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 5000 - 5000) Previous | Next
Agave americana - Agave
Edible Portion: Flower Stalk, Seeds, Shoots, Drink, Sap, Pith, Vegetable
A perennial plant up to 7.5 m tall and 2.5 m wide. It does not have a trunk and has suckers. The plants have a very sharp and tough spine at the tip of each leaf. The leaves are grey-green and occur in rings at the base. There are spines on the edges of the leaves. There are 5-8 mm long and 2-6 cm apart. The leaves are word shaped and 1-2 m long. The flowers are tubular and yellow-green. These occur on stems 6 m high.
Ananas comosus - Pineapple
Edible Portion: Fruit, Shoots, Vegetable
A perennial herb with a rosette of long, thick, spiky leaves up to 1 m high & spreading 1-1.5 m. The leaves are arranged in spirals. Some kinds have thorns along the edges of the leaves. The plant produces suckers both near the base of the stem and also higher up the stem near the fruit. These are called slips and these, and the suckers, are broken off and used for planting. The main plant dies after producing a fruit but the suckers keep growing. The plant produces a flower and fruit at the end. The fruit is made up of about 150 berry-like fruitlets that are almost fused together. There is a small crown of leaves on top of the fruit. The fruit can be 25 cm long and weigh 0.5-4 kg. The two main kinds of pineapples are the rough leafed variety which has spines on the leaves and produces a smaller but sweeter fruit. The other kind is the smooth leaf kind with spineless leaves and larger fruit. There are several cultivated varieties.
Annona muricata - Soursop
Edible Portion: Fruit, Leaves, Vegetable
It is a low bushy tree 8-10 m high. The leaves are long (14 cm) and narrow (4 cm). The leaves are thick and slightly shiny on top. The flowers are large (2-3 cm), rounded and produced on short stems on the branches. They occur singly, or in groups of three. The flowers have two layers of thick fleshy petals. The fruit are 10-30 cm long. The fruit is spiny and the flesh is juicy. Many black seeds are embedded in the white flesh. Fruit are often distorted due to only some of the ovules being fertilised. Beetles are normally thought to do the pollinating. This means fruit end up heart shaped when unevenly pollinated. The flesh of the fruit is white. Several kinds with different sweetness, shape and juiciness occur.
Annona reticulata - Bullocks Heart
Edible Portion: Fruit
A small tree up to 7.5 m tall. It has several branches near the base. Trees loose their leaves at some times of the year. New shoots have short brown hairs but older wood is smooth and shiny. The leaves are long and spear shaped with short leaf stalks. Around the edge of the leaf is a clear edge. The leaves smell when crushed. Flowers are greenish yellow. They occur in groups where the leaves join the stalk. Flowers occur on new wood growth. The fruit are reddish brown in colour and 10-12 cm across.There is a fine hexagonal pattern over the fruit. Inside there are large brown seeds. The fruit are edible but the seeds are not eaten.
Annona squamosa - Sweetsop
Edible Portion: Fruit
A bushy deciduous tree up to 6 m high. It has irregular spreading branches. The leaves are oblong and narrow, often 12 cm long by 4 cm wide. The leaves have fine hairs underneath. The leaves are dull green and smell when crushed. The flowers droop or hang from branches either singly or in groups of 2 or 3. The flowers are greenish colour. The fruit are 8-10 cm across and greenish in colour. The fruit is covered with round fleshy scales which drop off as the fruit ripens. Inside the fruit are several shiny black seeds about 1.5 cm long. The fruit flesh is white and soft.
Argemone mexicana - Mexican Poppy
Edible Portion: Leaves, Caution, Vegetable, Seed, Stem
A spreading clump forming annual herb. It grows up to 1 m high and spreads to 30-40 cm across. The leaves do not have leaf stalks. The leaves have a green and white pattern. The leaves have deep irregular teeth along the edge. The flower has a very short stalk. It is at the end of the plant. It is yellow and has 6 petals. The fruit is a capsule and is prickly. This contains round, pitted, brown seeds which are sticky.
Attalea crassispatha - Carossier
Edible Portion: Seeds, Fruit
A tall palm. It grows 20 m high. The trunk can be 25-35 cm wide. The crown is nearly rounded. There are 15-19 leaves. The leaves are 3.1-4 m long. There are regularly spaced leaflets. They grow in a single flat plane. The flowering stalk is borne among the leaves. They are crowded among the leaf bases. The fruit have one seed. They are oval and 3.5-4 cm long by 2 cm wide. They are reddish.
Averrhoa carambola - Carambola
Edible Porion: Fruit, Flowers, Leaves, Spice
A small evergreen tree up to 6-12 m high. The trunk of the tree is short and crooked and has branches near the base. The bark is smooth and dark grey. A leaf is made up of 2 to 11 leaflets with a leaflet at the end. The leaves are darker and more shiny on the top surface. The flowers are small (8 mm long) and red and white in clusters on the small branches. The fruit are star shaped with five or six angled ridges. They are yellow and up to 16 cm long and 9 cm wide. The flesh is white. There are one or two shiny light brown seeds about 1 cm long, in the bottom of each lobe. Some carambola have short styles (female flower parts) and these types need to be cross pollinated by insects. This means two types need planting. Long style types can fertilise themselves. Fruit flavour can vary from very acid to very sweet. There are several named cultivated varieties.
Bactris plumeriana - Coco Macaco
Edible Portion: Fruit
A palm which forms clusters. The trunks are 8-10 m high and 12 cm across. The stems are dark. There are dark rings of long black spines. There are 7-12 leaves. The leaves are 2.6 m long. They are covered with black spines. The spines on the leaf stalk are in 3 rows. There are 50-70 leaflets on each side of the leaf. The leaflets grow at different angles. This gives the leaves a feathery appearance. The leaflets are spiny on the edges. The flowering stalk has 40-60 flowering branches. The bracts is black and spiny. The fruit are round and 1-1.6 cm across. They are orange-red.
Blighia sapida - Akee
Edible Portion: Fruit, Aril, Flowers - flavour, Caution, Leaves
A small evergreen tree up to 9-13-20 m tall. It spreads to 3 m across. The stem is erect and branching. It has a spreading, open-textured crown. The leaves are dark green with 6, 8 or 10 curved leaflets. The flowers are greenish white in branched flowers stalks, in the axils of leaves. They extend upwards. The fruit are in clusters. The fruit is about 9 cm long and red when ripe. The fruit has five segments. It is roughly pear shaped. The fruit opens naturally when ripe and usually has 3 black seeds inside. These are covered with yellowish flesh called an aril. The aril is edible. The pink tissue is toxic. Unripe fruit are toxic.
