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
552 Issues in this Publication (Showing issues 8000 - 8000) Previous | Next
Eleusine coracana - Finger Millet
Edible Portion: Shoots, Seeds, Cereal, Vegetable
A millet grass. It is an annual grass. It is robust and forms many tillers or young shoots from the base. It grows 40-120 cm tall. The stems are somewhat flattened. The leaves are narrow. The flower heads are made up of 2-7 finger like spikes. These spikes are 1.5 cm across and 10-15 cm long. These in turn have about 70 smaller spikes. Each one of these smaller spikes has 4-7 seeds. The seeds can be 1-2 mm across. The seeds are roughly rounded. The colour varies. There are coracana and africana subsp.
Eragrostis tef - Teff
Edible Portion: Seeds, Cereal
A millet grass. It is an annual tufted grass. It grows 60-120 cm tall. It has a slender stem and long narrow smooth leaves. The flowers occur in loose open panicles. These are 15-35 cm long. The branches are very thin and droop over. The seeds are very small. They are 1-1.5 mm long. There are about 2500-3000 seeds per gram. A brown seeded and a white seeded kind are recognised.
Gossypium herbaceum - Short-Stable Cotton
Edible Portion: Seeds, Leaves, Oil
A shrub. It grows 2 m high. The leaf stalk is 2.5-8 cm long. The leaf blade is divided into 5 lobes like the fingers on a hand. The leaves are 5-10 cm across. The lobes are broad and oval and half the length of the leaf. The flowers occur singly in the axils of the leaves. The flowers are yellow and red or purple at the centre. The fruit is a capsule with 3-4 valves. It is about 3 cm across. The seeds are about 1 cm across. They are white and woolly.
Oryza sativa - Rice
Edible Portion: Seeds, Cereal, Husks - Oil
An annual grass with hollow stems. The stems can be 30 cm to 150 cm tall. (Floating varieties can be 5 m long.) The nodes are solid and swollen. The stem is protected by a skin layer which can often be high in silicon. A clump of shoots are produced as tillers from buds in the lower leaf axils. The leaves are narrow and hairy. They taper towards the tip. Each stem produces 10 -20 leaves and the seeds hang from the flower stalk at the top. Some varieties are glutinous and cling together when cooked.
Acidosasa chinensis - Chinese Sour Bamboo
Edible Portion: Shoots
A bamboo. It grows 8 m tall. The stems are 305 cm across. The leaf blades are sword shaped and 16-22 cm long by 3-4 cm wide. The base is wedge shaped and there are teeth along the edge. The flowering branches are at the top and are 10-26 cm long. There are 3-5 spikelets.
Acidosasa edulis - Edible Sour Bamboo
Edible Portion: Shoots
A bamboo. It grows 12 m high. The stems are 6 cm across. The stems are flattened above the branches. There are 4 or 5 leaves on the ultimate branches. They are oblong and 11-18 cm long by 2-3 cm wide. They are hairy near the stem.
Acidosasa purpurea - Maohua Sour Bamboo
Edible Portion: Shoots
A bamboo. It grows 3-10 m high. The culms are 2-8 cm across. The internodes are 30-45 cm long. The cavity has a spongy pith. There are 4-7 leaves on the ultimate branches. They are 12-21 cm long by 2-3 cm wide.
Arundinaria gigantea subsp. tecta - Switch Cane Bamboo
Edible Portion: Shoots
A bamboo. It grows 2-3 m tall.
Bambusa arundinacea - Thorny bamboo, Spiny bamboo
Seeds
Edible parts - Seeds, Shoots, Cereal, Sap-drinks
A bamboo. The stalks are crooked and knotty.
Bambusa atra - Long Pipe Bamboo, New Guinea Thin-Walled
Edible Portion: Shoots, Cereal, Seeds
A bamboo. The stems are 5-8 m tall and 204 cm wide. They are green and can have yellow stripes. The internodes are 40-70 cm long. Young shoots are slender. The leaf blades are 30 cm long by 5 cm wide. They are pale green underneath. The culm sheaths are 60 cm long by 10 cm wide. It flowers regularly but doesn't always produce seeds.
