Botanically Speaking: Getting to Know the Food We Eat Everyday

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1 Bill Dowie, BA, MCPM, LEED-AP O+M Botanically Speaking: Getting to Know the Food We Eat Everyday Food is a wondrous life-giving thing. However, you may be surprised about how many parts of a plant we humans are actual consuming. You will see a short pictorial lecture on leaves, tubers, roots, stems, flowers, fruit, seeds, and more - all botanically related back to what we really are eating on our dinner plate.

2 Plant Parts Based on the Manitoba Master Gardener Handbook Oct 2008 Botany Basics Chapter

3 Vegetative parts Sexual Reproductive parts TWO GROUP STRUCTURES

4 Vegetative parts roots stems shoot buds leaves

5 ROOTS tap fibrous tuberous

6 STEMS ON GROUND long (runners / stolons) strawberry compressed (crowns root/stem interface) dandelions

7 STEMS ABOVE GROUND trunks spurs canes vines

8 STEMS BELOW GROUND rhizomes tubers with (inter)nodes eyes corms bulbs

9 LEAVES scale (cataphylls) seed (cotyledons) spines & tendrils storage bracts

10 BUDS leaf bud with embryonic leaves flower bud with embryonic flower parts

11 Sexual Reproductive parts flower buds flowers seeds fruit

12 Fruits Fleshy Simple (pome, drupe, berry), Aggregate, and Multiple Dry Simple (legumes, capsules, samaras, nuts)

13 Dry simple fruits include: - dehiscent (follicle, legume, silique, capsule) - indehiscent (samara, achene, caryopsis, nut) Dehiscent: Ovary splits upon maturing o Follicle: Pod formed from a single carpel and splits on one side milkweed, peony, magnolia o Legume: Pod from a leguminous plant (fixes own nitrogen for growth) pea, bean, soya, peanut o Silique: Long pods from the mustard family and splits from both sides fruits/seeds of the cabbage family (not the part we eat!) o Capsule: Pod formed from two carpels brazil nut, horse chestnut, poppy, lily, Indehiscent: Ovary does not split upon maturing o Samara: Single seeded fruit with a flat and fibrous winged structure has formed over the ovary, to be carried by the wind sycamore, elm seeds o Achene: Single seeded fruit buckwheat, buttercup o Caryopsis: Single seeded fruit where the pericarp is fused to the seed cereals, grass seeds o Nut: Hard fruit or shell encasing the seed acorn, hazelnut, wallnut

14 Now It s time to match these terms with some of the foods we eat

15 Carrot elongated tap-root

16 Radish elongated tap-root

17 Sweet Potato tuberous root (storage organ)

18 Stem Nodes = eyes (regular) Potato underground stem - tuber

19 Asparagus enlarged succulent stem

20 Cauliflower proliferated stem

21 Head Lettuce unusually large terminal bud

22 Brussels Sprouts succulent axillary buds

23 Globe Artichoke basal portion of flower bud s bracts

24 Beats roots, stems, leaves

25 Broccoli edible flower buds (+ stems and leaves)

26 Leaf Lettuce edible leaf blade

27 Parsley leaf blades + stems

28 Celery thick and succulent leaf petiole

29 Onion fleshy leaves, leaf bases, turnicate bulb

30 Leeks leaf blade and base

31 Nasturtium spicy flowers

32 Apple fleshy fruit (pome)

33 Peach fleshy fruit (drupe)

34 Raspberry Blackberry fleshy fruit (aggregate) [one flower many ovaries and pistils]

35 Pineapple fleshy fruit (multiple) [many flowers tightly compacted on a single structure]

36 Tomato fleshy fruit (true berry) entire pericarp (fruit wall) is fleshy

37 Rhubarb thick and fruity leaf petiole

38 Peas dry fruit [legumes]

39 The shoots, which are the tender tips of the vines, including the leaves, stems, flower blossoms, and tendrils [stem structure], make the most fantastic and unexpected salad greens. They taste like peas, but with a wonderful grassy, green flavor that is all their own. Edible Gardening 101: How to Harvest Pea Shoots Vegetarian Times

40 Cabbage unusually large terminal bud

41 Variety of Beans dry fruit (legumes)

42 Peanuts dry fruit [legumes]

43 Walnut dry fruit (true nut)

44 Raisins sun-dried (black) grapes - used to be a fleshy fruit (berries) -

45 Cucumber fleshy fruit (true berry) entire pericarp (fruit wall) is fleshy

46 Banana fleshy fruit (true berry) entire pericarp (fruit wall) is fleshy

47 Corn fleshy fruit seeds are on the outside of fruit tissue as opposed to other fruits (eg. apples, oranges, cucumbers)

48 Poppy Seeds dry fruit [capsules]

49 Sunflower Seeds dry fruit of the sunflower, Helianthus annuus

50 Pumpkin Seeds true seeds (dried), taken from inside the guts of the fruit, pumpkin

51 Pumpkin fleshy fruit [gourds]

52 The avocado (Persea americana) is a tree that is native to South Central Mexico, classified as a member of the flowering plant family Lauraceae. Avocado (aka alligator pear) additionally refers to the tree's fruit, which is botanically a large berry containing a single seed Avocado fleshy fruit

53 Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies produced by some fungi

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