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 5000 - 5000) Previous | Next
Chrysophyllum cainito - Star Apple
Edible Portion: Fruit, Seeds
An evergreen tree up to 12-25 m high. It spreads 4-8 m across. The stem is erect but the branches hang down. Leaves are small, hairy, shiny and dark green on top and red/yellow underneath. Young parts of the plant are hairy, with soft silky rust coloured hairs. The flowers are mauve and small. They occur in clusters scattered among the mature twigs. The fruit are smooth skinned and 5-10 cm across. Fruit are oval shaped, yellow at first and light purple when ripe. When the fruit is cut crossways the star shape can be seen. The fruit pulp is white and sweet. The flesh can be purple in some kinds. It contains up to 10 shiny dark seeds.
Citrullus lanatus - Watermelon
Edible Portion: Fruit, Seeds, Leaves, Vegetable
An annual climber with deeply divided leaves and tendrils along the vine. It trails over the ground and has hairy, angular stems. The leaves are on long leaf stalks. The leaves are deeply divided along their length. These lobe are rounded and can themselves be divided. The leaves are 5-20 cm long by 2-12 cm across. The tendrils are divided. The plant has separate male and female flowers on the same plant. The flowers are pale yellow and smaller than pumpkins. The flowers occur in the axils of leaves. The male flowers appear first. Fruit are large and round or oval. They can be 60 cm long. Fruit have a hard smooth skin. Several fruit colours and shapes occur. Often they have a dark green mottle. The fruit has reddish juicy flesh and black or red seeds. The seeds are oval shaped and smooth. The seed size and shape vary considerably.
Citrus aurantium - Seville Orange
Edible Portion: Leaves - Tea, Herb, Spice
An evergreen tree up to 10-15 m high and with slender thorns. It spreads to 5 m across. The stem is stout and erect. It is covered with smooth greyish-brown bark. The leaf stalks have broad wings. The leaves are glossy green, oval and 10 cm long. The leaves taper towards the base and are paler under the leaf. There are spines in the axils of the leaves. The flowers are white and have a sweet smell. They are 2 cm across and there can be 1, 2 or a cluster, in the axils of leaves. The fruit is often green with a reddish tinge and fairly juicy but sour. The fruit are 5-7 cm long. The fruit is often rough skinned. The flesh is divided into segments with sour pulp.
Citrus limon - Lemon
Edible Portion: Fruit, Herb, Spice, Flowers
A small evergreen tree with short spines. It grows to 7 m high and spreads to 3 m across. It branches freely. Young branches are often reddish. Leaves are about 5-12 cm long. They are green and drawn out to a point, with notched edges. The leaf stalk is usually not winged. The leaves do not have much of a scent. The flowers are white, with 5 petals and have a strong sweet smell. They are 4-5 cm across. The fruit is oval shaped and with a knob at the end. Fruit can be 7-15 cm long. The skin is fairly thin, rough and light yellow. The flesh is sour and the seeds are oval.
Citrus maxima - Pomelo
Edible Portion: Fruit, Leaves - Flavouring
A spreading, spiny tree. It grows up to 15 m high. It is dome shaped. The leaves are very large. They are glossy and oval and downy underneath. The leaf stalks have broad wings. Young shoots and stems have fine hairs on them. Flowers are large (2 cm) and creamy white. The flowers are produced in bunches from woody shoots. The flowers have a sweet scent. The fruit are oval or pear shaped. The fruit is very large (20 cm) with a thick skin. The skin is dotted with oil glands. The fruit are green but become yellow when ripe. They contain 11-14 segments. The flesh can be pale yellow or pink. Each segment of the fruit is covered by a strong membrane. Some kinds have many seeds, while others are almost seedless. There are several named cultivated varieties.
Citrus medica - Citron
Edible Portion: Fruit, Herb, Spice, Leaves
A small evergreen tree. It grows up to 3-5 m high and spreads to 2 m across. The stem is stout, erect and thorny. The leaves are green and 20 cm x 10 cm. The tree has fat spines. The leaves have teeth along the edge. The leaf stalk does not have wings. The flowers are white, star shaped and with 5 petals. They have a scent. The fruit are large and long, with a rough skin.The fruit grows to 15-25 cm long by 10-15 cm wide. The flesh is white. The fruit does not have a lot of juice. There are several named cultivated varieties.
Citrus sinensis - Orange
Edible Portion: Fruit, Herb, Fruit Skin, Spice, Flowers
An evergreen tree up to 8-10 m high. It spreads to 4 m across. The stem is short, stout and spiny. It has a dense, rounded crown. The leaves are dark green, sword shaped and tapering towards the tip. They are 5-15 cm long. The leaves have a sweet smell when crushed. The leaf stalks have narrow wings and the stalk is jointed to the blade. The flowers are white and have a scent. The flowers have 5 petals and occur either singly or in clusters. The fruit often remain green colour and don't turn orange when ripened below 600 m altitude in the tropics. The fruit are about 9 cm across. They have 10-14 segments.
Cocos nucifera - Coconut
Edible Portion: Nuts, Sap, Cabbage, Nuts milk, Apple, Palm heart, Flowers
A palm with an unbranched trunk. The trunk has ring-like leaf scars along it. At the base it is swollen and surrounded by a mass of roots. They grow to about 25 m tall. Dwarf varieties have been produced. The fronds are 2-6 m long. They are divided along the stalk into strap shaped leaflets. The leaflets are 60-90 cm long. They are narrow and tapering. Clusters of large fruit develop beneath the fronds. Male and female flowers are separate on the one stalk. Female flowers are near the base. Flowers are cream. The flowers are covered by boat shaped bracts. About 10-12 fruit/stalk is a good crop. Leaves are up to 5 m long. Fruit can be 25 cm across. The fruit are fibrous. The hard shell inside is filled with coconut milk and the white copra layer.
Durio zibethinus - Durian
Edible Portion: Fruit, Seeds, Leaves
A large evergreen tree up to 30-50 m high and with buttresses. The bark is dark red-brown and rough and peels off irregularly. The leaves are alternate and oval. They are about 10 to 15 cm long and 3 to 5 cm wide. The upper surface is smooth and shiny and the midrib is sunken. The lower surface is covered with silver scales. The flowers are on the older branches and form bunches of flowers where the lower flower stalks are longer. They have 3 to 30 flowers on a main stalk up to 5 cm long. The fruit are green to yellow, fat and up to 25 cm long by 20 cm wide. They have sharp spines over the surface. The seeds are completely covered with a yellowish soft very sweet seed covering. The fruit drop unopened. As the fruit ripens it splits open naturally into 3-5 sections which have large seeds embedded in a yellow coloured pulp. The seeds are oval and 4-5 cm long by 2.5-3.5 cm wide.
Garcinia mangostana - Mangosteen
Edible Portion: Fruit, Seeds
A medium sized tree 10-20 m high with bright glossy leaves. Trees keep their leaves all year. Leaves are 15-25 cm long and leathery. Male and female flowers are on separate trees. Commercial trees only have female flowers. Male trees occur but are rare. Flowers are produced on shoots near the end of branches. Female flowers have 4 cream petals and 4 sepals and a round ovary with a thick stigma composed of 4 to 8 lobes. No pollination is required because fruit develop without fertilisation. The fruit is dark blue with 4-8 white juicy segments inside the thick skin. Each segment is enclosed in fine pinkish veins. It is 8 cm across and has flower sepals attached to the stalk end. It leaks yellow sap from wounds. Fruit is produced on side branches near to the tips of the main branches. Fruit often have no seeds or up to 2. These are not true seeds but they will grow.
