Knowledge base
Crops
Field, cereal, oilseed, and horticultural crops — with botanical classification, climate and soil requirements, agronomy, and associated pests and diseases.
257 entries · every entry is sourced and dated
Agronomic details such as sowing dates, input rates, and yields are highly region-specific. Entries describe principles and requirements rather than universal prescriptions.
Browse by group, family or genus
12 hubs, each covering enough crops to be worth navigating and saying something true of the group rather than of its largest member. The corpus holds 74 families and 213 genera; a taxon existing is not a reason to publish a page about it.
Poaceae — the grass family · Fabaceae — the legume family · Solanaceae — the nightshade family · Brassicaceae — the cabbage family
Brassica — one genus, many crops
Cereals · Pulses and grain legumes · Oilseeds · Roots and tubers · Forage and pasture crops · Fruit crops · Vegetables
Verified crop taxa
AgricultureID holds a checked botanical identity for 351 cultivated crops — the accepted name, its rank, family and genus, each resolved against two independent taxonomic authorities. 94 of them are taxa held without an encyclopedia article, so they appear in the directory rather than as pages of their own.
- Fibre crop
Abaca
Musa textilis
Abaca is a banana that is never harvested for fruit: the crop is the fibre in its leaf sheaths, stripped by hand from cut stems, and it holds strength in seawater in a way that made it the world's marine cordage fibre.
- Pulse crop
Adzuki Bean
Vigna angularis
Adzuki bean is grown almost entirely to be made into sweet paste, so it is bred and graded for seed coat colour, uniform size and cooking behaviour rather than for protein or yield.
- Cereal grain
African Rice
Oryza glaberrima
African rice is a second, independent domestication of rice, raised from a different wild ancestor in the inland delta of the Niger. It yields less than Asian rice and tolerates more — drought, acidity, aluminium and iron toxicity, and weeds — which is why its genes matter well beyond the area it is still grown on.
- Forage crop
Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
Alfalfa is a deep-rooted, nitrogen-fixing perennial legume grown primarily as hay and forage for livestock. Stands can remain productive for several years, with multiple cuttings taken each season.
- Tree nut crop
Almond
Prunus dulcis (syn. Prunus amygdalus)
Almond is a temperate deciduous tree grown for its edible seed, botanically a drupe closely related to peach and plum. Commercial orchards depend on cross-pollination between compatible cultivars and are managed as long-lived perennial plantings.
- Specialty crop
Aloe vera
Aloe vera (syn. Aloe barbadensis)
Aloe vera is a drought-tolerant perennial succulent grown commercially for the gel and latex contained in its thick leaves, used as a raw material by the cosmetic, personal-care, and food and beverage industries.
- Pseudocereal and leafy vegetable
Amaranth
Amaranthus (A. cruentus, A. hypochondriacus, A. caudatus)
Amaranth is a fast-growing warm-season crop grown both as a gluten-free grain (pseudocereal) and as a nutritious leafy vegetable, valued for heat and drought tolerance and highly efficient C4 growth.
- Spice
Anise
Pimpinella anisum
Anise is an annual umbellifer grown for aromatic seed, ripening unevenly across a branched inflorescence so that harvest timing trades shattering losses against immature seed.
- Tree fruit crop
Apple
Malus domestica (syn. Malus pumila)
Apple is a temperate deciduous tree fruit grown worldwide for fresh consumption, juice, and processed products. Orchards are established from grafted trees and cropped for many years before replanting.
- Tree fruit crop
Apricot
Prunus armeniaca
Apricot is a deciduous stone fruit tree grown for fresh, dried, and processed fruit. It blooms early in spring in many regions, which makes bloom-time frost a particularly important production risk.
- Beverage crop
Arabica Coffee
Coffea arabica
Arabica is the tetraploid, self-fertile coffee species of tropical highlands. It supplies most speciality and filter coffee, and its narrow climatic window and susceptibility to leaf rust shape where and how it can be grown.
- Root and tuber crop
Arrowroot
Maranta arundinacea
Arrowroot is a rhizome crop grown almost entirely for extracted starch, dug after ten to twelve months and processed within days because the rhizome deteriorates fast once lifted.
- Vegetable crop
Artichoke
Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus
Artichoke is a perennial thistle-like plant of the daisy family grown for its large, immature flower buds, harvested and eaten as a vegetable before the flower opens.
- Fruit crop
Asian Pear
Pyrus pyrifolia
Asian pear is eaten crisp straight from the tree, which inverts everything about European pear handling: it does not ripen after picking, so maturity at harvest is final and there is no ripening room to correct a mistake.
- Vegetable crop
Asparagus
Asparagus officinalis
Asparagus is a long-lived perennial vegetable grown for its tender young shoots (spears), harvested seasonally from an established underground crown that can remain productive for many years.
- Tree fruit crop
Avocado
Persea americana
Avocado is a subtropical to tropical evergreen tree grown for its nutrient-dense, oil-rich fruit. Orchards are established from grafted trees, and management centers heavily on root-zone drainage because of the crop’s vulnerability to Phytophthora root rot.
- Legume crop
Bambara Groundnut
Vigna subterranea
Bambara groundnut is an African indigenous grain legume that develops its seed underground, prized for drought tolerance and its ability to yield on poor soils, providing a complete, protein- and carbohydrate-rich pulse.
- Fruit crop
Banana
Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana and their interspecific hybrids; most dessert cultivars are triploid Musa acuminata (AAA group) types such as Cavendish
Banana is a large, perennial, herbaceous plant grown throughout the tropics for its edible fruit. Plantings are propagated vegetatively and regrow from the underground rhizome across successive cropping cycles.
- Cereal crop
Barley
Hordeum vulgare
Barley is a temperate cereal grown for malting, animal feed, and food uses, cultivated as winter or spring types across cool and semi-arid regions and generally noted for tolerating a somewhat broader range of growing conditions than wheat.
- Cereal crop
Barnyard Millet
Echinochloa frumentacea
Barnyard millet ripens faster than any other cultivated cereal — reported at around 45 days under favourable conditions — which makes it the crop of the failed season and the late monsoon rather than of the planned rotation.
- Culinary herb crop
Basil
Ocimum basilicum
Basil is a warm-season annual herb grown for its aromatic leaves, used fresh and dried as a culinary herb and as a source of essential oil for the food and fragrance industries.
