Plums
Nature loves playing dress-up, and plums aren’t the only fruits flaunting deep purples, ruby reds, or dusky blues. From distant cousins to unexpected impersonators, a surprising number of fruits have mastered the art of looking plum-perfect. Here are the most common fruits that borrow the plum’s style—sometimes so convincingly, you’d swear they were the real thing.
1. Cherries
Cherries, especially dark varieties like Bing or black cherries, resemble miniature plums. They share that glossy skin, round shape, and deep red to purplish color. While smaller in size, a bowl of ripe cherries could fool you into thinking they’re baby plums.
2. Damsons
Damsons are actually a type of plum, but they’re smaller, often oval, and usually more tart. Their dusky purple-blue skin and plum-like pit make them almost indistinguishable from wild plums—especially before biting into one!
3. Jujube
Ripe jujube fruits (also called Chinese dates) shift from green to reddish-brown and develop a smooth, glossy skin. Some varieties soften and wrinkle like dried prunes, but at their peak, they look very much like small, firm plums—just with a slightly different flavor profile.
4. Apricots
Though apricots are usually golden-orange, they resemble plums in shape and size. Some red-blushed varieties even mimic certain yellow plums. With their smooth skin and single central pit, apricots sit comfortably in the same visual family as plums.
5. Peaches
Unripe or small peaches can look like large plums, especially those with red or purple blush on their skin. The fuzzy exterior usually gives them away, but in terms of size and roundness, peaches can pass for plums—particularly the clingstone types.
6. Nectarines
Nectarines are the smooth-skinned cousins of peaches, and that lack of fuzz makes them even more visually similar to plums. Red or dark nectarines can closely resemble plum varieties like Santa Rosa, especially when they’re sitting side by side in a fruit bowl.
7. Plumcot / Aprium / Pluot
These hybrid fruits, born from a blend of plums and apricots, often look exactly like plums. Depending on the variety, they may have red, purple, or speckled skin and juicy flesh inside. Their high plum content makes them hard to tell apart without tasting.
8. Prunus mume (Japanese Apricot / Chinese Plum)
Despite being more closely related to apricots, this fruit is often called a plum and looks like one too. It’s small, round, and comes in yellow, green, or purplish hues. Often used pickled or fermented, it’s a plum doppelgänger from East Asia.
9. Black Grapes
Though much smaller, certain black or Concord grape varieties have the dark skin and juicy interior that’s reminiscent of plums. When viewed in clusters, they’re clearly grapes, but a single grape might pass for a baby plum thanks to its shine and shape.
10. Sloe Berries
Sloes grow on blackthorn bushes and are close relatives of plums. They’re small, round, and bluish-black with a bloom (a natural waxy coating), much like wild damsons. Though incredibly astringent raw, their appearance is strikingly similar to tiny plums.