Fruits that grow in clusters are known for being gooey and sweet. They grow in pairs or more, instead of just one by themselves. There are many fruits that grow in clusters―such as figs and quinces―as opposed to singly on trees or from the ground. Let’s take a look at what makes them different from their single-bearing counterparts.
Small fruits which grow in a cluster royalty-free images
Unique Tomatoes That Grow in Clusters
The massive demand for tomatoes led to the development of hundreds of tomato cultivars with specific types of adaptations.
Cluster tomatoes are a particular favorite because they’re suited for greenhouse farming. Not only do they look beautiful, but they also ripen faster and are good for cooking and snacking.
Here are some of the best tomatoes that grow in clusters.
Table Of Contents
15 Tomatoes That Grow In Clusters
Cluster tomatoes are also called tomatoes on the vine (TOVs). They were not as popular as field tomatoes till greenhouse farming grew.
Once the greenhouse tomato industry took root, cluster tomatoes also started thriving. These tomatoes produce many fruits on one vine.
Let’s take a look at the most popular of these cluster tomatoes.
1. Sweet Cluster Tomatoes
Sweet cluster tomatoes are available in the market all year. They’re hybrid tomatoes that grow in bunches of six to eight fruits per branch. The tomatoes on a branch will ripen in quick succession.
They have a delicious sweetness that works extremely well in sauces and salads. These tomatoes are also good for cooking. They are usually harvested while they’re still on the vine.
Sweet cluster tomatoes are indeterminate round tomatoes, so the vines keep growing throughout the plant’s lifespan. The fruits grow to medium size and weigh between 4 and 5 oz when they’re ready for harvesting.
2. Razzleberry Tomatoes
Razzleberry tomatoes are hybrid tomatoes with a distinct pink color. They’re resistant to pests and bugs.
Although these tomato plants are determinate, they produce plenty of fruits. Each tomato is 6 to 7 oz when fully ripe.
This variety of tomato has high sugar content. It’s a gourmet tomato with a juicy texture and mildly sweet flavor. It’s hardly acidic and hence a good choice for making juices and salads.
3. Early Cascade Tomatoes
Early Cascade tomatoes are an indeterminate tomato variety specially bred for cooler climates.
They produce fruits within two months of planting, and the fruits can be harvested from early summer to the first frost.
The tomatoes are of medium-size with a beautiful red color. They’re extremely disease-resistant and hold up longer than other tomato varieties. They’re firm with thick skin.
Due to their delicious flavors, they’re widely used for canning. They’re also good for cooking. These tomatoes are used in sandwiches, salads, and salsas.
4. Sungold Tomatoes
Sungold is a popular variety of small cherry tomatoes. These indeterminate tomatoes grow to a maximum of 2 cms.
They have delicious tangy flavors that make them good for snacking. They’re also a good addition to salads. Furthermore, you can grill, saute, and stew them for various dishes.
These tomatoes don’t turn red, but they become a lovely golden-orange color when ripe. Once the plants start producing fruits, you will have a steady harvest at least twice every week throughout the summer months.
These tomatoes are ready for use as soon as they lose their green color. They taste best when freshly plucked off the vine. They have firm flesh and hold up well for longer than other tiny cherry tomatoes.
5. Juliette Tomatoes
Julliette tomatoes are one of the most popular and easily-available cherry tomatoes. They’re also called grape tomatoes because they look like grapes. These tomatoes also have a high sugar content and are very sweet.
These tomatoes are resilient to diseases and pests. Being indeterminate tomatoes, the plants produce fruits throughout the summer. The fruits grow to 1 to 2 oz and are very flavorful.
Although small, Juliettes are thick-skinned and have firm flesh. They’re good in salads, sandwiches, and pesto. You can also enjoy their flavors by grilling or sauteing them.
6. Maglia Rosa Tomatoes
Maglia Rosa tomatoes are a lovely sight when they begin to produce fruit. These tomatoes look like clusters of orange oval jewels hanging off the vines.
They’re semi-determinate tomatoes, and the fruits grow to 2 to 3 inches in length. They have a distinct elongated egg-like shape and develop a mottled pink color when ripe.
The flavor of this tomato is a perfect balance of sweetness and sourness, like ketchup. The fruits are ready for harvest as soon as they lose their green color.
They taste good in salads. You can also use them for cooking.