- Vegetable crop
Beetroot
Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris
Beetroot is a root vegetable grown for its sweet, deeply colored taproot, closely related to sugar beet and spinach, and notable among vegetables for a beneficial response to sodium fertilization.
- Forage crop
Berseem Clover
Trifolium alexandrinum
Berseem clover is the winter forage of irrigated subtropical agriculture. It is an annual cut four or five times in a season, and in the Nile valley and the Indo-Gangetic plain it is the crop that carries dairy animals through winter.
- Forage crop
Birdsfoot Trefoil
Lotus corniculatus
Birdsfoot trefoil is the tannin legume for ground that defeats the others — wet, acid, infertile — and it is bloat-safe for the same reason sainfoin is, on soils sainfoin cannot tolerate.
- Vegetable crop
Bitter Gourd
Momordica charantia
Bitter gourd is grown for a fruit whose bitterness is the product rather than a defect, and every part of its management, from clipped seed to overhead trellis to picking every few days, follows from a fruit that must be sold immature.
- Spice crop
Black Cumin
Nigella sativa
Black cumin is a buttercup-family seed spice, unrelated to cumin, to caraway and to every other seed spice in the trade — all of which come from the carrot family — and its name collides with two of them.
- Legume crop
Black Gram
Vigna mungo
Black gram is a warm-season pulse of South Asia grown for its small, dark, protein-rich seed, widely used split and ground in staple foods, and valued as a short-season rotation and rice-fallow crop.
- Spice crop
Black pepper
Piper nigrum
Black pepper is a perennial climbing vine grown for its dried fruit (peppercorns), traditionally cultivated trained onto living or artificial support trees in humid tropical regions.
- Fruit crop
Blackberry
Rubus fruticosus aggregate (cultivated blackberries are largely complex Rubus hybrids)
Blackberry is a perennial cane fruit related to raspberry, grown for its dark aggregate fruit on a permanent root system, with modern thornless and primocane-fruiting cultivars widely used in commercial production.
- Fruit crop
Blackcurrant
Ribes nigrum
Blackcurrant is a temperate deciduous bush grown for its aromatic, vitamin-C-rich berries, used mainly for juice, cordials, and processing, and valued for winter-hardiness and a distinctive requirement for winter chilling.
- Fruit crop
Blueberry
Vaccinium corymbosum (northern highbush blueberry); other cultivated Vaccinium species and hybrids are grown regionally
Blueberry is a perennial deciduous shrub of the heath family grown for its fresh and processed fruit, distinguished by a strict requirement for acidic, well-drained, organic-rich soil.
- Vegetable
Bottle Gourd
Lagenaria siceraria
Bottle gourd is a vigorous night-flowering cucurbit eaten as an immature fruit, dried at maturity into a hard-shelled container, and used across Asia as the standard rootstock for grafted watermelon.
- Nut crop
Brazil Nut
Bertholletia excelsa
Brazil nut is the major internationally traded nut that has no plantations: repeated attempts to cultivate it have produced trees that grow but do not fruit, because the pollinator and its supporting forest cannot be planted with the tree.
- Fruit and staple crop
Breadfruit
Artocarpus altilis
Breadfruit is a large tropical tree grown for its starchy, carbohydrate-rich fruit eaten as a cooked staple, valued as a long-lived, low-maintenance food tree across the Pacific, Caribbean, and humid tropics.
- Vegetable crop
Broccoli
Brassica oleracea var. italica
Broccoli is a cool-season brassica grown for its immature flower heads, harvested before flowering and valued for reliable performance in temperate and Mediterranean climates.
- Vegetable crop
Brussels Sprouts
Brassica oleracea Gemmifera Group
Brussels sprouts are axillary buds harvested from a standing stem. That single structural fact makes them the only brassica whose crop is distributed up a column rather than concentrated in one head, and it governs the entire harvest system.
- Pseudocereal crop
Buckwheat
Fagopyrum esculentum
Buckwheat is a fast-maturing, broadleaf pseudocereal grown for its triangular seed, used as a gluten-free grain and flour, and widely valued as a short-season cover and smother crop.
- Vegetable crop
Cabbage
Brassica oleracea var. capitata
Cabbage is a biennial brassica vegetable grown worldwide for its dense leafy head, used fresh, cooked, fermented, and processed, and cultivated across a wide range of temperate and subtropical climates.
- Oilseed crop
Camelina
Camelina sativa
Camelina matures in roughly 85 to 100 days on as little as 280 mm of rainfall, which is why it is grown as a rotation and cover-crop oilseed in places where a full-season crop would not finish.
- Fruit crop
Cape Gooseberry
Physalis peruviana
Cape gooseberry is the sweet Physalis, harvested when the husk dries and the fruit drops — and that husk, which the market treats as packaging, is what gives an otherwise delicate berry weeks of shelf life.
- Spice
Caraway
Carum carvi
Caraway is an umbellifer grown for aromatic seed in a two-year cycle, occupying the ground through a winter before it yields and shattering readily once ripe.
- Spice crop
Cardamom
Elettaria cardamomum
Cardamom is a perennial, rhizomatous understorey herb of the ginger family grown for its dried seed capsules, one of the most highly valued spices by weight in global trade.
- Vegetable crop
Carrot
Daucus carota subsp. sativus
Carrot is a biennial root vegetable grown for its edible taproot, cultivated worldwide for fresh consumption, processing, and, in some systems, livestock feed.
- Tree nut crop
Cashew
Anacardium occidentale
Cashew is a tropical evergreen tree grown for its true fruit — the kidney-shaped nut — which develops externally on a fleshy, edible stalk known as the cashew apple. It is notably drought- and heat-tolerant and widely grown on marginal soils in smallholder and agroforestry systems.
- Root and tuber crop
Cassava
Manihot esculenta
Cassava is a woody perennial shrub grown throughout the tropics for its starchy storage roots, valued for drought tolerance and its ability to crop on soils too poor for many other staples.
- Oilseed crop
Castor Bean
Ricinus communis
Castor is grown for an oil that no other crop supplies commercially. Its seed oil is dominated by ricinoleic acid, a hydroxy fatty acid that gives the oil properties the chemical industry has no substitute for — and the same seed contains ricin, which governs how the crop is handled.
