Celery is a marshland plant in the family Apiaceae that has been cultivated as a vegetable since ancient times. Celery has a long fibrous stalk tapering into leaves. Depending on location and cultivar, either its stalks, leaves or hypocotyl are eaten and used in cooking. Celery seed powder is used as a spice.
The cucumber is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the family Cucurbitaceae that bears cylindrical to spherical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables. Considered an annual plant, there are three main types of cucumber—slicing, pickling, and seedless—within which several cultivars have been created. The cucumber originates in Asia extending from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, China, and Northern Thailand, but now grows on most continents, and many different types of cucumber are grown commercially and traded on the global market. In North America, the term wild cucumber refers to plants in the genera Echinocystis and Marah, though the two are not closely related.
Coriander, also known as cilantro, is an annual herb in the family Apiaceae. All parts of the plant are edible, but the fresh leaves and the dried seeds are the parts most traditionally used in cooking.
Momordica charantia is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean for its edible fruit. Its many varieties differ substantially in the shape and bitterness of the fruit.
Calabash, also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, or harvested mature to be dried and used as a utensil, container, or a musical instrument. When it is fresh, the fruit has a light green smooth skin and white flesh.
Gnetum is a genus of gymnosperms, the sole genus in the family Gnetaceae within the Gnetophyta. They are tropical evergreen trees, shrubs and lianas. Unlike other gymnosperms, they possess vessel elements in the xylem. Some species have been proposed to have been the first plants to be insect-pollinated as their fossils occur in association with extinct pollinating scorpionflies. Molecular phylogenies based on nuclear and plastid sequences from most of the species indicate hybridization among some of the Southeast Asian species. Fossil-calibrated molecular-clocks suggest that the Gnetum lineages now found in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia are the result of ancient long-distance dispersal across seawater.
Gnetum gnemon is a gymnosperm species of Gnetum, its native area spans from Mizoram and Assam in India down south through Malay Peninsula, Malay Archipelago and the Philippines in southeast Asia to the western Pacific islands. Common names include gnetum, joint fir, two leaf, melinjo, belinjo, bago, and tulip.
Ricinodendron is a plant genus in the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1864. It includes only one known species, Ricinodendron heudelotii, native to tropical Africa from Senegal + Liberia east to Sudan and Tanzania and south to Mozambique and Angola. It produces an economically important oilseed. The tree is known as munguella (Angola), njangsa (Cameroon), bofeko, wama (Ghana), okhuen (Nigeria), kishongo (Uganda), akpi, djansang, essang, ezezang and njasang. Two varieties of the tree species are recognized R. heudelotii var. heudelotii in Ghana and R. heudelotii var. africanum in Nigeria and westwards.
Cameroonian cuisine is one of the most varied in Africa due to Cameroon's location on the crossroads between the north, west, and center of the continent; the diversity in ethnicity with mixture ranging from Bantus, Semi-bantus and Shuwa Arabs, as well as the influence of German, French and English colonialization.
Yam is the common name for some plant species in the genus Dioscorea that form edible tubers.
Lemon basil, hoary basil, Thai lemon basil, or Lao basil, is a hybrid between basil and American basil. The herb is grown primarily in northeastern Africa and southern Asia for its fragrant lemon scent, and is used in cooking.
Moringa oleifera is a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree of the family Moringaceae, native to the Indian subcontinent and used extensively in South and Southeast Asia. Common names include moringa, drumstick tree, horseradish tree, or malunggay.
Jute mallow or Nalita jute is a species of shrub in the family Malvaceae. Together with C. capsularis it is the primary source of jute fiber. The leaves and young fruits are used as a vegetable, the dried leaves are used for tea and as a soup thickener, and the seeds are edible.
Chenopodium berlandieri, also known by the common names pitseed goosefoot, lamb's quarters, and huauzontle (Nahuatl) is an annual herbaceous plant in the family Amaranthaceae.
Boscia senegalensis, commonly known as hanza, is a member of the family Capparaceae.
Sphenostylis is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. It includes seven species of prostrate, climbing or erect herbs or subshrubs. They are native to sub-Saharan Africa, where they grow in seasonally-dry tropical and subtropical open forest, woodland, bushland and thicket, wooded grassland, and grassland, mainly in the Zambezian and Sudanian regions. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae. Sphenostylis contains several species useful as food sources including Sphenostylis stenocarpa. Sphenostylis stenocarpa is characterized by its fruit (legume) and stipulated leaves.
Detarium microcarpum, commonly known as sweet detar, sweet dattock or tallow tree, is an underutilized species of tree legume that grows naturally in the drier regions of West and Central Africa. It has a wide range of uses due to its medicinal properties, edible fruit and hardwood, which is used as fuel. This makes it valuable and appreciated by local communities, but further research and effort are needed for its domestication.
African nightshades are several species of plants in the section Solanum of the genus Solanum, that are commonly consumed as leafy vegetables and herbs. African nightshades are grown in both high and lowland areas in West and East Africa, particularly in Nigeria and Cameroon.The Nso people call it Nyuuseji, and the Kom people call it Mbasi. There is a large variation in diversity of the African nightshades, which have many nutritional and medicinal benefits, even though the family of nightshade is commonly known as comprising dangerous weeds or poisonous plants. Species known as African nightshade include Solanum scabrum, Solanum villosum, Solanum nigrum, and Solanum americanum. Other common names for African nightshade are Black nightshade and Narrow-leaved nightshade. Local names of African nightshade include managu (Kikuyu), mnavu (Swahili), rinagu (Kisii), namasaka (Luhya), osuga (Luo), isoiyot (Kipsigis), kitulu (Kamba), ormomoi (Maa), ndunda (Taita), nsugga (Luganda), sochot (Keiyo), and esisogho (Lukhonzo).
Gnetum macrostachyum is a species of vine gymnosperm, native to tropical Asia. They are often harvested as a source of fiber.
Eru is a vegetable from Cameroon. It is a specialty of the Bayangi people, of the Manyu region in southwestern Cameroon. It is vegetable soup made up of finely shredded leaves of the eru or okok. The eru is cooked with waterleaf or spinach, palm oil, crayfish, and either smoked fish, cow skin (kanda) or beef.
