Curated category
Non-timber forest products
- CinnamonCinnamon was imported to Egypt as early as 2000 BC, yet for centuries no one in the Mediterranean world knew where it came from.
- Black pepperBlack pepper was found stuffed into the nostrils of Ramesses II, placed there during the mummification rituals that followed his death in 1213 BCE.
- Vascular cambiumThe vascular cambium is the main growth tissue in the stems and roots of plants that exhibit secondary growth. It is, in practical terms, the reason an oak…
- ChanterelleThe chanterelle is a mushroom that has graced palace kitchens and forest floors in equal measure. It smells faintly of apricot, tastes mildly of pepper, and…
- CoconutCoconut, Cocos nucifera, may be the single plant most responsible for human civilizations reaching distant shores. The Austronesian peoples who crossed open…
- NutmegNutmeg sits in the back of spice racks across the world, shaken over eggnog and stirred into pumpkin pie, but few people who use it know that it once changed…
- ResinResin is one of the oldest materials humans have ever put to use. Deep in the late Middle Stone Age, people in Southern Africa were pressing plant resin into…
- CloveClove is a spice so ancient that ministers of a Han Dynasty emperor were required to hold one in their mouths before speaking to the ruler.
- Natural rubberNatural rubber begins as a sticky, milky, white fluid that bleeds from a cut in tree bark. Tappers collect it drop by drop into vessels, a process they call…
- HoneyHoney does not spoil when it is stored properly, and archaeologists have found samples that stayed edible after millennia.