- Vegetable crop
Cauliflower
Brassica oleracea var. botrytis
Cauliflower is a cool-season brassica grown for its compact, undeveloped flower head (curd), notably more sensitive to temperature fluctuation than related cole crops such as broccoli and cabbage.
- Vegetable crop
Celery
Apium graveolens var. dulce
Celery is a cool-season vegetable grown for its crisp leaf stalks (petioles), notably demanding of consistent moisture and susceptible to boron-deficiency disorders during production.
- Aromatic and culinary herb crop
Chamomile
Matricaria chamomilla (German chamomile); Chamaemelum nobile (Roman chamomile) is also cultivated
Chamomile is a low-growing flowering herb of the daisy family grown for its small, daisy-like flower heads, dried and used in herbal teas, food flavoring, and fragrance products.
- Vegetable crop
Chayote
Sicyos edulis
Chayote is a perennial cucurbit whose fruit contains a single large seed that germinates inside it, so the crop is planted by putting a whole fruit in the ground — and the roots are a second, separate harvest.
- Tree fruit crop
Cherry
Prunus avium (sweet cherry); Prunus cerasus (sour/tart cherry)
Cherry is a temperate deciduous stone fruit grown as sweet cherry for fresh eating and sour/tart cherry mainly for processing, both propagated by grafting and requiring substantial winter chilling.
- Tree nut crop
Chestnut
Castanea sativa (European chestnut); other cultivated species include Castanea dentata (American chestnut) and Castanea mollissima (Chinese chestnut)
Chestnut is a deciduous nut tree of the beech family grown for its starchy, relatively low-oil nut, eaten roasted or boiled and processed into flour and other products.
- Oilseed crop
Chia
Salvia hispanica
Chia flowers only when day length falls below roughly twelve hours, which for decades confined commercial seed production to tropical and subtropical latitudes and made the crop's geography a photoperiod problem rather than a climate one.
- Legume crop
Chickpea
Cicer arietinum
Chickpea is an annual pulse legume grown for its protein-rich seed, cultivated in two principal market types across semi-arid regions worldwide, and valued in rotation for its nitrogen-fixing ability.
- Vegetable and forage crop
Chicory
Cichorium intybus
Chicory is a versatile crop of the daisy family grown as a leafy salad vegetable, a forcing crop for Belgian endive, a root crop for inulin and a coffee substitute, and as a productive forage.
- Vegetable crop
Chili pepper
Capsicum annuum (and related cultivated Capsicum species)
Chili pepper is a fruiting Solanaceous crop grown for pods ranging from mild to intensely pungent, used fresh, dried, or processed as a vegetable and spice across a wide range of climates.
- Vegetable crop
Chinese Cabbage
Brassica rapa Pekinensis Group
Chinese cabbage is a Brassica rapa heading vegetable, not a relative of European cabbage in any close sense, and it is the raw material of kimchi — a use large enough to shape when and where it is grown.
- Herb
Chives
Allium schoenoprasum
Chives are a hardy perennial Allium grown for repeatedly cut leaf rather than for a bulb, managed as a standing clump for several years and the only Allium in this corpus harvested by mowing.
- Spice crop
Cinnamon
Cinnamomum verum (syn. Cinnamomum zeylanicum); bark of related Cinnamomum species (notably C. cassia) is also traded commercially as cinnamon or cassia
Cinnamon is a perennial evergreen tree grown for its inner bark, which is peeled, dried, and rolled into the familiar quills used as a culinary spice, traditionally managed by regular coppicing rather than allowed to grow to full tree height.
- Fruit crop
Citrus
Citrus
Citrus is a crop whose species boundaries were drawn after the fact: almost everything grown is a hybrid of three ancestral species, and the treatment this corpus follows makes sweet orange, grapefruit and mandarin three cultivar groups of one hybrid rather than three species.
- Spice crop
Clove
Syzygium aromaticum
Clove is a tropical evergreen tree grown for its aromatic, unopened flower buds, hand-picked and dried to produce the familiar dark brown spice used worldwide in cooking and flavoring.
- Forage crop
Cocksfoot
Dactylis glomerata
Cocksfoot is the shade- and drought-tolerant grass of temperate pasture. It grows in dense tussocks rather than a uniform sward, which is both why it survives dry summers and why it becomes unpalatable if left.
- Beverage crop
Cocoa
Theobroma cacao
Cocoa is a tropical understory tree grown for the seeds inside its large pods, which are fermented, dried, and processed into cocoa and chocolate products, traditionally cultivated under a canopy of taller shade trees.
- Tree crop
Coconut
Cocos nucifera
Coconut is a tall tropical palm grown across coastal and lowland tropical regions for its versatile fruit, yielding oil, food, fiber, and shell products from a single long-lived tree.
- Beverage crop
Coffee
Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora (robusta)
Coffee is a perennial tropical shrub grown for its seeds (beans), cultivated mainly as Coffea arabica in cooler highland areas and Coffea canephora (robusta) in warmer lowland areas, often under shade in smallholder systems.
- Legume crop
Common Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris
Common bean is an annual legume grown worldwide for its edible seeds and pods, valued as a major dietary protein source and for its symbiotic nitrogen fixation in cropping systems.
- Culinary herb and spice crop
Coriander
Coriandrum sativum
Coriander is an annual herb grown for two distinct products from the same plant: fresh leaves, known as cilantro, and dried ripe seeds used whole or ground as the spice coriander.
- Fiber crop
Cotton
Gossypium hirsutum (upland cotton); Gossypium barbadense (extra-long-staple cotton, including Pima and Egyptian types)
Cotton is a warm-season crop grown for the fiber (lint) surrounding its seeds, along with cottonseed oil and meal. It is cultivated as an annual across tropical and warm-temperate regions.
- Legume crop
Cowpea
Vigna unguiculata
Cowpea is a heat- and drought-tolerant grain legume of the tropics and subtropics, grown for protein-rich dry seed, edible green pods and leaves, and fodder, and valued in rotations for nitrogen fixation.
- Fruit crop
Cranberry
Vaccinium macrocarpon
Cranberry is a perennial evergreen shrub of the heath family grown for its tart fruit, cultivated in specially constructed acidic, sandy wetland beds and distinguished by tolerance of waterlogging unusual among fruit crops.
- Vegetable crop
Cucumber
Cucumis sativus
Cucumber is a warm-season annual cucurbit vine grown for its edible fruit, cultivated in open fields, high tunnels, and greenhouses for both fresh-slicing and pickling markets.
