Temperate and Tropical Food-plants

This page shows some of the major food-plants cultivated in temperate and tropical climates.

Climate zones are defined by a combination of factors which include temperature and rainfall as much as latitude. Because temperate and tropical climate zones blend into one another, many of the plants from one part of the world are cultivated in the other, so this is just a rough guide to which plants are found where. Plants listed as temperate crops can be grown in the tropics better than the other way around.

Notes: Plants shown in bold are “canoe plants” which Hawaiians brought from southern Polynesia.
Plants shown in brown are usually propagated from seed.
Plants shown in green are usually propagated vegetatively.
Plants shown in olive might be propagated either way.

	Temperate crops	Tropical crops	Botanical family/group
M O N O C O T Y L E D O N S	Wheat Corn Oats Barley Rye Millets Wild Rice	Rice Sugar Bamboo	Poaceae (Graminae) “grains”
		Taro & ‘ape	Araceae
		Coconut Sago	Arecaceae
		Pandanus	Pandanaceae
		Yam	Dioscoreaceae
	Onions & Garlic Asparagus	Ti Pia Agave	Asparagales/Liliales
		Vanilla	Orchidaceae
		Banana Ginger & Tumeric	Zingiberales
		Pineapple	Bromeliaceae
		Water chestnut	Cyperaceae
		Avocado Lotus Soursop Kava & Black Pepper Cinnamon	Magnoliales
D I C O T Y L E D O N S	Figs, Mulberries, Hops	Breadfruit & Jackfruit	Moraceae
		Cassava & Kukui	Euphorbiaceae
		Sweet Potato & Ong Choi	Convolvulaceae
	Beans, Soybean, Chickpeas, Lentils, Peanut	Tamarind & Carob Jicama Wing & Yard-long beans	Fabaceae (Leguminosae)
		Malunggay	Moringaceae
	Mustards, Cabbages, Daikon, Radish Broccoli, Cauliflower Choi sum, Watercress		Brassicaceae (Cruciferae)
	Quinoa Beets & Spinach	Amaranth	Chenipodiaceae/ Amarantaceae
	Carrot, Parsely Cilantro, Cumin, Anise		Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)
	Eggplant, Potato Tomato & Tomatillo Chiles & Peppers		Solanaceae
	Squash, Gourds Melons, Cucumbers		Cucurbitaceae
		Mountain apple (‘Ōhi‘a ‘ai) Guava & Surinam Cherry Clove & Allspice	Myrtaceae
	Apple & Pear Peach & Apricot Plum & Cherry Raspberry & Blackberry Strawberry Almond		Rosiaceae
	Walnuts & Pecans		Juglandaceae
	Pistacio	Cashew Mango & Vi apple	Anacardiaceae
		Orange Lemon Lime Grapefruit Pomelo Kumquat Noni Coffee	Rubiaceae
		Lychee, Longan, Rambutan	Sapindaceae
	Grape Blueberry	Papaya Liliko‘i Durian Starfruit	Other fruits
		Cacao (Chocolate)	Sterculaciaeae
		Tea	Theaceae

Some good webpages to find more information on crops are:

• Purdue University' Horticulture program indexes plants and has several references online, including Julia F. Morton's (1987) Fruits of Warm Climates.
• The California Rare Fruit Growers Fruit Facts page.
• UC Davis Fruit & Nut Research & Information Center.
• CTAHR’s Farmer's Bookshelf.
  
• The Missouri Botanical Garden's Kemper Center for Home Gardening.
  
• Kew Gardens’ Plant Cultures.
• Cherry Farms (UK) descriptions of Asian greens.
  

For another kind of plant use, see Beatrice Krauss’ book, Native Plants Used As Medicine in Hawai‘i.

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