Select African Diaspora Plant Inventory (Part 5)

Kalale Benin women with harvested yams.

Welcome to the fifth installment of our Select African Diaspora Plant Inventory. We have assembled more than 100 plants from various sources - books, publications, prototype gardens and conferences in order to identify plants that inextricably connected to the descendants of the Middle Passage and the peoples of West Africa.

The enslavement of West Africans to provide labor for the economic engine for European nations and the colonization of the Americas and the Caribbean. Africans who landed on these shores adapted their agricultural knowledge to newfound conditions - on large-scale agricultural productions on plantations, on plantation subsistence gardens they created to supplement their own food needs and in villages of freed slaves who fled from their captors and created their own agricultural economies to sustain their maroon communities.

Our select African Diaspora plant inventory is currently North American and Caribbean-centric.  We will eventually add more plants from the gardening scene in West Africa, the Caribbean and South America.

Select African Diaspora Plant Inventory - Part 5 (S - Z)

Abidjan, Ivory Coast – Local vendors with their products in the commune of Adjamé, Abidjan.

PLANT	CLASS	BACKGROUND / ORIGINS	SOURCE
Sesame:   Blue Sesame, Sea Island Benne, Beniseed	Sesamum indicum;  Sesamum radiatum	West Africa	Truelove Seeds; Sistah Seeds; NYBG-African-American;  In the Shadow of Slavery - 2009 (J. Carney)
Sorghum:   Coral, Sugar Drip (Guinea Corn)	Sorghum bicolor	South of Sudan to Mauritania	NYBG-African-American;   Farming While Black - 2018 (L. Penniman);  Truelove Seeds;  In the Shadow of Slavery - 2009 (J. Carney);  Colonial Williamsburg Sankofa Heritage Garden
Spices:  Turmeric, Cardamon, Cinnamon, Vanilla, Nutmeg, Allspice, Curry;  Allspice	Turmeric-Curcuma longa; Cardamon-Elletaria cardamomum;  Cinnamon-Cinnamomum verum;  Vanilla-Vanilla planifolia;  Nutmeg-Myristica fragrans;  Allspice-Pimenta dioica; Curry-Murraya koenigii;  Allspice-Pimenta dioica	Tropical climates	NYBG-Caribbean; Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science (the Huntington)
Squash:   White bush scalloped squash	Cucurbita pep	North American indigenous people	Farming While Black - 2018 (L. Penniman)
Squash:  Green-striped Cushaw pumpkin	Cucurbita mixta;  Curcurbita argyrosperma		Farming While Black - (L. Penniman);  Sistah Seeds
Sugar Cane:   Bourboriat Suriname,  Homeowners green, Jamaican stripe, Purple Ribbon,  Red variety	Saccharum officinarum		NYBG-African-American;  NYBG-Caribbean
Sunchoke:  Jerusalem artichoke	Helianthus tuberosus		NYBG-African-American
Sweet flag root	Acor acorus calamus var. americanus	Used by Native American tribes for ceremonies, medicine and trade.	NYBG-African-American
Tamarind	Tamarindus indica	Native to tropical Africa; used for foods, beverages and medicines	NYBG-Caribbean;  Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science (the Huntington)
Taro	Colocasia esculenta	Food staple, root vegetable;  African, Oceanic, East Asian, Southeast Asian	NYBG-Caribbean
Tomato:   Aunt Lou’s Underground Railroad Tomato,  Moyamensing (Eastern State Prison),  Goose Creek,  Paul Robeson,  Plate de Haiti, Purple Calabash	Solanum lycopersicum	According William Woys Weaver, the Plate de Haiti has been grown in Haiti and the Dominican Republic since before the 1560s.	Truelove Seeds;  Sistah Seeds;  NYBG-African-American;  Farming While Black - 2018 (L. Penniman);  From Seed to Skillet:  A Guide to Growing, Tending, Harvesting and Cooking Up Fresh, Healthful Food to Share with People You Love - 2010 (Jimmy Williams)
Tomato:  Black nightshade;  Nightshade	Solanum nigrum; Solanum macrocarbon		Farming While Black - 2018 (L. Penniman);  In the Shadow of Slavery - 2009 (J. Carney)
Tomato:  Chiapas, bitter tomato	Solanum pimpinellifolium;  Solanum incanum		NYBG-Caribbean;  In the Shadow of Slavery - 2009 (J. Carney)
Yam:  African White	Dioscorea rotundata	West Africa	NYBG-African-American;  In the Shadow of Slavery - 2009 (J. Carney)
Yam:  Guinea Yam, Yellow Yam	Dioscorea cayenensis	West Africa	NYBG-African-American;  In the Shadow of Slavery - 2009 (J. Carney)
Yam:  Indian Yam, Inhame, Cush-Cush	Dioscorea trifida	Caribbean, Central/South America	NYBG-Caribbean
Yam:  True Yam (Air potato yam)	Dioscorea bulbifera		NYBG-Caribbean;  In the Shadow of Slavery - 2009 (J. Carney)
Yam:  Three-leaved bitter yam	Discorea dumetorum	West Africa	In the Shadow of Slavery - 2009 (J. Carney)
Yam: Yam potato	Solanum tuberous	Plant migrated from South Carolina to England in the 1700s;  Weaver: “a living artifact of African-American history…”	100 Vegetables - 2000 (W.W. Weaver)
Yautia Lila, Malanga blanca	Xanthosoma sagittifolium	Root vegetable;  South America and the tropics; Puerto Rican starchy tuber;  substitute for potatoes or yams	NYBG-Caribbean