- Spice crop
Cumin
Cuminum cyminum
Cumin is a low-growing annual herb of the carrot family grown for its small, ridged seeds, dried and used whole or ground as one of the most widely traded culinary spices.
- Vegetable crop
Daikon
Raphanus sativus Longipinnatus Group
Daikon is a long white radish grown as a major East Asian vegetable and, quite separately, as a cover crop chosen for the same root — one that drills through compacted subsoil and then rots, leaving a channel.
- Tree fruit crop
Date Palm
Phoenix dactylifera
Date palm is a long-lived, dioecious palm grown for its fruit (dates) across hot, arid, and semi-arid regions. It is notably drought-, heat-, and salinity-tolerant relative to most tree fruit crops, and commercial groves rely on pollination of female flowers using pollen from separate male palms.
- Culinary herb and spice crop
Dill
Anethum graveolens
Dill is a fast-growing annual herb grown for its feathery aromatic leaves, used fresh as a culinary herb, and its dried seeds, used as a spice and in pickling.
- Fruit crop
Dragon Fruit
Selenicereus undatus (syn. Hylocereus undatus)
Dragon fruit is a climbing cactus grown in warm, dry-adapted conditions for its striking, mildly sweet fruit, valued for drought tolerance, night-blooming flowers, and production on trellised, long-lived plants.
- Fruit crop
Durian
Durio zibethinus
Durian is harvested by letting the fruit fall, because a fruit cut from the tree does not develop properly — and a two-kilogram spined fruit dropping from twenty metres makes the orchard floor the most managed part of the crop.
- Cereal grain
Durum Wheat
Triticum turgidum subsp. durum
Durum is the tetraploid wheat milled into semolina for pasta, couscous and bulgur. It is a different species from bread wheat, with its own quality grading built around kernel vitreousness and yellow pigment rather than baking performance.
- Vegetable crop
Eggplant
Solanum melongena
Eggplant is a warm-season solanaceous fruiting vegetable grown for its glossy, variably shaped and colored fruit, cultivated in open fields and protected culture across warm and temperate regions.
- Cereal grain
Einkorn
Triticum monococcum
Einkorn is the only diploid wheat in cultivation — a single genome where bread wheat has three — and it is hulled, low-yielding and grown almost entirely because of what it is rather than what it produces.
- Cereal grain
Emmer
Triticum turgidum subsp. dicoccum
Emmer is the tetraploid hulled wheat: the same AABB genome as durum, wrapped in glumes that threshing will not release. It is the wheat that fed the ancient Near East and now survives in a handful of specialty and marginal systems.
- Legume crop
Faba Bean
Vicia faba
Faba bean is a cool-season grain legume grown for protein-rich seed used as food, feed, and a fresh vegetable, and valued as one of the more effective nitrogen-fixing crops in temperate and Mediterranean rotations.
- Culinary herb and vegetable crop
Fennel
Foeniculum vulgare
Fennel is grown either for its aromatic dried seeds, used as a spice, or, in the case of Florence fennel, for its swollen leaf-base bulb eaten as a vegetable, typically managed as an annual crop.
- Spice crop
Fenugreek
Trigonella foenum-graecum
Fenugreek is a nitrogen-fixing legume sold as a spice, and it is harvested as three different products — seed, fresh leaf and dried leaf — from the same species under different sowing densities and cutting regimes.
- Tree fruit crop
Fig
Ficus carica
Fig is a subtropical deciduous tree fruit grown for fresh and dried fruit, notable for its unusual enclosed inflorescence and for tolerating heat and drought better than many other tree fruits.
- Cereal grain
Finger Millet
Eleusine coracana
Finger millet is a small-grained tetraploid cereal of eastern Africa and southern India, distinguished by an unusually high grain calcium content and by storage life measured in years rather than months.
- Fiber crop
Flax
Linum usitatissimum
Flax is a slender annual grown in two distinct forms: fiber flax, cultivated for the bast fiber in its stem, and linseed (oilseed) flax, grown for its oil-rich seed.
- Cereal crop
Fonio
Digitaria exilis
Fonio is a fast-maturing West African cereal with very small grains, valued for growing on poor, sandy soils and producing food during the pre-harvest hungry season, and used as a nutritious gluten-free grain.
- Cereal grain
Foxtail Millet
Setaria italica
Foxtail millet is among the shortest-season cultivated cereals, which makes it the crop sown when something else has failed and the season is already half gone — though barnyard millet, whose reported maturity is shorter still, is the faster of the two.
- Vegetable crop
Garlic
Allium sativum
Garlic is a bulb crop in the Allium genus, propagated vegetatively from cloves rather than true seed, grown worldwide for its pungent, storable bulb used as a culinary staple and flavoring.
- Vegetable crop
Gboma Eggplant
Solanum macrocarpon
Gboma eggplant is grown mainly for its leaves, on a shrub that reaches two metres and is cut over rather than harvested once — which makes it a standing leaf crop rather than a vegetable in the usual sense.
- Spice crop
Ginger
Zingiber officinale
Ginger is a perennial herbaceous plant grown for its aromatic underground rhizome, propagated from rhizome pieces and cultivated across warm, humid regions as a spice crop.
- Fruit crop
Grape
Vitis vinifera (European grape); interspecific hybrids and American Vitis species such as Vitis labrusca are also cultivated
Grape is a woody perennial vine grown worldwide for wine, table fruit, raisins, and juice. Vineyards are established from grafted or own-rooted vines and cropped over many years on trellised training systems.
- Tree fruit crop
Grapefruit
Citrus × paradisi
Grapefruit is an evergreen subtropical citrus tree grown for fresh fruit and juice. Unlike many citrus species, it is a comparatively recent hybrid rather than an ancient, naturally occurring citrus type.
- Legume crop
Grass Pea
Lathyrus sativus
Grass pea is an exceptionally hardy grain and forage legume that yields under drought, waterlogging, and poor soils, valued as a food-security crop despite a neurotoxin in its seed that requires careful use.
- Forage crop
Greenleaf Desmodium
Desmodium intortum
Greenleaf desmodium is grown as much for what it does to weeds and insects as for what it feeds: it is the "push" in push-pull, the intercrop that suppresses Striga in maize across East Africa.
