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
794 Issues in this Publication (Showing issues 6000 - 6000) Previous | Next
Amaranthus tricolor
Edible Portion: Leaves, Seeds, Vegetable, Flowers, Leaves - Tea
A herb about 1 m high and spreads 45 cm wide. A small annual leafy green. An upright, much branched annual with a thin membrane covering the stems. Sometimes the plant lies over. The stems are angular. The plant branches in the upper part of the plant. It is smooth and grows from seed each year. Leaves have long leaf stalks which can be 5-10 cm long. Leaves vary in shape, size and colour. The leaf blade can be 5-25 cm long by 2-6 cm wide. Leaves are dull purplish and the top leaves can be yellow or red. Some types have coloured leaves or patterns on the leaves. It has a clumpy seed head at the top. The flower spike at the top can be 30 cm long. The seed are 1-1.2 mm across and black.
Basella alba - Indian Spinach
Edible Portion: Leaves, Tender Stems, Vegetable
An annual or perennial climbing herb with thick fleshy leaves. The vine is smooth and juicy and can be 10 m long. It branches freely. The vine and leaves can be red or green. The leaves are fleshy and pointed at the tip. They can be 8-18 cm long and 8-10 cm across. They are carried alternately along the vine. Leaves can be heart shaped or oval. It has white, pink or red flowers in short spikes which are in the axils of the leaves. Flowers have both sexes. The fruit are round and soft. They can be red, white or black and are 6-8 mm across. The seeds are round and black. They are 3 mm across. (Often the ones with heart shaped leaves are called Basella cordifolia, the ones with a red stem Basella rubra and the short day flowering dark green kind called Basella alba.)
Brassica oleracea var. acephala - Kale
Edible Portion: Leaves, Vegetable, Flowers
A cabbage plant. The leaves are ruffled or crinkled but some are more smooth than normal kales. The leaf shape and colour varies considerably. The flowers are yellow or white.
Chenopodium album - Lamb's Quarters
Edible Portion: Leaves, Seeds, Sprouts, Flowers, Vegetable, Tea
An annual plant. It grows to 1 m high and spreads to 1 m across. The stem is erect. The stems are succulent and without hairs. They often have soft mealy lumps which can be rubbed off. The leaves are simple, with one at each node, and occurring alternately up the stem. The leaves are oval and wedge shaped with saw like edges. They are 5-12 cm long by 3-10 cm wide. The leaf stalk is usually shorter than the leaf blade. The under surface of the leaf often has a white mealy layer which can be rubbed off. The flowers occur in dense white spikes. The flowers occur at the tip and ends of branches. The fruit is a pod. It is small and roundish and papery. It opens around the tip. The pod contains a shiny black seed. Seed are 1.2-1.8 mm across.Seeds can occur in very large numbers.
Cleome gynandra - Cat's-whiskers
Edible Portion: Leaves, Flowers, Pods, Seeds, Vegetable, Caution
An annual herb. It grows to 0.6-0.9 m. It has a long tap root. It is erect and somewhat hairy. It usually has purple stems. The leaves occur one after another along the stalk. The leaf stalk is long. There are 5-7 leaflets which are unequal and spread out at the end. They are oblong and about 2.5-6 cm long by 1.4-3.2 cm wide. The leaflets are pointed at the base and a rounder near the tip with a rounder point at the tip. There are fine teeth along the edges of the leaves. The flowers are white or purple They occur in long flower clusters at the end of branches. These are 30 cm long. The flower clusters are showy with white or purplish flowers and a spidery like appearance. The fruit are a slender capsule with 2 valves and with many small seeds. They are 5-10 cm long and very narrow. The seeds are kidney shaped and rough. They are brown and have fine lines along them. They are 1 -1.5 mm across.
Ipomoea aquatica - Kangkong
Edible Portion: Leaves, Vegetable, Fruit, Roots
Kangkong is a creeping sweet potato like plant. It has hollow stems and can float on water. The leaves are green and are normally not divided like some sweet potato leaves, but the shape and size varies a little between different kinds. The trumpet shaped flower looks like a sweet potato flower and is normally white. The runners develop roots at the nodes and also branch.This branching increases when tips are picked off. Some variation in leaf shape can be observed. Leaf shape is less variable than in the related sweet potato, but narrow and broad leafed kinds occur. White and green stemmed kinds occur. Green stemmed kinds have more cold tolerance than white stemmed.
Lepidium sativum - Garden Cress
Edible parts - Leaves, Herb, Spice, Vegetable, Seeds - oil
A cabbage family herb. It is an annual plant about 60 cm high. It has narrowly lobed leaves. The leaves near the base have long stalks and the leaves higher on the plant do not have stalks. The flowers are small and white. The fruit is a pod. These are oval and deeply notched. The seed pods are reddish brown. The plant develops tuberous roots and grow for a second season. There are some named cultivated varieties.
Moringa oleifera - Moringa
Edible Portion: Leaves, Flowers, Fruit, Seeds, Roots, Bark, Pods, Spice, Vegetable
A small tree up to 9-12 m high. The trunk is 60 cm across. The wood is soft. It has feather-like divided leaves. The tree loses its leaves during the year. The bark is grey and thick. It is corky and peels off in patches. The leaves are pale green and the leaf is divided 3 times. The whole leaf is 30-60 cm long and the leaflets are usually oval and 1-2 cm long. The leaflets are jointed with a gland near the joint. The flowers are pale yellow and contain both sexes. They occur in long sprays 30 cm long. Each flower has 5 petals and of these one is erect and 4 are bent backwards. The flowers are sweet scented. The fruit is a long capsule 30-100 cm long by 2 cm wide. The seed capsules are up to 45 cm long. They are roughly triangular in shape. They split open when dry. There are 9 dark brown seeds inside. The seeds have 3 wings. Some kinds are better for edible fruit than others, while some are selected for leaves. Often the fruiting kinds are grown as annual plants.
Cedrela odorata - Barbadoes Cedar, Cigar-Box Wood
Edible Portion: Leaves
A tree. It grows 18 m high and spreads 4.5 m wide. The trunk can be 1.5 m across. It has large buttresses. It has an open canopy. The bark is grey or brown and furrowed. The lower limbs curve down. The leaves have leaflets along the stalk. The leaves are 60 cm long. There are 5-12 pairs of leaflets. The flowers are separately male and female but on the same plant. The flowers are small and tube shaped and cream or green. They are in hanging clusters at the ends of branches. The clusters are 15-50 cm long.
Stevia rebaudiana - Stevia, Sweet Herb Of Paraguay, Sugar-l
Edible Portion: Leaves
A perennial shrub. It grows to 0.5-1 m tall. Plants are clumpy bushes about 75 cm high and 60 cm wide. The leaves are 2-3 cm long. They are small, oblong and have teeth around the edge. The flower heads are on the tips of stems. They are in clusters and are white. The fruit are very small and have one seed. They have feathery