7. Sweetheart Of The Patio Tomatoes
This tomato variety produces some of the sweetest cherry tomatoes. It’s a high-yielding semi-determinate hybrid variety that produces large clusters of fruits.
The fruits are very flavorful and grow to be one inch each. You can harvest them on the vine as soon as they begin changing color from green.
Sweetheart of the patio tomatoes resemble grapes when they’re ready to be plucked. Their excellent sweetness and convenient size make them good snacking fruit. They’re also disease-resistant tomatoes.
8. Black Pearl Tomatoes
Black pearl is a hybrid indeterminate tomato variety. It produces large clusters of deep mahogany tomatoes with complex flavors.
The tomatoes weigh eight to twelve ounces each. Like most black tomatoes, the Black pearl also takes longer than other cherry tomatoes to ripen and become the final deep indigo or mahogany color.
The fruits are deliciously tangy with hints of sweetness. They taste great in Italian dishes like pizzas. They also add beautiful color to bruschettas and salads.
9. Macxize Tomatoes
Macxize is a big-cluster tomato that produces abundant orange-red tomatoes. This hybrid tomato produces five to six fruits in each cluster. The tomatoes are jointless, and all fruits in a cluster ripen simultaneously.
Macxize tomatoes are hardy. The fruits boast rich flavors and have thick skin and juicy flesh. They require minimum care and maintenance.
These tomatoes also hold up well in storage. They’re good for cooking as well as eating raw.
10. Green Envy Tomatoes
Green envy is a tomato breed with emerald green fruits. The tomatoes are deliciously sweet with a hint of acidity. They have firm and meaty flesh.
These tomatoes grow as big as grapes. When they’re fully ripe, the green color turns slightly translucent. However, it doesn’t change into a yellow or red color.
These tomatoes have multiple uses. You can add them to tomato salads for their beautiful color that will contrast with the red and orange colors of other varieties.
They’re also good for grilling, baking, and cooking. You can also use them in salsas and pesto.
Types of Red Berries That Grow on Trees or Shrubs: Identification Guide with Pictures and Names
Red berries that grow on trees or shrubs add a dash of color to any garden. Shrubs and trees with edible red berries have the bonus of providing tasty, healthy fruits. Who can’t resist eating sweet red cherries, tart red currants, or juicy red gooseberries? However not all red berries are edible, and it’s essential to distinguish between ones that are good for you and poisonous berries.
There are many reasons to have trees and bushes in your backyard that produce red berries. Very often, the scarlet-colored berries appear in winter when gardens and yards may lack color. The bright red colors contrasting with dark green foliage can help brighten up your yard.
Another reason to have edible red berries in your garden is that they are incredibly healthy. Apart from having a great taste, red berries that you can eat are packed full of antioxidants. You can eat them straight off the tree or bush or use them in salads, desserts, or cereals.
You may also come across red berries while walking in woodlands, forests, or other open spaces. It’s important to remember that some types of red berries are extremely poisonous. So, you need to identify the exact species of berry before eating them. If you have any doubts, you should avoid eating red-colored berries that are unfamiliar.
In this article, you will learn about the many types of trees and shrubs that grow red berries. Pictures, descriptions, and the scientific names of these types of fruits will help identify the trees and bushes where fiery red-colored berries grow.
Identification of Red Berries
To identify the type of berry growing, you need to identify the tree or bush. To do this, you should take note of the shape of the leaves, size of the tree or shrub, and shape of the plant.
When you think of plants producing red berries, most people think of strawberries and raspberries. However, botanically speaking, these types of fruits are not true berries. Scientists classify these juicy summer fruits as aggregate accessory fruits rather than a kind of berry.
Bushes or Shrubs with Red Berries
There are many shrubs or large bushes with red berries that look amazing in any landscape.
For example, the cotoneaster has small glossy leaves, white flowers in spring and summer, and then brilliant red berries in the fall and winter. Holly shrubs are synonymous with Christmas with their glossy jaggy green leaves and inedible poisonous deep red berries. Although eating these types of red berries may not kill you, ingesting them can cause nausea, stomach cramps, and even seizures.
Shrubs such as red currants and red gooseberries both produce red berries that are delicious to eat.
Trees with Red Berries
Red berries are found on both evergreen types of trees and deciduous trees.