- Legume crop
Groundnut
Arachis hypogaea
Groundnut is an annual legume grown for its oil- and protein-rich seed, distinguished by geocarpy — its pods develop and mature underground — and valued both as a major oilseed and as a widely consumed food crop.
- Industrial crop
Guar
Cyamopsis tetragonoloba
Guar is a drought-tolerant legume grown mainly on the rainfed margins of northwest India and Pakistan. Its seed endosperm yields a galactomannan gum used across food and industry, and the crop is unusual in that a subsistence-scale rainfed legume is priced by demand from oil and gas drilling.
- Tree fruit crop
Guava
Psidium guajava
Guava is a hardy, adaptable evergreen tree grown across tropical and subtropical regions for fresh fruit and processed products such as juice, nectar, and paste.
- Forage crop
Guinea Grass
Megathyrsus maximus
Guinea grass is the tropical pasture grass that tolerates shade, which is why it is the one sown under coconut and in silvopastoral systems where a sun-demanding grass would thin out and disappear.
- Root and tuber crop
Hausa Potato
Coleus rotundifolius
Hausa potato is a small aromatic tuber from the mint family — a family that produces almost no other tuber crop — and it has been shuffled between three genera, so almost every source files it under a different name.
- Tree nut crop
Hazelnut
Corylus avellana
Hazelnut is a temperate deciduous nut plant, grown as a multi-stemmed shrub or trained to a single trunk, that flowers unusually early and is wind-pollinated rather than insect-pollinated. Orchards typically interplant multiple cultivars to align pollen availability with female flower receptivity.
- Fiber crop
Hemp
Cannabis sativa
Industrial hemp is a fast-growing annual grown for bast fiber, seed oil, and seed meal, cultivated from low-cannabinoid cultivars under regulatory frameworks that govern seed source and permitted THC content.
- Beverage crop
Hops
Humulus lupulus
Hops are grown for the resin glands inside the female cone, which supply the bitterness and aroma of beer. The crop is dioecious, so only female plants have commercial value, and its photoperiod requirement confines production to a narrow band of latitude.
- Pulse crop
Horse Gram
Macrotyloma uniflorum
Horse gram is grown on the residual moisture of a finished monsoon, sown late into drying soil where no other pulse would set seed, and it tolerates salinity as well as drought.
- Forage crop
Italian Ryegrass
Lolium multiflorum
Italian ryegrass is grown for speed. It establishes faster and yields more in its first year than any other sown temperate grass, and it is gone within one to three years, which is the point rather than a fault.
- Cover crop
Jack Bean
Canavalia ensiformis
Jack bean is the cover crop that keeps working when the rains stop: it stays green and holds cover through a dry season that flattens mucuna, and its seed contains canavanine, which keeps it out of the food chain.
- Fruit crop
Jackfruit
Artocarpus heterophyllus
Jackfruit is a large tropical tree bearing the biggest tree-borne fruit, eaten ripe as a sweet fruit and unripe as a starchy vegetable and increasingly as a plant-based meat substitute, valued for hardiness and high yield.
- Industrial crop
Jatropha
Jatropha curcas
Jatropha carries toxic phorbol esters that make both the oil and the press cake unfit for food or feed, which is why a crop planted for biodiesel across three continents earns from one product where its competitors earn from two.
- Root and tuber crop
Jerusalem Artichoke
Helianthus tuberosus
Jerusalem artichoke stores inulin rather than starch, which is what makes it useful industrially and what makes it hard to eradicate: every tuber fragment left in the ground regrows the crop next season.
- Root and tuber crop
Jicama
Pachyrhizus erosus
Jicama is a legume grown for a root, and everything above the root is toxic: the seeds and pods contain rotenone. Growers pinch off the flowers, because a plant allowed to set seed puts its energy there instead of into the tuber.
- Cereal crop
Job's Tears
Coix lacryma-jobi
Job's tears divides into two plants that look alike: a soft-shelled variety that can be threshed and eaten, and a stone-hard wild form whose fruit cases are drilled and strung as beads.
- Industrial crop
Jojoba
Simmondsia chinensis
Jojoba is the only plant known to store a liquid wax rather than a triglyceride oil in its seed, and it is dioecious and wind-pollinated, so roughly one plant in ten in a plantation is a male that will never bear a crop.
- Fiber crop
Jute
Corchorus olitorius and Corchorus capsularis
Jute is a tall annual fiber crop grown mainly in the monsoon-fed floodplains of South Asia, valued for the strong, biodegradable bast fiber extracted from its stems.
- Leafy vegetable
Jute Mallow
Corchorus olitorius
Jute mallow is the leaf crop of Corchorus olitorius, the same species grown for tossa jute fibre, cut repeatedly for a mucilaginous green eaten across Egypt, the Levant, West Africa and South East Asia.
- Vegetable crop
Kale
Brassica oleracea var. acephala (syn. var. sabellica)
Kale is a non-heading leafy brassica grown for its edible leaves, valued for cold tolerance and a long harvest window across temperate and Mediterranean climates.
- Fibre crop
Kapok
Ceiba pentandra
Kapok floss grows on the inside of a pod rather than on the seed, cannot be spun, and is used for what it does rather than what it is made into: it is buoyant, water-repellent and extremely light.
- Fibre crop
Kenaf
Sabdariffa cannabina
Kenaf yields two different fibres from one stem — a long bast fibre from the bark and a short, light core from the pith — and the core, which older accounts treated as waste, now carries much of the crop's value.
- Vine fruit crop
Kiwifruit
Actinidia deliciosa (fuzzy/green kiwifruit); Actinidia chinensis (gold kiwifruit)
Kiwifruit is a deciduous woody vine trained on a trellis or pergola system and grown for its fuzzy or smooth-skinned fruit. Vines are typically dioecious, requiring separate male and female plants for fruit set.
- Cereal crop
Kodo Millet
Paspalum scrobiculatum
Kodo millet is the one cereal whose grain is routinely tested before it is eaten: infected grain causes a documented poisoning syndrome, and that hazard rather than yield is what governs how the crop is handled.
- Vegetable crop
Kohlrabi
Brassica oleracea (Gongylodes group)
Kohlrabi is a cool-season brassica grown for its swollen, edible stem, a fast-maturing crop of the cabbage family eaten raw or cooked, valued for its mild, crisp, turnip-like flesh.
