central plains variety of golden currant, buffalo currant produces sweet berries historically eaten fresh and dried by Indigenous peoples across the North American grasslands.

A columnar cactus native to the central Mexican highlands, garambullo produces small blue-black berries eaten fresh or dried, resembling blueberries in color and size.

An Australian conifer native to coastal New South Wales and Queensland, notable as one of the very few conifers that produce edible purple fleshy fruits.

A West African tree, velvet tamarind produces small hard-shelled pods encasing dry sweet-sour pulp eaten as a snack and used in traditional medicine across sub-Saharan Africa.

Prunus virginiana is an astringent wild cherry native across North America that was one of the most widely used plants among Indigenous peoples, consumed fresh, dried, or mixed with fat, and later used to flavor rum.

A North American shrub bearing small, intensely astringent dark berries among the highest in antioxidants of any measured fruit, cultivated in eastern Europe for health products.

Native to Colombia and Panama, borojo is notable for its high carbohydrate and protein content, making it a staple ingredient in traditional Afro-Colombian drinks and foods.

A small dark berry from a Chilean and Argentine myrtle tree, used in Andean cooking and traditionally fermented into chicha in Patagonian communities.

Viburnum lentago is a large shrub or small tree native to eastern North America, producing sweet blue-black drupes that were an important food source for Indigenous peoples and wildlife across the Great Lakes region.

Empetrum nigrum is a circumpolar heathland shrub whose small black berries are a critical food source for birds and mammals in arctic and subarctic regions and have been harvested by Arctic peoples for centuries.

An Australian native shrub, blue tongue berry produces fleshy fruits whose seeds and pulp stain the mouth blue-purple when eaten, giving the plant its common name.

Native to the Pacific Northwest coast, stink currant is distinguished by an unpleasant foliage odor and produces blue-black bloomy berries eaten by Indigenous coastal peoples.

A cosmopolitan weed producing small black berries that are toxic when unripe but have been consumed cooked in traditional cuisines across Africa, Asia, and Europe.

The first woody shrub to flower in Pacific Northwest forests each spring, producing small bitter blue-black drupes that serve as an early seasonal food for birds and mammals.

A cosmopolitan weedy nightshade, Solanum americanum produces small black berries eaten in parts of Africa, Asia, and the Americas; unripe fruits contain toxic solanine.