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
819 Issues in this Publication (Showing issues 7000 - 7000) Previous | Next
Cyamopsis tetragonolobus - Guar Bean
Edible Portion: Fruit, Leaves, Shoots, Pods, Seeds, Gum, Vegetable
A herb. It is an upright bushy plant often only 1 m high. Some kinds grow 3 m high. The branches are stiff and usually with white hairs. The branches stick upwards and are angled and with grooves. The leaves are produced alternately and have 3 leaflets. The leaflets are oval and with slight saw teeth around the edge. The leaf stalks have grooves. The flowers are small in clusters in the axils of leaves. The flowers are white with pink wings. It produces clusters of thick fleshy pods. They are stiff and straight. There is a double ridge along the top of the pod and a single one below. There are also 2 ridges along the flat sides. The pods have a beak at the end. There are 8-10 small oval seeds inside.
Glycine max - Soybean
Edible Portion: Seeds, Leaves, Spice, Vegetable
A small erect bean up to 60 cm tall. It grows each year from seed. Straggling kinds can occur. Stems, leaves and pods are softly hairy. The leaves have 3 leaflets. The leaflets have stalks. Flowers are small and white or blue. They occur in groups in the axils of leaves. The pods are broad, flat and hairy. Pods have 2-4 seeds. The seeds can be yellow to black.
Lupinus mutabilis - Andean Lupin
Edible Portion: Seeds, Vegetable
An erect annual herb. It grows to 1.5 m tall. It has a thick taproot. It can keep growing from year to year. The stems are branched, woody and mostly without hairs. The leaves have leaflets arranged like fingers on a hand. There are 7-9 leaflets. These are oblong and about 6 cm long by 1.4 cm wide. They are hairy underneath. The flowers are large and have a smell. They are about 2 cm long. The standard is white and blue with a yellow mark in the centre. Many flowers (50-70%) fall off without forming pods. The fruit is a pod. It is finely hairy and does not split open before falling in cultivated varieties. The pods are oblong but pointed at both ends. There can be 130 pods on a plant. The seeds bulge towards the centre. They are 8-10 mm long and 6-8 mm wide. The colour can vary from black to light grey.
Mucuna pruriens - Velvet Bean
EdiblePortion: Seeds, Young pods, Leaves, Vegetable
An evergreen herb of shrub. It is a climbing vine. It climbs to 6 m high. It can re-grow each year or live for a few years. The stems are slender with long, slender branches. They are very hairy when young. The leaves are alternate with sword shaped leaves. The leaf stalks are hairy. There are 3 leaflets. The leaflets are 5-19 cm long and 4-16 cm wide. The leaflets are rounded at the base and the side leaflets are unequal in shape. The flowers are large and white with bluish butterfly shaped petals. They occur in clusters of 2 or 3. The flowers are 2-4 cm long. The fruit are thick, leathery pods covered with hairs. They are 10 cm long and contain 4-6 seeds. The pods are dark brown.
Pisum sativum - Pea
Edible Portion: Seeds, Pods, Leaves, Vegetable
A short lived herb plant. A creeping plant with white or pink flowers. Plants can be 30 cm to 150 cm tall. It has a well developed tap root and many slender side roots. The stem is weak and round. Leaves are made up of 1-3 pairs of leaflets and a branched tendril at the end. There are large leaf like stipules at the base of the leaf. The lower half of these stipules has teeth. The flowers occur in the axils of leaves and are either on their own or in 2-3 flowered clusters with equal length stalks. The flowers are pink or purple in varieties grown for dry seeds and usually white in kinds grown for fresh pods. The pods are swollen and green and can have up to 10 seeds inside. Seed shape can vary. Large numbers of varieties have been recorded.
Psophocarpus tetragonolobus - Winged Bean
Edible Portion: Seeds, Pods, Leaves, Flowers, Roots, Vegetable
A climbing perennial bean up to 3 or 4 m tall. It can re-grow each year from the fattened roots. The stems twine around supports or trail over the ground. The leaves have 3 leaflets. The leaf stalks are long. The leaflets are 8-15 cm long. The flowers are blue or white. They occur on the ends of branches from within the axils of leaves. Pods have wavy wings or are roughly square in cross section. They are 6-36 cm long with 5-30 seeds. Seeds can be white, yellow, brown or black. They are bedded in the solid tissues of the pod. The seeds are round smooth and brown with a small hilum. Nodules on the roots are many and large.
Sphenostylis stenocarpa - African Yam Bean
Edible Portion: Seeds, Leaves, Tubers, Root, Pods, Vegetable
A vigorous climbing vine. It is a herb that grows 1.5-2 m high. The leaves have 3 leaflets. They are 14 cm long and 5 cm wide.
The flowers are pink, purple or greenish-white. They are 2.5 cm long. They are on stout stalks in the axils of leaves. The seed
pods are smooth. They are flat but have both edges raised. They are 25-30 cm long by 1-1.5 cm wide. The seeds vary in shape,
size and colour. They can be 1 cm long by 0.7 cm wide. They can be cream or brown. There are small narrow tubers under the
ground. They can be 5-7.5 cm long and weigh 50-150 g. The flesh is white and watery.
Tylosema fassoglensis - Climbing Marama Bean
EdiblePortion: Pods, Fruit, Seeds, Tubers, Root, Stems - Gum, Vegetable
A trailing or climbing plant. It is evergreen and shrubby. It can be 6 m long. It has a large tuberous root. This can be to a depth of 2.5 m. Young plant parts have rusty coloured hairs. The leaves are simple and almost round but with two lobes or divided at the tip. Leaves are 5-20 cm long by 6-23 cm wide. There are rusty hairs on the veins underneath the leaf. The flower clusters are 2-42 cm long on stalks 2-17 cm long. The flowers have 5 petals. Four of these are yellow and one is reduced to a green stub. The petals are yellow. The outer layer or sepals have wings. Fruit are 7-12 cm long and 4-7 cm wide. The seeds are not quite round and are 1.7-2.8 cm long.
Vigna subterranea - Bambara Groundnut
Edible Portion: Seeds, Leaves, Pods, Vegetable, Nuts
An annual plant. It can either form a bunchy bush or be a trailing plant. Often the creeping stems are near ground level. It often appears as if bunched leaves arise from branched stems near ground level. It has a well developed taproot. The leaves have 3 leaflets. The leaf stalk is erect and thickened near the base. The end leaflet is slightly larger than the side leaflets. Leaflets are about 6 cm long by 3 cm across. The flowers are yellowish-white. They occur in pairs. The fruit are pods which are round and with one seed. Some kinds have 3 seeds. This pod develops under the ground on a long stalk. The flower/fruit stalk elongates after being fertilised and pushes into the soil. The seeds are hard and are of many colours. Pods can be 3.7 cm long.
Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis - Yard Long Bean
Edible Portion: Seeds, Leaves, Pods, Vegetable
A climbing bean with long pods. The vines can be 3 m long. They normally twine around sticks. Dwarf kinds also occur. Leaves have 3 leaflets. The leaflets are oval and side leaflets are at an angle. Leaflets can be 2-16 cm long by 1-12 cm wide. The centre leaflet can have lobes near the base and the side leaflets can have lobes on the outer edge. The leaf stalks can be 2 -13 cm long. The flowering stalks are in the axils of leaves. There can be few or several flowers. The flowers can be white, yellow or blue. Flowers are 1-3 cm long by 1-3 cm wide. Pods are long (up to 90 cm) and flexible. The seeds can vary between white to dark brown. They are oblong or kidney shaped. Seeds are 4-12 mm long by 2-6 mm wide. There are many named cultivated varieties.