There are some red berry-producing trees such as cherry trees and hawthorn trees that most people have heard of. Both types of these trees produce sweet or sour edible berry-like fruits.
You should stay clear of red berries from trees such as holly trees and mistletoe trees.
Red berry tree identification
Identifying the type of the red berry tree is usually done by examining the leaves of the tree, its flowers, and the type of the trunk. Another way to identify the kind of red berry tree or bush is by the berry itself.
Types of Red Berries Grown on Shrubs (With Pictures and Identification Guide)
Let’s look in more detail at many kinds of shrubs or bushes that produce red berries.
Pin Cherries (Prunus pensylvanica)
The small red edible pin cherries grow on a large bush
These edible small red berries also have the name bird cherries, red cherries, or fire cherries. They grow on a large shrub that can sometimes be as tall as a small tree.
The shrub grows to between 16 and 98 ft. (5 – 15 m) tall and is identified by a round-topped crown. Leaves are lanceolate in shape and grow alternately on long reddish thin stems. Each of the bright red cherries can grow up to 0.31” (8 mm) across and contain a single seed.
You can often find pin cherries growing along river banks and in parks.
Snake Berries (Potentilla indica or Duchesnea indica)
There are several plants called snake berry and some of them are poisonous
Although not classed as a true berry, snake berries produce red or white fruits that look like berries. Snake berry plants also have the common names of Indian strawberry, false strawberry, or mock strawberry.
It can be challenging to tell snake berries apart from true strawberries just by their leaves and growth habit. Visually, their foliage is similar with light green leaves that have serrated edges. The snake berries are similar in size to small strawberries but have a spiky look to them. Unlike true strawberries that are juicy and tasty, mock strawberries have little taste.
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However, because snake berries are a common name for a few other plants, some other species of berries may be toxic. For that reason, you should always check the scientific name when identifying plants. Later in the article, you can read about bittersweet nightshade – a plant with poisonous red berries, also called snake berries.
Red Gooseberry Bush (Ribes uva-crispa)
Red gooseberry bush produces edible tart berries
You may associate gooseberries with types of sour green berries, but some gooseberry shrubs produce red berries.
Gooseberry shrubs usually grow to about 5 ft. (1.5 m) high and have woody stems with sharp thorns. Leaves on the gooseberry bush are light green with 3 or 5 lobed leaves. The tart green or red berries have an oval shape with tiny hairs covering them.
As well as producing red or green berries, some species of gooseberries have white or yellow berries.
Due to their tartness, gooseberries are a great type of berry you can use in savory or sweet dishes. You can sweeten them and use them as a pie filling. Or, you can spice them up to make homemade gooseberry chutney.
Red Chokeberry Bush (Aronia)
Red chokeberries grow on a bushes and have sour taste
Chokeberries are a species of deciduous shrub that have large red or black berries. Also called Aronia berries, these sour-tasting shrub berries really make your mouth pucker.
The most common type of chokeberry bush is the black chokeberry. However, the species Aronia arbutifolia is the species of shrub that produces red chokeberries. This shrub grows to between 6.5 and 13 ft. (2 – 4 m) tall and has large leaves. Before the red sour berries appear, beautiful white flowers grace the green foliage. The red fruits are between 0.15” and 0.39” (4 – 10 mm) wide.
Although you can eat the fruits straight off the bush, they are too sharp and sour for most people to eat raw.
Chokeberries are a hardy shrub that are perfect if you want edible red fruits in the fall and winter.
Chokeberries are often confused for another berry-producing shrub called chokecherries (Prunus virginiana). This is also a large bush that has bright red or black berries growing on it. Similar to chokeberries, these “cherry” fruits have a sharp, astringent taste.
Barberry (Berberis)
The small red berries grown on barberry bush are edible but taste sour
Barberry is a shrub that grows in most parts of the world and has small edible red berries on it. Some species of this flowering shrub are deciduous and some are evergreen.
This plant with red berries is identified by its long shoots that can grow up to 13 ft. (4 m) high. You will notice that the shoots have small oval green leaves that grow in clusters. After the yellow flowers appear, red oblong-shaped berries appear. These can be up to 0.39” (1 cm) long. You can eat the bright red berries straight off the plant, but they taste very sour.
Redcurrants (Ribes rubrum)
Redcurrants are popular edible berries grown on shrubs
No list of the most popular red berries would be complete without mentioning redcurrants. Redcurrants are in the same family, Grossulariaceae, as gooseberries.
