Curated playlist
Medicinal plants
- Cannabis (drug)Uruguay became the first country in the modern era to legalize recreational cannabis in December 2013.
- MangoIn 1974, Filipino horticulturist Ramon Barba made mango trees flower on demand.
- PlumThree of the most widely grown plum species do not exist in the wild. They survive only near people who kept them alive.
- FraxinusA fingernail-sized beetle has killed tens of millions of ash trees across 22 U.S. states.
- CinnamonAncient writers thought cinnamon grew in Arabia, guarded by winged serpents. Traders kept the real source secret.
- ElmA tiny fungus carried by beetles killed most of the elms that lined Western boulevards.
- OatOats began as a weed that early farmers kept planting by accident.
- ParsleyParsley seeds take four to six weeks to sprout. A natural germination inhibitor in the seed coat slows them.
- CannabisA shaman in northwest China was buried with 789 grams of cannabis. Researchers later confirmed it still held THC.
- OpiumTo harvest opium, a farmer scores an unripe poppy pod by hand. The plant weeps a milky fluid that dries overnight.
- ThymeMedieval women gave knights thyme leaves to pass on courage. The herb's link with bravery began with ancient Greeks.
- CoconutEvery coconut on a remote Pacific island arrived because a person brought it. Ocean currents alone could not do it.
- GingerIn 14th century England, a pound of ginger cost as much as a sheep. Ginger began as a crop of ancient seafarers.
- NutmegBritain gave up a nutmeg island to the Dutch and got Manhattan. Run Island was traded in the Treaty of Breda.
- BlackberryA blackberry is not actually a berry. Botanically it is a cluster of small drupelets, each with its own ovule.
- PineappleThe pineapple, Ananas comosus, once inspired a British aristocrat to crown a hothouse with a stone cupola 14 metres tall, built in the shape of the fruit. That aristocrat was John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, and the rooftop ornament is…
- RoseA rose, the flower of the woody plant genus Rosa, gives up its scent very sparingly. Distillers need about two thousand blossoms to yield a single gram of rose oil. People have been willing to pay that price for a very long time, and it…
- TaroTaro, the root vegetable that botanists call Colocasia esculenta, reached 18 million tonnes of world production in 2022. Nigeria alone grew 46 percent of that total, far ahead of every other country. The crop ranks fifth among the world's…
- QuinceThe quince, Cydonia oblonga, can grow as heavy as one kilogram and still be too tart to bite into. Its skin turns a bright golden yellow and its aroma carries, yet the flesh stays hard and astringent. It looks much like a pear and belongs…
- Papaver somniferumPapaver somniferum, known as the opium poppy or breadseed poppy, is the one plant that supplies both morphine and the seeds that decorate baked goods. In 1987, agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration raided Thomas Jefferson's…
- OliveThe olive, a subtropical evergreen tree that botanists call Olea europaea, once led the writer Georges Duhamel to remark that the "Mediterranean ends where the olive tree no longer grows." That is a large claim for a short, squat tree…
- Narcissus (plant)Narcissus, the genus behind the daffodil, includes a single cultivar called Carlton that has been grown as more than 9 billion bulbs. That adds up to about 350,000 tons, which makes it one of the most numerous individual plants produced…
- Nelumbo nuciferaNelumbo nucifera, the sacred lotus, once grew a living plant from a seed about 1,300 years old, give or take 270 years. Researchers germinated that seed in 1994. Seeds of similar age have been recovered from a dry lakebed in northeastern…
- KhatKhat is a shrub from the highlands of eastern Africa, and one daily bag of its leaves takes an estimated 500 litres of water to grow. Farmers sell the fresh leaves to be chewed, and millions of people treat them as a daily ritual. The…
- Mitragyna speciosaIn Thailand, the leaves of Mitragyna speciosa were once described as "used as a snack to receive guests and was part of the ritual worship of ancestors and gods". That same leaf, known as kratom, is now restricted across much of the world.…