Edible Houseplants The reported human edibility of 1,264 plant genera, arranged alphabetically. Arthur Lee Jacobson Preface All people eat. Most people embrace eat- conservatories and greenhouses, or used ing a diverse diet. Many people like re- in interiorscaping, in aquaria, terraria, search and writing. Fewer people share and as indoor bonsai. In my enthusiastic their learning through books. Until now, zeal, it seemed reasonable to also include no one has arranged in one book a thor- some genera that are grown outside in the ough account of those plants cultivated warm season, but kept indoors, contain- indoors and how people around the erized, to protect against winter weather. world have eaten them or related plants, Like an addict, I sought more and more. or have not eaten them, or been poisoned Just because a plant genus was grown by them. You’re reading an original book. rarely in the past, does not mean it is un- Why and how this book was worthy of being grown commonly in the future. created In describing the relative frequency How I learned so much, and the way with which a given genus is cultivated, the book was written, is worth explain- I attempted to learn and share its overall ing. In the beginning, I didn’t know the level of rarity or commonness, not mere- first thing about houseplants. The truth ly its status currently in the USA. Now be told, I despised them. Then why did and then, a given houseplant may be I write this book? Love is the answer. I common in Europe, or Japan, but not in love plants (I make my livelihood as a the USA. Many plants were once grown plant expert). I love research and writ- commonly but are now out of favor or ing. I love food and eating. After carnal fashion. pleasure, the joys of eating, drinking, and To compile this book, I visited 9 cooking rank very high in the list of great public libraries, took 22 out-of-state re- sensual pleasures humans can revel in. I search trips, consulted over 2,600 articles, feel a responsibility to share useful but books, nursery catalogs, scholarly the- under-known information. And food for ses, and abstracts, which dated from the people is a fundamental need. Finally, I 1700s onward and ranged from dull and confess that when I conceived the notion cumbersome to fascinating and lively. I of this book, I didn’t know how many used a relatively tiny number of online plants were involved nor that the job databases, blogs, and the like. would hog so much time. I guessed that I The approximate geographic break- could finish within five years. down of the references consulted was as It started with a basic list of the com- follows: mon plant genera grown as houseplants. To do this, I looked at over 60 houseplant Africa, Arabia & Madagascar 18% books. Then I added uncommon genera, New World 24% and a selection of rare, very rare, and ex- India, Kashmir, Pakistan, Nepal 23% tremely rare genera. Not yet satisfied, I SE Asia, Australia, NZ, etc. 18% added some genera grown exceedingly Temperate climates 17% rarely, and grown mainly or even only in Many general books, such as those about Of the 1,264 genera in this book, I global edible plants, toxic plants, or trop- have personal experience with, and stud- ical horticulture, as well as botany mono- ied firsthand, only 600+ of them, and of graphs, were also consulted. those have tasted only about 414 of them Chimpanzees and Bonobos (Pan and grown indoors over 175 of them. paniscus and Pan troglodytes) are the ex- At this writing (March 2018), the house tant primates related most closely to us I live in contains only 111 plants. This “brainy chimps” called Homo sapiens book is thus mainly the reported human (being classed in the same animal fam- edibility of plant genera ; if it was limited ily Hominidae, sharing 99%+ identity at to my personal experience, it’d be far functionally important DNA sites, and smaller. This book is not intended at all as even placed by some zoologists in genus a how-to guide, an identification guide, Homo), so I also consulted 15 references or to suggest what you ought to try to that discuss the plants eaten by them, in grow or eat. “Recipes” supplied are just the Congo (Zaire), Gabon, Uganda, and for the sake of accurate and interesting Tanzania. reporting. During my study, I ate house- I purchased over 90 books. I bought plants raw, boiled, fried, dried, made into hundreds of plants to grow, familiar- liqueurs, and roasted. Some I was scared ize myself with, and taste. I started in to sample. Some meals tasted heavenly, 2009–2010, and went to press in 2021. I and others were inedible due to acridity. could have