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
792 Issues in this Publication (Showing issues 8000 - 8000) Previous | Next
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.
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.
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.
Amorphophallus paeoniifolius - Elephant Foot Yam
Edible Portion: Tuber, Roots, Corm, Leaves, Leaf Stalks, Vegetable
A taro family plant but with a very divided leaf. It grows to 0.75-1 m high. It is a herbaceous plant with rough and mottled leaf stalks. It has a straight stem and the leaf is divided into leaflets. The leaves can be 1 m in width. The leaves usually come singly from the ground. The leaf blades are divided into many lobes. The leaflets can be 3-35 cm long and 2-13 cm wide. The flower stalk can be 3-20 cm long. The bract around the flower is bell shaped and fluted. It can be 60 cm across. The edge is curved back and wavy. The flower is dull purple and up to 30 cm across. It can be 70 cm long. The flower gives of a bad smell like rotting meat and this attracts flies. The flower only develops after the leaves have died off. The leaves and corms especially in the wild varieties contain many stinging crystals. Edible kinds have a smooth petiole. It has a large round tuber up to 25 cm across. The large round underground corm produces small corms around the side. These can be 10 cm long. These are usually used for planting.
Asparagus racemosus - Climbing Asparagus
Edible Portion: Root, Tubers, Shoots, Fruit, Leaves, Vegetable, Leaves - Tea, Flower
A creeping or climbing herb or shrub. It has woody stems. It grows 2 m high. It spreads 2 m wide. The stems are slender and trailing. The leaves are light green and narrow. They are 5 cm long. The flowers are very small. The fruit are small round red berries.
Canna indica - Indian Shot
Edible Portion: Fruit, Root, Rhizome, Tubers, Vegetable, Flowers
A broad leafed plant with purple leaf sheaths. It is about 1.5 to 2.5 m high. It grows as a perennial. The stems are in clusters. The leaves are large and smooth. They are dark green but can be reddish in some varieties. The leaf base forms a sheath around the stem. The flowers are red and produced at the top of the plant. The petals are small and red and 4-10 mm wide. The fruit is a 3 celled capsule with black seeds. Underground it has a much branched root or rhizome with fattened sections covered with leaf scars. These are often light red on the outside and yellowish white inside. A clump of 15-20 suckers often develops. These starchy tubers are from 6 cm across to 15 cm long. The shape varies. The seeds are black and hard. They are 5-7 mm across.
Cordeauxia edulis - Yeheb Nut
Edible Portion: Seeds, Leaves
A small evergreen shrub. It has many stems. It grows to about 1.6 m tall but can grow to 2.5 m tall in good growing conditions. It has a long tap root. The leaves are 3-5 cm long. They are divided into 4 pairs of leaflets. The leaflets are oval and leathery. They are 1-2.5 cm long and 1-1.4 cm wide. The flowers have both sexes and are carried in clusters at the ends of branches. They are bright yellow and 2.5 cm across. The pods are 4-6 cm long and curved with a beak. The pods are leathery and slightly flattened. The pods contain 1-4 seeds. The seeds are round and about 12 mm across.
Dioscorea alata - Greater Yam
Edible Portion: Tubers, Root, Vegetable, Bulbils
A yam with a long angular vine. It can climb 15 m high. The stems are square and twine to the right around support sticks. The stem does not have spines. It is often coloured green or purple. The leaves are heart shaped and borne in pairs along the vine. The leaves vary is shape, size and colour with different varieties. Leaves can be 10-30 cm long by 5-20 cm wide. The leaf stalk is 6-12 cm long. The flowers occur in the axils of the upper leaves. The male flowers are in small heads along branched stalks. These can be 25 cm long and green. The female flowers are in shorter spikes. Many cultivated varieties do not produce fertile seed. The fruit are 3-winged and 2.5 cm long by 3.5 cm wide. The seeds when they occur have wings right around them. One large but often irregular shaped tuber occurs under the ground. A very large number of different varieties occur. The tubers can vary in shape, size, colour, texture and other ways. Some varieties produce bulbils along the vine. Plants can vary in number of chromosomes.
Dioscorea bulbifera - Potato Yam
Edible Portion: Tuber, Root, Bulbils, Vegetable
A yam with a long smooth stemmed vine, round in cross section. It winds to the left. It does not have spines. The vine can climb up into trees and grow to long lengths. The leaves are large and round. They are pointed at the tip and round at the base. About 7 veins arise from the tip of the leaf stalk. Leaves can be 14-30 cm across and slightly longer than wide. This yam produces bulbils (potatoes) in the angles of the leaves along the vine. These are often flattened and can be grey brown or purple. Under the ground it has a smaller tuber normally covered with roots. The flowers are large. The male flowers are in spikes up to 20 cm long. The female spikes are usually in pairs. The fruit are winged and about 2.5 cm long by 1.5 cm across. The seeds have wings. The bulbils normally have few fibres through the tissue compared to some yams tubers. The flesh of many varieties is yellow.
Dolichos trilobus - Japanese Arrowroot
Edible Portion: Tubers, Roots, Seeds
A bean plant. It is a twining herb. It keeps growing from year to year from root tubers. The leaves are compound with 3 leaflets. The leaf stalks are 2-3 cm long. The leaflets are 4 sided and 2-6 cm long by 2-5 cm wide. The flowering shoots are in the axils of leaves and there are 1-4 flowers in a group. The fruit is a pod 6 cm long by 8 mm wide. It is slightly curved. There are 6-7 seeds.