- Beverage crop
Kola Nut
Cola nitida
Kola is sold and consumed fresh, never dried, because its seed is recalcitrant — it cannot be dried without dying — and that single seed property built one of the oldest long-distance trades in West Africa.
- Legume crop
Lablab
Lablab purpureus
Lablab is a vigorous, drought-tolerant tropical legume grown for dry seed, edible green pods, high-quality forage, and as a cover crop and green manure, valued for its adaptability and nitrogen fixation.
- Aromatic and essential oil crop
Lavender
Lavandula angustifolia
Lavender is a woody, evergreen or semi-evergreen Mediterranean shrub grown for its fragrant flower spikes, used for dried flowers, culinary applications, and steam-distilled essential oil.
- Vegetable crop
Leek
Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum
Leek is a hardy allium vegetable grown for its blanched, cylindrical stem (shank), valued for good cold tolerance and a long harvest season compared with onion and garlic.
- Tree fruit crop
Lemon
Citrus limon
Lemon is an evergreen citrus tree grown on grafted rootstocks for fresh fruit, juice, and zest across subtropical and mild-winter regions. It is notably frost-sensitive relative to many other citrus types and, under favorable conditions, can flower and fruit somewhat continuously through the year.
- Legume crop
Lentil
Lens culinaris
Lentil is an annual pulse legume grown for its small, disc-shaped edible seeds, valued as a dietary protein source, for its short growing season, and for its role as a nitrogen-fixing crop in semi-arid rotations.
- Vegetable crop
Lettuce
Lactuca sativa
Lettuce is a fast-growing annual leafy vegetable grown mainly for fresh salad use, cultivated in open fields, high tunnels, and hydroponic systems across many climates.
- Pulse crop
Lima Bean
Phaseolus lunatus
Lima bean seed contains cyanogenic glucosides, and the concentration differs enough between types that commercial cultivars are specifically selected for low levels while wild and coloured landraces can be dangerous raw.
- Tree fruit crop
Lime
Citrus aurantiifolia (key lime); Citrus latifolia (Persian/Tahiti lime)
Lime is an evergreen citrus tree grown on grafted rootstocks across tropical and warm subtropical regions. Two distinct commercial types are grown: key (Mexican) lime and Persian (Tahiti) lime, which differ in fruit size, seed content, and market role.
- Fruit crop
Loquat
Eriobotrya japonica
Loquat is a subtropical evergreen tree of the rose family grown for its sweet-tart, early-ripening pome fruit, distinctive for flowering in autumn or winter and fruiting in early spring ahead of most tree fruits.
- Fruit crop
Lowbush Blueberry
Vaccinium angustifolium
Lowbush blueberry is not planted. Commercial fields are native stands that were already there, managed on a two-year cycle in which the whole field is mown or burned to the ground and cropped only in alternate years.
- Legume crop
Lupin
Lupinus (L. albus, L. angustifolius, L. luteus)
Lupin is a grain legume grown for high-protein seed used in animal feed and, as low-alkaloid sweet types, in human food, notable for thriving on acidic sandy soils and fixing large amounts of nitrogen.
- Tree fruit crop
Lychee
Litchi chinensis
Lychee is an evergreen subtropical tree grown for its sweet, aromatic fruit. Unusually among subtropical trees, it has a genuine winter cool-period requirement to induce flowering, and its fruit is notable for rapid post-harvest quality decline.
- Tree nut crop
Macadamia
Macadamia integrifolia and Macadamia tetraphylla, and hybrids between the two, which make up most commercial cultivars
Macadamia is an evergreen tree native to Australia, grown for its round, hard-shelled nut valued for its rich kernel and used mainly as a premium snack and confectionery ingredient.
- Cereal crop
Maize
Zea mays
Maize (corn) is a warm-season cereal grown worldwide for grain used in food, feed, and industrial products. It is cultivated across a wide range of climates, from temperate to tropical, typically completing its life cycle within a single growing season.
- Spice crop
Makrut Lime
Citrus hystrix
Makrut lime is the citrus grown for its leaves. The leaf is doubled — blade and winged petiole in an hourglass — and pruning height and shade are managed for leaf yield rather than for fruit.
- Leafy vegetable
Malabar Spinach
Basella alba
Malabar spinach is a climbing succulent leaf vegetable of the hot wet tropics, grown on supports and cut repeatedly through months in which temperate spinach cannot be produced at all.
- Fruit crop
Mandarin
Citrus × aurantium Mandarin Group
Mandarin is grown seedless, and seedlessness is an orchard-layout problem rather than a variety trait: the fruit sets without fertilisation, so a bee carrying compatible pollen from a neighbouring block puts seeds in it.
- Fruit crop
Mango
Mangifera indica
Mango is a tropical and subtropical evergreen tree grown widely for its fresh fruit. Orchards are established from grafted trees, which take several years to reach significant bearing.
- Fruit crop
Mangosteen
Garcinia mangostana
Mangosteen is an obligate apomict: its seeds form without fertilisation, so the world's trees are close to a single clone, and conventional breeding of the crop is barely possible.
- Root and tuber crop
Mashua
Tropaeolum tuberosum
Mashua is the Andean tuber that needs almost no protection: its glucosinolates deter nematodes and insects strongly enough that it is planted around other crops as a barrier, and its pungency is also why it is eaten less than it is grown.
- Vine fruit crop
Melon
Cucumis melo
Melon is a warm-season annual vine crop encompassing cantaloupe, honeydew, and other Cucumis melo market types. It is direct-seeded or transplanted each season and grown for its aromatic, sweet fruit.
- Cereal crop
Millet
Pennisetum glaucum (pearl millet); also cultivated as Panicum miliaceum (proso millet), Eleusine coracana (finger millet), and Setaria italica (foxtail millet)
"Millet" refers to a group of small-seeded, warm-season cereal grasses grown mainly in semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia for grain and fodder, valued for tolerating heat, drought, and low-fertility soils.
- Culinary herb crop
Mint
Mentha × piperita (peppermint) and Mentha spicata (spearmint), among other cultivated Mentha species and hybrids
Mint is a perennial, rhizome-spreading herb grown for its aromatic leaves and essential oil, used fresh and dried in food, beverages, confectionery, and oral-care and fragrance products.
- Pulse crop
Moth Bean
Vigna aconitifolia
Moth bean is the most drought-hardy and heat-tolerant of the Asian Vigna pulses, and it protects its own root zone: a dense mat of low foliage that shades the soil, holds moisture and reduces erosion.
