Some 3 billion people in the world live outside the cash economy in the world’s poorest nations. Food security and regular supply are their daily concerns. Chronic malnutrition is a leading cause of death and disease for them. Young children are amongst the most affected. One child every 5-10 seconds dies from undernutrition. Vitamin A deficiency causes night blindness for someone every minute. Most people in tropical and subtropical countries are iron deficient.
Our goal is to provide information that enables people to choose the right plant for their environment, to give them stable food production and a greater choice of plants to enrich their diets and improve their nutritional wellbeing.
The plant fact sheets listed in this collection are only a small portion of those available from FPI. Please check your plant inquiries in the ECHO Search and reference the FPI plant database for further information.
Most of the plants selected to list here are further described in country-specific publications by Food Plant Solutions (FPS in the Search).
8000 Starchy Staples
7000 Legumes
6000 Leafy Greens
5000 Fruits
4000 Vegetables
3000 Nuts, Seeds, Herbs, and other foods
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Grewia retusifolia
Edible: Fruit, Leaves
A shrub. It grows to 1.5 m high. The stems have coarse hairs. The leaves are oval. The blade is 6.5-12 cm long by 2-4 cm wide. They are dull green and hairy on the top surface and whitish underneath. The edges have teeth. The flowers are white and 0.7 cm long. They occur in clusters in the axils of leaves. The fruit are fleshy and oblong. They have 2-4 lobes and are 0.6 cm long by 1.2 cm wide. They are red-brown when ripe and with hard seeds inside. The fruit are edible.
A tropical plant. They suit tropical locations. They grow naturally in open woodland on sandy soils.
Common Names: Andjodmo, Bull-dog, Gara, Giam la-ta, Kangarn, Marwurrangyi, Mayawung, Mutamuta
Synonyms:
Grewia polygama;
Helminthostachys zeylanica
Edible: Fronds, Leaves, Stalks, Vegetable
A fern. It is erect and grows in soil. It grows 15-90 cm tall. It has a deep creeping rhizome of underground stem. There are 1-2 leaves. The leaf stalk is thick. It is 10-60 cm long. The sterile part of the leaf is divided 3 times and these each have 2-5 segments. The segments are sword shaped and taper to the tip and have fine teeth along the edge. They are 5-25 cm long by 2-5 cm wide. The fertile spike is at the top. It is on a stalk 3-30 cm long and the spike is 5-21 cm long.
It is a tropical plant. In Indonesia it grows from sea level to 725 m above sea level. It grows in moist poorly drained soil. It is often along rivers and on the edge of forests.
Common Names: Asi bisi, Feciruk, Han votar, Majur goda, Manon, Olipien, Pakis urang, Paku manis, Paku payung, Paku tunjuk langit, Pantjar bumi, Musitop, Sam dat, Tapak chalak, Tungkod-langit
Synonyms:
Osmunda zeylanica L.;
Hemerocallis fulva
Edible: Flowers, Leaves, Root, Bulb, Shoots, Vegetable
A herb. It grows 40-150 cm tall. Plants usually lose their leaves during the winter. The roots are fleshy with swollen tubers near the tip. There can be stolons or runners up to 30 cm long. The leaves are narrow and 50-90 cm long by 1-2.8 cm wide. The flowers occur as double groups of 2-5 flowers. The flowers are yellow or orange. They do not have a scent. They open in the morning and close in the evening of the same day. The fruit is a capsule. It is oval and 2-2.5 cm long by 1.2-1.5 cm wide. Several varieties are recognised.
It is a temperate plant. It grows in forests and thickets in grasslands and near streams from 300-2500 m altitude in China. It suits hardiness zones 4-9. In XTBG Yunnan. In Sichuan.
Common Names: Chin cheng tsai, Chu-ta, Dok mai cheen, Fulvus daylily, Golden needles, Hoa hien, Huanghuacai, Kanzou, Kim cham, Orange day lily, Rumenorjava maslenica, Shina-kanzo, Wonchurri, Xuan cao, Yabu-kanzo, Yellow flower vegetable
Synonyms:
Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus var. fulva L.;
Heritiera littoralis
Edible: Fruit, Seeds, Nuts, Leaves - tea
A tree up to 30 m high with a silvery crown and wide spreading branch-like buttresses. The trunk can be 90 cm across. The bark is light coloured and coarsely furrowed. The leaves are grouped near the ends of branches and are dark green on top and with silvery scales underneath. The leaves are 14-29 cm long. The upper side of the leaves is smooth and without hairs while the under side is silvery. The flowering branches are borne in the axils of leaves and have many flowers. The flowers are small, and hang in tassels. The flowers are of one sex, yellowish green and bell shaped. The fruit are hard, woody, smooth and shiny and boat shaped. The fruit are in clusters near the ends of branches. Fruit are 5-10 cm long. There is one seed inside which is edible. The wood is very hard.
A tropical plant. They are found in the inner part of the mangrove swamp and sometimes on dry land just at the back of the swamp in the tropics. They grow on sandy and rocky coasts. It can tolerate salt. They occur up to 50 m altitude. The trees occur from tropical Africa, India through Malaysia to Polynesia. It can grow in arid places. In Townsville palmetum.