easily spent more time add- Often, people in one region, or one ing data, but desired to stop at a certain age, ingest as food plants or animals that point of diminishing returns. The drama other people avoid. For example, some and trauma of acquiring plants and infor- of us love bitter foods , but others don’t. mation took a whale of a cost in time and Many plants are eaten only in times of dollars. While compiling the informa- famine. Some foods appeal mostly to tion, I had to earn a living, so the book children. For the majority of humanity’s was done in my spare time. I was thrilled existence, most individuals had to work to taste plants that were reported neither hard to obtain enough calories and nutri- edible nor toxic, and discovered a few tion to thrive. All kinds of plants, fungi, that tasted delicious and many that were and animals have been ingested as food: if meh, or bitter, acrid, astringent, or too fi- it moves or grows, eat it ! Only a percent- brous and bland. age of that vast heritage has been put into Unlike university academics, I had writing. And I the researcher have had almost no access to costly restricted on- access to only a percentage of the avail- line scientific journal articles held by able literature. Thus, this book is by no commercial enterprises such as Elsevier means the final word on the subject. It and Springer, so missed reading much is a hefty report of what one student— writing of value. I did what one unaf- I myself— found in 10 years of looking, filiated person could, part time, armed by growing, and tasting. The sunshine of pluck, rare focus, patience, and passion, learning pierced many dark clouds of ig- unencumbered by dumb bosses, “publish norance. or perish” idiocy, or deadlines. Further exploration of gen- “comestible” instead. If Brazilian mainly era not in this book . or wholly, use comestível. Also, try the word “ethnobotany,” (ethnobotanique, For any genus not included in this book, or etnobotánica, etnobotânico). And if I share with you the process I employed there are alternative generic names indi- to determine any reported edibility. So cated in Mabberley’s book, search also if you desire to check about edibility of those names. You may also need to em- a genus not in this book, you can ben- ploy Google® Translate to decipher the efit from my advice on how to conduct results of your search. a search yourself. (Please do not write To locate comprehensive, accurate asking me ; do the search yourself ! ) To data in this subject, one must use both research the reported edibility of a genus, printed sources and digital. Internet first make sure that you have a proper searches are needed, but large university scientific generic name —rather than a libraries also supply valuable data not re- common name. Confusingly, sometimes vealed using the web. Try to visit librar- the proper scientific name is also a com- ies strong in holdings of botany, horti- mon name—for example: Camellia and culture, and anthropology, archaeology, Magnolia. and ethnobotany (Library of Congress If you can use only one book to start subject subclasses QK, SB, and GN, re- with, best is the 2017 Mabberley’s Plant- spectively) Book. Mabberley’s guide often states A few genera that I ignored, but that whether a genus has edible species or not. could have been added if I desired to Numerous books cover edible plants. spend yet more days researching: Most such books are local in coverage. In contrast is Günther Kunkel’s 1984 book Anemopægma Plants for Human Consumption. Includ- Annona Arundo ing over 3,000 genera, it superseded all Cistus previous global compendia, but nowa- Gyrocarpus days has been replaced by online data- Humulus bases such as Food Plants International, Libertia which includes mushrooms. This Edible Limonium Houseplants book contains at least 275 Macadamia edible genera that are not in Kunkel’s Paullinia book, but fewer than 40 not in Food These and others left out are as worthy Plants International at this writing. of inclusion as some that were permitted When you have a correct generic in the book. Being thus inconsistent does name, then try looking, both in books not bother me, because the book has far and on the internet using search engines. more genera than any reader could expect If the genus is found much in parts of or desire in such an undertaking. If I had the world where English is spoken, you not stopped adding more genera, I would can do a search in Google® Scholar using never have finished the book. Obscure, the generic name and the word “edible.” small genera I can check thoroughly in a Also use Google® Books.