List of domesticated plants
This is a list of plants that have been domesticated by humans.
The list includes species or larger formal and informal botanical categories that include at least some domesticated individuals.
To be considered domesticated, a population of plants must have their behavior, life cycle, or appearance significantly altered as a result of being under humans control for multiple generations. (Please see the main article on domestication for more information.)
Plants in this list are organized by the original or primary purpose for which they were domesticated. When a plant has more than one significant human use, it has been listed in more than one category.
Food and cooking
- Apple
- Asian pear
- Loquat (Japanese medlar)
- Common medlar
- Pear
- Quince
Other
- 103+ domesticated plant species in the Amazon, including sapodilla, calabash, tucuma, babacu, acai, wild pineapple, cocopalm, American-oil palm, Panama-hat palm, peach palm (Bactris gasipaes), ice-cream bean,
- Banana
- Breadfruit
- Durian
- Ensete
- Fig
- Jackfruit
- Papaya
- Passionfruit
Cereals (or grains, also called "corn plants" in the UK)
- Barley
- Finger millet
- Fonio
- Foxtail millet
- Little barley (Hordeum pusillum, central US pre-Columbian)
- Maize (called corn in the U.S.). Old domesticated plant, found in countless variations throughout the Americas.
- Maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana, central US pre-Columbian)
- Pearl millet (predominantly in African cultures and India, also for beer brewing)
- Proso millet
- Oats
- Rice The chief crop in eastern Asia, and an important foodstuff around the world.
- Rye (used in Eastern Europe Countries, and for alcoholic beverages)
- Sorghum
- Spelt
- Teff -- Ethiopia (also tef)
- Triticale (Secalotriticum spp.) Hybrids between wheat and rye.
- Wheat (called corn in the UK, esp. England). Has a very long history of domestication and is thought to be one of the first plants used for farming.
- Einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum), now rarely grown.
- pasta or Durum wheat (Triticum durum)
- Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum)
- Amaranth
- Buckwheat
- Job's tears
- Knotweed bristlegrass (erect knotweed, New World, important prior to development of maize)
- Pitseed goosefoot (Chenopodium berlandieri, central US pre-Columbian)
- Quinoa
- Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)
- Marshelder (sumpweed, Iva annua, central US pre-Columbian)
- Beans (eaten dry as pulses or fresh as vegetables)
- Azuki bean
- Chickpea
- Common bean (including pinto bean, kidney bean and others)
- Lentil
- Runner bean
- Lima bean
- Velvet bean
- Mung bean
- Pea
- Peanut
- Jicama
Sweet small-plant fruits (berries)
Aggregated drupelet "berries"
True Berries
Other
- Currant
- Grape
- Melon (several species)
- Strawberry
- Avocado
Non-sweet small-plant fruits ("vegetables")
- Eggplant (aubergine)
- Peppers
- Squash (e.g., Cucurbita pepo, multiple varieties)
- Tomato
- Non-starchy
- Starchy
- Cassava (manioc, yuca) (requires special processing to be edible)
- Potato
- Sweet potato
- Taro (requires special processing to be edible)
- Yam
Oil producing plants (for cooking)
- Olive
- Legumes grown principally for oil production
- Peanut (also commonly eaten in the United States, and important in Thai cuisine)
- Soybean (also a major livestock feed, and export crop, and sometimes eaten as a snack food in the U.S.)
Commodities
- Plants grown principally for animal food or soil enrichment
- Oil producing plants (for fuel or lubrication)
- Drug plants
- Belladonna
- Theobroma cacao (source of chocolate)
- Cannabis as a drug
- Coffee
- Cola
- Opium poppy
- Quinine
- Tea
- Tobacco
- Fiber plants (for textiles)
- Research and science
Ornamental plants
References
- Heiser, C. B. (1990). Seed to civilization: the story of food. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
- Simpson, B.B.; Conner-Ogorzaly, M. (2000). Economic botany: plants in our world. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
- Vaughan, J. G.; C. A. Geissler (1997). The new Oxford book of food plants. Oxford University Press, Oxford.