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 3000 - 3000) Previous | Next
Atriplex canescens - Four-Winged Saltbush
Edible Portion: Leaves, Seeds
A shrub. It grows 1.5 m high and spreads 1.5 m wide. There is a dense mass of stems. The leaves are narrow and have blunt tips. They have a mealy white appearance. The flowers are small and yellow. The fruit are papery and have 4 wings. They are crowded into short spikes.
Avena nuda - Hull-Less Oat, Naked Oat, Sand Oat, Peelcorn
Edible Portion: Seeds, Cereal
A grass. There are several named cultivated varieties. It grows each year from seeds. It grows 45-90 cm tall. The leaves are 20 cm long by 3-7 mm wide. The flower panicle is 25 cm long. The spikelets are 1-3 cm long. The grain is 6 mm long.
Bixa orellana - Bixa
Edible Portion: Seeds, Spice
An evergreen tree. It grows to 10 m high and spreads to 3 m across. The stem is erect and it is intricately branched giving the tree a crown which is spreading and graceful. The leaf stalks are long. The leaves are alternate and simple. They are broad and heart shaped. They taper to the tip and have long leaf stalks. The flowers occur in a branched flower stalk. Several of these occur at the ends of branches. The flowers are open and cup-shaped. They can be pink or purple and 5 cm across. The fruit are hairy or bristly and heart shaped capsules. They are 3 cm long. They have a soft red skin. They can be yellow. When they are ripe they turn brown and split open. The capsules contain many dark red seeds.
Borago officinalis - Borage
Edible Portion: Leaves, Herb, Spice, Flowers, Vegetable
An annual herb. It is a sprawling plant. It can be 45-75 cm high and spread 45 cm wide. The stout stems and leaves are covered with stiff hairs. The lower leaves are on leaf stalks that have winged extensions near their base. The upper leaves are smaller and have blades without stalks. The flowers are blue or pink and star shaped. They have black centres. The flowers are on stalks 1.5-4 cm long. They are in clusters on the ends of branches. The nutlets are brownish-black. They are wrinkled and have a base which curves inward.
Brosimum alicastrum - Maya Breadnut
Edible Portion: Seeds, Leaves, Fruit, Sap
A large evergreen tree. It grows to 25-30 m high. It has a dense wide crown of leaves. It has narrow buttresses. The bark is grey. The leaves are simple and dark green. They are 17 cm long by 6 cm wide. There can be teeth along the edge and often the edge is wavy. The flowers are in a round head. Most are male with a female flowers in the centre. The fruit is small, round and golden orange. The tree has small roundish yellow or brown seeds about 2 cm across. They occur singly or sometimes two in a thin paper-like shell. It has a smooth but granular surface.
Calendula officinalis - Pot Marigold, English Marigold
Edible Portion: Flowers, Leaves, Herb, Spice
An bushy annual herb. It grows 30-70 cm high and 30-45 cm wide. The leaves are spoon shaped or sword shaped. The flower heads are daisy like. They can be 10 cm across. Flowers are yellow or orange. There are cultivated varieties.
Carya illinoinensis - Pecan
Edible Portion: Nuts, Flavouring, Leaves - Tea, Seeds - Oil
A large tree up to 55 m high. Trees lose their leaves during the year. Branches extend upwards giving the tree an open, rounded crown and the tree can be 8 m wide. The stem is stout and erect. The bark is grey and furrowed with an ornamental appearance. The leaves are bright green, compound leaves. The leaves are 30-50 cm long. The leaves are made up of 7-10 leaflets. These are long and curved sword shaped. The leaflets have short leaf stalks. The leaves turn yellow before they fall. The flowers are greenish and small. Trees normally have male and female flowers separately on the same plant, but because the flower parts develop at separate times, cross pollination normally occurs. Male flowers grow on catkins near the branches on the previous year's growth. The fruit are dark brown nuts that are carried in clusters of 4-12. The fruit can be 6 cm long. It has a thin shell. At maturity the fruit splits into 4 valves and reveal the smooth brown kernel. There are many cultivated varieties.
Caryota mitis - Lesser Fishtail Palm, Clustered Fishtail Palm
Edible Portion: Seeds, Cabbage, Starch, Sago, Palm heart, Sap
A small slender palm and the only representative of this genus in the Philippines which sends up shoots from the base of the trunk, forming clumps. It forms a cluster of closely spaced stems. It can be 5 m high. The trunks are 5-15 cm across. They have well spaced rings. The leaves point upwards. The leaves are twice divided and have fishtail leaflets. The leaves are 2-4 m long. The stems have black coarsely woven fibres left behind when the leaf stalk bases split. The flowering stalk is 25-45 cm long with pale cream flowers. The fruit are 15 to 16 mm across and frequently broader than high. The flower envelope is 8.5 to 9 mm across. The stems die when the fruit matures but other stems keep growing. The fruit contain stinging crystals so need to be handled with care. Each fruit contains one seed.
Ceiba pentandra - Kapok, White Silk Cotton Tree
Edible Portion: Seeds, Leaves, Calyces, Flowers, Vegetable, Fruit, Oil
A very large tree with a straight trunk and height of 30-40 m. Trees can be 60 m high and the trunk 8 m around. It has large prickly buttresses near the base. The branches come out horizontally and there is a ring of them around the trunk. The leaves are compound. The leaflets spread out like fingers on a hand, with 5-8 leaflets. They are 5-18 cm long by 2-4.5 cm wide. The leaf stalk is 7-20 cm long. The leaves all fall off the tree (deciduous). Flowers are yellowish white, in clusters near the ends of branches. These hang downwards. A long seed capsule hangs from branches. It is 10-30 cm long. It splits into 5 valves. The seeds are embedded in white or grey kapok.
Ceiba speciosa - Silk Floss Tree
Edible Portion: Seeds - Oil
A tree. The trunk is bottle shaped. It has thick cone shaped prickles. The young trees have a green trunk. It loses its leaves during the year. The leaves are made up of 5-7 long leaflets. The flowers are creamy white and pink towards the tip of the petals. There are 5 petals. The fruit are woody pods 20 cm long. The seeds are black and bean sized. They have fibrous silk or cotton around them.