The redcurrant shrub has thin stems and large 5-lobed leaves. The most noticeable feature of the redcurrant plant is the large clusters of edible red berries hanging off the branches. These translucent red berry fruits are around 0.39” (1 cm) in diameter. There are so many currants on the bush that a single season can produce up to 9 lb. (4 kg) of tasty bright red berries.
What do redcurrants taste like? Many describe redcurrants having a tarter taste than black currants or white currants with hints of raspberry, gooseberry, and rhubarb.
Hobble Bush (Viburnum lantanoides)
The large hobble bush produces sweet edible berries
Also called moosewood, witch-hobble, and the American wayfaring tree, this perennial type of shrub has red berries that turn black as they ripen.
The shrub is native to the eastern regions of North America, where it is found in forests, growing along river banks, and in swamps. The large bush has large oval leaves with serrated margins. These can grow to between 3.9” and 7.8” (10 – 20 cm) long. Clusters of showy flowers appear before the red edible fruit berries.
Many people describe the taste of hobble bush berries as sweet like raisins or dates. They are an ovoid shape, measure 0.6” (1.5 cm) long, and seemingly taste better after frost.
Tatarian Honeysuckle Bush (Lonicera tatarica)
The Tatarian honeysuckle is a large bush that produces poisonous red berries
Tatarian honeysuckle produces bright red berries that you should never eat. This bushy shrub is identified by its dull dark green oval leaves and large tubular pink to white flowers.
Like many species of shrubs in the honeysuckle family, the Tatarian honeysuckle is a large, oval-shaped flowering bush. It can grow to between 9 and 12 ft. with a large spread. It looks stunning when dark pink flowers cover the green foliage.
Because of its vigorous growth habit, many people consider this plant as an invasive species. Although the red berries look juicy and tempting, they are toxic to humans. Eating these berries by mistake can cause diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal cramping.
Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara)
The bittersweet nightshade plant has poisonous red berries
With a name like bittersweet nightshade, it is not surprising that you shouldn’t eat the red berries from this plant. Other names for this shrub include poisonberry, poisonflower, and bitter nightshade. Another common name is snakeberry, and it shouldn’t be confused with mock strawberries (also called snake berries).
Bittersweet is an herbaceous vine that is in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. This means that bittersweet plant is related to tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants.
The red berries on bittersweet can look like tiny red tomatoes. Even though the red berries look soft and juicy, they are poisonous for humans and are dangerous for children.
Cotoneaster
The red berries on cotoneaster plants are poisonous
The masses of dull red berries on cotoneaster plants may look attractive, but they are highly toxic and you should never consume them. Most species of cotoneasters in the genus are small to large shrubs growing between 1.6 and 16 ft. (0.5 – 5 m) tall.
The red berries on the leafy shrub look like clusters of cranberries. The leaves can be any shape from ovate to lanceolate and up to 6” (15 cm) long, depending on the species. Most species of cotoneaster shrubs have masses of poisonous red berries. However, berries can also be pink, scarlet-red, orange, or black.
Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)
The ornamental winterberry shrub produces non-edible red berries
Winterberry is a deciduous shrubby plant in the holly family that produces many inedible red berries. Although the berries have been used in traditional medicine, ingesting them can cause nausea and low blood pressure.
Winterberry shrubs have great ornamental value in landscaped gardens. They grow to between 3 and 16 ft. (1 – 5 m) tall and have glossy green leaves from spring to fall. The lance-shaped leaves have slightly serrated edges that are 3.5” (9 cm) long. As its name suggests, winterberry berries last throughout the winter. The leafless branches are adorned with clusters of scarlet-red berries.
These shrubs provide beautiful color in a winter garden.
Types of Red Berries that Grow on Trees (With Pictures and Identification Guide)
Let’s look in more detail at the various types of red berries you can find growing on trees.
Red Cherry Trees
Cherry trees produce various edible cherries that range in color and taste
Although botanically speaking red cherries are a type of drupe, many people class cherries on their list of most popular tree berry.
Many types of cherry trees in the genus Prunus, produce stunning spring blossoms and delicious red edible fruits. There are many different types of cherries ranging in taste from sour to sweet. They can also be yellow, red, crimson red, or deep red colors.