Common Names: Adavibadamu, Chandmara, Chebibech, Chomuntri, Cui, Dugun kecil, Dungun ayer, Dungun, Etuna, Itik-itikan, Kalampu, Kannadi-yilai, Kolland, Mawtda, Mkokoshi, Mkungu, Msikundazi, Mukuram, Nakam, Pinle-kanazo, Pohon dungun teropong, Sundari, Sundrichand, Thhiey, Tulip mangrove
Synonyms:
Amygdalus littoralis (Dryander) O. Kuntze;
Amygdalus minor (Gaertn.) O. Kuntze;
Atunus litorea Rumph.;
Balanopteris minor Gaertn.;
Balanopteris tothila Gaertn.;
Heritiera fomes Wall.;
Heritiera minor Lam.;
Heritiera tothila (Gaertn.) Kurz;
Nagam Rheede;
Samandura littoralis Oken;
Sterculia ambiformis Ahern;
Sterculia cymbiformis Blanco;
Sutherlandia littoralis J. F. Gmelin;
Manihot esculenta - Cassava
Edible Portion: Root, Leaves, Flowers, Vegetable
A plant which can re-grow year after year from the thickened roots. It has several stems. The stems are woody and have some branches. Plants grow up to 2 or 3 metres high. Stalks have distinct scars where leaves have fallen. The leaves tend to be near the ends of branches. The leaves are divided like the fingers on a hand. The leaves have long leaf stalks. The leaves have 3-7 long lobes which can be 20 cm long. These are widest about 1/3 of the distance from the tip and taper towards the base. The colour varies. It produces several long tubers. These can be 50 cm long by 10 cm across. The flowers are on short stalks around a central stalk. They are produced near the ends of branches. The female flowers are near the base of the flower stalk and the male flowers higher up.
Colocasia esculenta - Taro
Edible Portion: Corm, Leaves, Stalks, Vegetable, Root, Flowers
This plant has large flat leaves on the end of upright leaf stalks. It grows up to 1 m high. The leaf stalk or petiole joins the leaf towards the centre of the leaf. The leaves are 20-50 cm long. Near the ground a thickened rounded corm is produced. Around this plant their is normally a ring of small plants called suckers. Many different varieties occur. If left to maturity, a lily type flower is produced in the centre of the plant. It has a spathe 15-30 cm long which is rolled inwards. The flowers are yellow and fused along the stalk. There are many named cultivated varieties.
Taro comes in two basic forms. The Dasheen type Colocasia esculenta var. esculenta and Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum or the Eddoe type. The basic difference is the adaptation of the Eddoe type to storage and survival in seasonally dry places, while the dasheen type needs to be maintained in a more or less continuously growing vegetative stage. These are now recognised as separate species names.
Guizotia abyssinica - Niger Seed
Edible Portion: Seeds, Leaves, Oil, Vegetable
An erect branched herb. It grows 30-180 cm tall. The stems are soft and hairy. The leaves are usually carried opposite one another. The leaves do not have stalks and they clasp the stem. The leaves have teeth along the edge and the surface is a little rough. The flower head is made up of many small flowers each capable of producing a seed. The fruit (called seeds) are black angled structures. They are up to 12 mm long. The seed inside is 3.5-5 mm long. There are about 250-300 seeds per gram.
Dactyloctenium aegyptium - Comb Fringe Grass
Edible Portion: Seeds, Cereal, Rhizome, Root
An annual grass. The stems are slender. They can lie along the ground. These can form roots at the nodes. They can have runners and form mats. It is 15-60 cm high. The edges of the leaf sheaths have small hairs. The leaf blades are flat and 5-20 cm long by 0.2-0.6 cm wide. The surfaces are lumpy/hairy. It tapers to the tip. The flowers spread like fingers on a hand. There are 2-9 flower stalks. They are long and narrow. They often spread out horizontally. The spikes are on one side of the stalk. The tip is bare. The seed grains are about 1 mm across.
Hordeum vulgare - Barley
Edible Portion: Seeds, Cereal, Seeds - Tea
An erect annual grass. It grows 80-120 cm tall. The nodes are solid and the internodes are hollow. The leaves are narrow. There are 5-10 leaves. They are produced alternately on opposite sides of the stem at the nodes. The leaves are narrowly sword shaped and 5-40 cm long by 0.5-1.5 cm wide. The flowers are greenish. Flowers have long awns. The fruit is a grain. It is oval and narrow. There are a range of named cultivated varieties.
Ipomoea batatas - Sweet Potato
Edible Portion: Tuber, Root, Leaves, Vegetable
This is a root crop which produces long creeping vines. The leaves are carried singly along the vine. Leaves can vary considerably from divided like fingers on a hand to being entire and rounded or heart shaped. At the end of the vine, trumpet shaped flowers grow. They are purple. Under the ground fattened tubers are produced. There are a large number of varieties which vary in leaf shape and colour, tuber shape, colour, texture and in several other ways.