- Fruit and tree crop
Mulberry
Morus (M. alba, M. nigra, M. rubra)
Mulberry is a fast-growing deciduous tree grown both for its sweet berries and, above all, for its leaves, which are the essential food of silkworms, making it the foundation crop of silk production (sericulture).
- Legume crop
Mung Bean
Vigna radiata
Mung bean is a fast-maturing, warm-season pulse grown across Asia for its small green protein-rich seed, widely used whole, split, sprouted, and as flour, and valued as a short-season rotation and catch crop.
- Oilseed and spice crop
Mustard
Brassica juncea (brown/Indian mustard); Brassica nigra (black mustard); Sinapis alba (white/yellow mustard)
Mustard is an annual Brassica crop grown mainly for its seeds, used as a spice and condiment, pressed for oil, or grown as a cover and biofumigant crop in some rotations.
- Forage crop
Napier Grass
Cenchrus purpureus
Napier grass is the cut-and-carry forage of smallholder tropical dairying. It produces more biomass per hectare than any other tropical forage in common use, and it is harvested by hand and carried to the animal rather than grazed.
- Oilseed crop
Niger Seed
Guizotia abyssinica
Niger seed supplies roughly half of Ethiopia's oilseed output from a strictly self-incompatible crop, so every seed set depends on an insect carrying pollen between different plants — and pollinator scarcity shows up directly as yield loss.
- Spice crop
Nutmeg
Myristica fragrans
Nutmeg is a tropical evergreen tree that uniquely yields two distinct spices from a single fruit: nutmeg, the dried seed kernel, and mace, the dried lacy aril that surrounds it.
- Cereal crop
Oats
Avena sativa
Oats is a cool-season cereal grown for grain used in human food and livestock feed, and for its straw and whole-plant forage value. It tolerates cooler, wetter conditions and less fertile soils than many other cereals.
- Root and tuber crop
Oca
Oxalis tuberosa
Oca forms tubers only when the day is shorter than about twelve hours, so outside the tropics it grows all summer and only begins to bulk in autumn — leaving the crop racing an approaching frost.
- Tree crop
Oil palm
Elaeis guineensis
Oil palm is a tropical palm grown for its fruit bunches, which yield both palm oil from the fruit mesocarp and palm kernel oil from the seed, making it the highest-yielding major vegetable oil crop per unit area.
- Oilseed crop
Oilseed rape
Brassica napus
Oilseed rape is a cool-season brassica grown for its oil-rich seed, used for cooking oil, industrial oil, biodiesel, and protein-rich meal. It is grown as winter or spring types depending on climate.
- Vegetable crop
Okra
Abelmoschus esculentus
Okra is a warm-season fruiting vegetable grown for its ridged, mucilaginous seed pods, valued for strong heat and drought tolerance across tropical, subtropical, and warm-temperate regions.
- Tree fruit crop
Olive
Olea europaea
Olive is a long-lived evergreen tree grown across Mediterranean-type climates for oil and table fruit, tolerant of drought, heat, and poor soils once established.
- Vegetable crop
Onion
Allium cepa
Onion is a biennial Allium grown worldwide for its pungent, storable bulb, one of the most widely traded vegetable crops and a foundational culinary ingredient in most world cuisines.
- Fruit crop
Orange
Citrus sinensis (sweet orange)
Orange is an evergreen citrus tree grown in subtropical and tropical regions for its fresh fruit and juice. Orchards are established from grafted trees and remain productive for many years.
- Culinary herb crop
Oregano
Origanum vulgare
Oregano is a perennial Mediterranean herb grown for its aromatic leaves, used fresh and dried as a culinary herb and as a source of essential oil.
- Vegetable crop
Pak Choi
Brassica rapa Chinensis Group
Pak choi is the non-heading Brassica rapa: a rosette of thick white petioles and dark blades harvested whole, fast enough to crop several times a season and sold as a unit rather than by weight of leaf.
- Tropical fruit crop
Papaya
Carica papaya
Papaya is a fast-growing, short-lived tropical perennial grown for its fleshy fruit. It has a soft, herbaceous-woody trunk rather than true wood, and its sex expression — dioecious, monoecious, or hermaphrodite — shapes orchard design.
- Culinary herb crop
Parsley
Petroselinum crispum
Parsley is a biennial herb grown for its fresh leaves, used widely as a culinary garnish and flavoring, typically harvested in its first year before the plant flowers and sets seed in its second.
- Fruit crop
Passion Fruit
Passiflora edulis
Passion fruit is a fast-growing climbing vine grown in the tropics and subtropics for its aromatic, juicy fruit, used fresh and for juice, produced in purple and yellow forms on a trellised, relatively short-lived crop.
- Legume crop
Pea
Pisum sativum
Pea is a cool-season annual legume grown for its edible seeds and pods, used in both food and feed systems and valued for its symbiotic nitrogen fixation in crop rotations.
- Tree fruit crop
Peach
Prunus persica
Peach is a temperate deciduous stone fruit grown for fresh and processed fruit, encompassing both fuzzy-skinned peach and smooth-skinned nectarine, with cultivars bred across a wide range of chilling requirements.
- Tree fruit crop
Pear
Pyrus communis (European pear); Pyrus pyrifolia (Asian pear)
Pear is a temperate deciduous tree fruit grown from grafted trees for fresh consumption and processing. European and Asian pear types differ notably in texture and ripening behavior, and most cultivars require cross-pollination.
- Tree nut crop
Pecan
Carya illinoinensis
Pecan is a large deciduous nut tree native to North America, grown commercially for its oil-rich kernel used as a snack nut and in baking and confectionery.
- Forage crop
Perennial Ryegrass
Lolium perenne
Perennial ryegrass is the sown grass on which temperate grazing systems are built. Cultivars are chosen on heading date and ploidy, and the fungal endophyte carried in the seed determines both insect tolerance and the risk of livestock disorders.
- Oilseed crop
Perilla
Perilla frutescens
Perilla is two crops in one species: var. frutescens is grown for seed oil that is among the richest plant sources of alpha-linolenic acid, while var. crispa is grown for its leaf — and material selected for one is poor at the other.
- Tree fruit crop
Persimmon
Diospyros kaki (Asian/Japanese persimmon)
Persimmon is a deciduous tree grown for fruit that falls into two broad classes, astringent and non-astringent, depending on natural tannin content, requiring different handling before the fruit is eaten.
