Curated playlist
Plants with compound leaves
- TomatoIn 1893, the US Supreme Court ruled the tomato a vegetable. Botanically, it is a fruit, a berry.
- CorianderCoriander, known to botanists as Coriandrum sativum, is an annual herb in the family Apiaceae, and it splits dinner tables in two. For most people, a fresh leaf tastes bright, with a faint citrus edge. For others, the very same leaf tastes…
- Orange (fruit)Every sweet orange descends from one cross between a mandarin and a pomelo. No sweet orange grows wild anywhere.
- GrapefruitOne glass of grapefruit juice can push some medicines to overdose levels.
- PeaThe word pea comes from a mistake: English speakers took pease for a plural and dropped the s.
- LemonThe lemon is not a wild species but a cross of two other fruits. It came from the citron and the bitter orange.
- Mandarin orangeThe sweet mandarin orange descends from a bitter wild fruit. The pomelo gave most mandarins their sweetness.
- Lime (fruit)Squeezing a lime on a sunny beach can burn your skin. Chemicals in lime peel react to ultraviolet light.
- PeanutThe peanut, Arachis hypogaea, buries its own fruit, and its Latin species name means "under the earth." In 2023 the world produced 54 million tonnes of peanuts, with China supplying 36 percent of the total and India 19 percent. The plant…
- TamarindTamarind, known to botanists as Tamarindus indica, carries a name that points to the wrong continent. In Arabic it was called tamr hindi, meaning Indian date. Yet the tree is indigenous to tropical Africa. Its pods hold a sweet and tangy…
- Juglans regiaWitches were said to gather at a walnut tree in Benevento, Italy. A judge wrote about them in 1526.