Food Plants

It has been estimated that 369,000 species of flowering plants are known to science (RBG Kew 2016) and that the planet harbors somewhere between 400,000 (Gaston 2010) and perhaps 450,000 (Pimm and Joppa 2015) species of flowering plants total. Between 30,000 and 50,000 plants may be edible in some form to people (SEB n.d.; FAO 1985). Of these edible species, estimates of the numbers that have been used as food by people somewhere at some time range from 7,000 (FAO n.d.) to 12,000 (Kunkel 1984). Perhaps 3,000 (Shand 2005) to 6,000 (Chweya and Mnzava 1997) taxa of plants are still harvested with some regularity for use as food or in food products worldwide.

Yet despite this vast endowment of edible plants, relatively few species have come to dominate human diets. For example, Myers (1984) reported that 7 crops provide 75% of human nutrition, Robert and Christine Prescott-Allen (1990) found that 103 species account for 90% of the global food supply, and Padulosi and Pignone (1997) documented only 150 commercialized species of edible plants around the world. Elusive though the exact number of how many edible plants exist and how many dominate in providing human nutrition, it is easy to identify a list of the principle crops including: sugarcane, maize, rice, wheat, potatoes, soybeans, beets, cassava (manioc), tomatoes, bananas/plantains, citrus, barley, watermelons, sweet potatoes, onions, apples, grapes, cabbage and other leafy brassicas, cucumbers and gherkins, rapeseed (for oil), yams, sorghum, coconuts, eggplant, beans, cottonseed (for oil), mangoes, peanuts, sunflower seed, peppers (Capsicum), melons, peas, millet, pears, lettuce, squash, garlic, spinach and oats.

Although it might be nice to have precise numbers relating to specific questions with well-defined criteria in addressing the question of “how many plants feed the world,” the real value in this discussion is the knowledge that the diets of most contemporary people are not as diverse as they could be and not as diverse as perhaps they should be for optimal nutrition, culinary interest, gastronomic enjoyment, food security and the overall sustainability of food systems. Despite recent food movements (e.g., “slow food” and “local food”), as a society, we ask few probing questions about the foods we eat, we know little about where and how they are grown and processed, we are largely incapable of identifying food plant origins, we are disconnected from the importance of the wild relatives of our favorite foods that help maintain healthy crops, and we wonder little about how many desirable edible plants we might be missing. In general, we demand only that our food satisfies our palates (which is easily done with fat, sugar and salt),  curbs hunger and provides basic nutrients and calories.

The hope for this dictionary is to help draw attention to the potential of the tremendous diversity of food plants in the Americas by documenting their origins, uses and common names. We do not contend that all of the plants presented have commercial potential, but merely that nature’s food pantry is wide, deep and scarcely appreciated.

Contained in 3,990 entries the compendium includes:

• More than 4,100 taxa, mostly at the species level, with some subspecies, hybrids and varieties;
• 6,854 Latin names including synonyms;
• More than 31,000 common names primarily in English, Portuguese and Spanish, with some from French-speaking areas and Suriname, as well as many from indigenous languages.

Common names in indigenous languages generally are listed under the dominant language of the region with the native language in parentheses. Many of the native names are spelled phonetically.

Information has been derived from extensive fieldwork by the authors along with consulting 2,325 secondary references. The entries are organized by genus and species. The status of the Latin names follows The Plant List and Tropicos from the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG-Tropicos).

Background: People's diets are usually restricted to a small number of plant species, even in regions with great diversity. We investigated the knowledge of residents in Ribeirão da Ilha, a district of Florianópolis (Santa Catarina, Brazil), about unconventional food plants (UFP). We report the UFP of the region, the parts used, the methods of processing, and the reasons for reduced use or even lack of use. Methods: From June 2014 to January 2015, we interviewed 26 long-established residents and made free listings of plant resources in the region. We also did three guided tours, and 24 residents (among the 26) checked pictures of the mentioned plants in order to identify them. Results: We identified 63 species distributed in 25 botanical families. Half of the species were mentioned only by one informant. The fruit was the most frequently used part (80% of citations), consumed mainly without processing. Among those species, 27% were used exclusively in the past. The residents attributed non-use to the difficulty in locating the plants and loss of interest in the resource.
Conclusion: Urbanization and environmental restrictions contribute to the difficulty of access to UFP. Encouraging
residents to continue using UFP is necessary to perpetuate this threatened knowledge, promote a more diversified
and healthier diet, stimulate a greater interaction among people and nature, and promote on farm conservation of
edible plants.