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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Sesbania grandiflora - Sesbania, Corkwood Tree
Edible Portion: Flowers, Leaves, Young pods, Bark, Vegetable
A shrub or small tree up to 5-10 m tall. The trunk has rough bark and the branches often droop. The trunk is thick. The branches are hairy when young. The leaves are made up of 41 to 61 leaflets. These are narrow and oblong. They are 2.5-4 cm long by 0.5-1.4 cm wide. They have a sharp point at the tip. The flowers are large and white to red. The flower petals can be 5-10 cm long. They are produced as 2-4 flowers on flowering branches 2-5 cm long. It has long narrow pods with up to 30-50 small brownish seeds. The seeds with their stalk can be 2.5-4.5 cm long in pods 20-25 cm long by 7-9 mm wide.
Helianthus tuberosus - Jerusalem Artichoke
Edible Portion: Rhizome, Tubers, Root, Vegetable, Flowers
An upright perennial plant up to 1-2 m high and a spread of 1 m. The stem is erect and unbranched. The leaves are dull green and sword shaped. The flowers are yellow and daisy like. It produces fleshy underground stem tubers of irregular shape. The skin of these tubers is very thin and often coloured yellow or red. The flesh is white. Tubers can be 10 cm long and 6 cm wide. There are several cultivated varieties.
Medicago sativa - Alfalfa, Lucerne
Edible Portion: Seeds, Sprouts, Leaves, Vegetable
A herb. It is an erect or spreading legume. It grows to 80 cm high and spreads to 30-80 cm wide. It forms deep roots. It keeps growing from year to year. The stems are slender and hairy. The leaves are bluish green. The leaves have 3 leaflets like clover. The leaflets are oval or narrow. They are 3 cm long. The flowers are mauve. They appear in long stalked bunches. The fruit are small sickle shaped pods. The pods are deep brown. There are any named cultivated varieties.
Pennisetum purpureum - Elephant Grass, Napier Grass
Edible Portion: Flowers, Shoots, Vegetable
A grass which keeps growing from year to year. It forms large clumps. It can grow 2-4 m tall. The leaf blades are 4 cm wide. The edges become very sharp. The flowers are dense and spike like. They are yellow, brown and purple.
Pterocarpus indicus - Burmese Rosewood
Edible Portion: Leaves, Flowers, Vegetable
A medium sized evergreen tree. It grows to 27-30 m high and spreads to 4 m across. The stem is erect and stout. It branches. The trunk is 60-80 cm across. The leaves are compound with an odd number of leaflets. These are oval. The leaves are 20-45 cm long. The leaflets are 6-10 cm long by 3-5 cm wide. It can lose its leaves. The flowers are yellow and woolly. The sepals forming the outer ring of the flowers are brown. The flowers occur as many in a branched flower arrangement. The flowers are bell shaped. The fruit are round pods. These are 5 cm across. They can have 1 or 2 seeds but sometimes 4.
Diplazium esculentum - Vegetable-Fern, Paco Fern
Edible Portion: Fronds, Leaves, Vegetable
A large fern with an upright stem. It forms tufts. It is only woody near the base. It can be 1 m high and 1 m wide. It usually grows as a large clump. It spreads by underground runners. They have feather like fronds which are 50 to 80 cm long and divided 2 or 3 times. The leaf stalks are black near the bottom. The secondary leaflets are pointed at the tip. The end sections of the leaf are many, about 8 cm long and 1 cm wide. The leaflets are notched like a saw and about 2 to 5 cm long.
Arachis hypogea - Peanut
Nuts/seeds/herbs
Edible parts - Seeds, Leaves, Flavouring, Spice, Pods, Vegetable, Oil, Caution
A spreading bushy plant up to about 40 cm high. Leaves are made up of 2 pairs of leaflets arranged opposite each other. Flowers are produced in the axils of leaves. Two main kinds occur. They are often called runner and bunch types. The runner kind has a vegetative or leafy branch between each fruiting branch and therefore produces a more spreading type of plant. This is called "Virginia" peanut. The pods have 2 dark brown seeds. The other kind produces fruiting branches in a sequence one after the other along the branches. These are called "Spanish-Valencia" types. They grow as a more upright plant and grow more quickly. They have lighter coloured leaves and the pods have 2 to 6 seeds which are often white. Virginia types have the flowers in alternate pairs. Spanish and Valencia types have several flower branches one after another along the stem. Pods are produced on long stalks which extend under the ground. The stalk or peg from the flower grows down into the soil and then produces the pod and seed under the ground. The flower needs to be no more than 18 cm from the soil for the seed pod to
Carthamus tinctorius - Safflower
Edible Portion: Seeds, Leaves, Seeds - Oil, Flowers, Spice, Vegetable
An erect annual herb. It grows to 60-150 cm high. It has any branches. It has spines but the number vary. The stems are white and stiff and round with fine grooves along their length. The kinds with more spiny leaves are better for oil production. The leaves are arranged in spirals around the stem. They do not have leaf stalks. The leaves are dark green and glossy. They are 10-15 cm long and 2-4 cm wide. The flower head is made up of many small flowers. They are 13 mm long and like tubes. They are yellow to orange in colour. The fruit is 4 angled and a hard hull and a single white or grey seed. The seed is oblong.
Coffea arabica - Arabian Coffee
Edible Portion: Seeds, Leaves, Herb, Spice, Leaves - tea
An evergreen shrub. It grows to 3-5 m high and spreads to 3 m across. The stem is slender and the branches are flexible. The leaves are glossy green, oblong, and tapering towards the tip. They occur opposite each other and have easy to see veins. The leaves are 10-15 cm long by 5 cm wide. The flowering stalks grow from these side branches and have 1-4 flowers. The flowers are white, with 5 petals. They have a scent. Flowers occur in clusters in the axils of leaves. The fruit are green but change to red when ripe. They contain 2 seeds. The seeds are grey-green. They are about 12 mm long. They are flattened on the side where they are pressed together. Coffee seeds are commonly called "beans".
Anacardium occidentale - Cashew
Edible Portion: Nuts, Leaves, Fruit pulp, Flavouring, Seeds, Oil
A spreading evergreen tree up to 7-14 m tall. It has spreading branches. The canopy can spread 12 m. The roots grow deeply and spread widely. The bark is rough. The trunk is 15-20 cm across. The leaves are alternate. The leaves are pale green and large. They are 10-15 cm long by 6-8 cm wide. They have fine veins. They are narrow at the base. The leaf stalk is 1-2 cm long. The leaves are shiny. The flowers are produced on the ends of the branches. They are red in colour. About 14 % of the lowers are both male and female and the remainder are male. Many of the flowers which contain female flower parts do not form fruit. The nut is borne below the "apple" which is really a fleshy stalk. The nut is kidney shaped. It is about 3 cm long.