- Legume crop
Pigeon Pea
Cajanus cajan
Pigeon pea is a deep-rooted, drought-tolerant grain legume grown mainly in the semi-arid tropics for its protein-rich dry seed, and valued in mixed cropping and rotations for its nitrogen-fixing ability.
- Tropical fruit crop
Pineapple
Ananas comosus
Pineapple is a tropical, herbaceous perennial bromeliad grown for its compound fruit. Plantings are established from vegetative propagating material rather than seed and are commonly cropped over a plant cycle plus one or more ratoon cycles.
- Tree nut crop
Pistachio
Pistacia vera
Pistachio is a deciduous, dioecious tree adapted to hot, arid, continental climates that nonetheless carries a genuine winter chilling requirement. Male and female trees are interplanted for wind pollination, and the crop is well known for pronounced alternate bearing.
- Fruit and staple crop
Plantain
Musa × paradisiaca
Plantain is a starchy cooking-type banana grown across the humid tropics as a year-round staple, eaten cooked at all stages of ripeness, and a major source of dietary carbohydrate in West and Central Africa and Latin America.
- Tree fruit crop
Plum
Prunus domestica (European plum); Prunus salicina (Japanese plum)
Plum is a temperate deciduous stone fruit grown as two distinct groups, European plum used fresh and for drying into prunes, and Japanese plum grown mainly for the fresh market, both propagated by grafting.
- Tree fruit crop
Pomegranate
Punica granatum
Pomegranate is a deciduous or semi-deciduous fruiting shrub or small tree adapted to semi-arid and Mediterranean-type climates, grown for its juice-filled seed arils used fresh and in processed products.
- Fruit crop
Pomelo
Citrus maxima
Pomelo is one of citrus's few true ancestral species rather than a hybrid, and grapefruit descends from it. Its thick albedo, which is peeled and discarded, means most of a very large fruit is not sold.
- Tuber crop
Potato
Solanum tuberosum
Potato is a tuber crop grown for its starchy underground tubers, a major staple food and vegetable crop cultivated across temperate regions and highland areas of the tropics.
- Cereal grain
Proso Millet
Panicum miliaceum
Proso millet uses less water to make a crop than any other grain in common cultivation, and finishes in a short season. It is the cereal of the driest margin of the North American plains and of dry Asian agriculture.
- Vegetable crop
Pumpkin
Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita maxima, and Cucurbita moschata (species cultivated as pumpkin vary by region and type)
Pumpkin is a warm-season vining crop grown for its large, hard-rinded fruit, harvested mature and valued for both food use and long storage life compared with summer squash types.
- Leafy vegetable
Purslane
Portulaca oleracea
Purslane is a succulent leaf vegetable farmed and weeded in the same countries, notable for switching to crassulacean acid metabolism under drought and for the highest omega-3 content recorded in a leaf vegetable.
- Fruit crop
Quince
Cydonia oblonga
Quince is grown for two unrelated purposes: a hard, aromatic fruit that is almost always cooked, and a dwarfing rootstock that shaped the design of European pear orchards.
- Pseudocereal crop
Quinoa
Chenopodium quinoa
Quinoa is an Andean broadleaf grain crop grown for its protein-rich, gluten-free seed, notable for its tolerance of drought, cold, and saline or alkaline soils at high altitude.
- Vegetable crop
Radish
Raphanus sativus
Radish is a fast-maturing brassica root vegetable grown for its crisp, pungent taproot, notable for one of the shortest times from sowing to harvest of any common vegetable.
- Fibre crop
Ramie
Boehmeria nivea
Ramie produces one of the longest and strongest plant fibres known and has stayed a minor crop for one reason: unlike jute or kenaf it will not ret, so the gum has to be stripped chemically at a cost the fibre rarely covers.
- Fruit crop
Raspberry
Rubus idaeus
Raspberry is a perennial cane fruit grown for its soft, aggregate fruit, cultivated on a permanent root system whose above-ground canes typically live for two seasons in traditional (floricane) types.
- Forage crop
Red Clover
Trifolium pratense
Red clover is a taprooted forage legume grown for high-protein silage and for the nitrogen it leaves behind. It is deliberately short-lived, and its oestrogenic isoflavones make it unsuitable for ewes at tupping.
- Forage crop
Rhodes Grass
Chloris gayana
Rhodes grass tolerates saline and alkaline soil and saline irrigation water well enough to be the pasture grown where the water is too salty for anything else, and it spreads by stolons rather than sitting in a tussock.
- Cereal crop
Rice
Oryza sativa
Rice is a cereal grass cultivated across a wide range of flooded, rainfed, and upland systems, and is a staple food for a large share of the global population, particularly across Asia.
- Pulse crop
Rice Bean
Vigna umbellata
Rice bean is the Asian Vigna grown where the rains are heaviest: it tolerates the wet, acid soils of monsoon hill agriculture that make mung bean and black gram fail, and it is usually intercropped rather than sown alone.
- Beverage crop
Robusta Coffee
Coffea canephora
Coffea canephora is the diploid, self-incompatible coffee of the tropical lowlands. Obligate outcrossing forces clonal propagation and multi-clone planting design, and its high soluble-solids yield makes it the backbone of instant coffee.
- Leafy vegetable
Rocket
Eruca vesicaria (also Diplotaxis tenuifolia, wild rocket)
Rocket is a fast-growing leafy salad crop of the cabbage family valued for its peppery leaves, harvested young over multiple cuttings, and widely grown as a quick catch crop and in protected and baby-leaf production.
- Culinary herb crop
Rosemary
Salvia rosmarinus (syn. Rosmarinus officinalis)
Rosemary is a woody, evergreen Mediterranean shrub grown for its narrow, aromatic leaves, used fresh and dried as a culinary herb and as a source of essential oil.
- Industrial crop
Rubber
Hevea brasiliensis
Rubber is a tropical tree grown for the latex tapped from its bark, which is processed into natural rubber, cultivated on long-term plantations that remain productive for several decades.
- Cereal crop
Rye
Secale cereale
Rye is a hardy temperate cereal grown for grain used in bread, distilling, and animal feed, and widely used as a cover crop and forage. It tolerates colder winters and poorer soils than most other cereals.
- Oilseed crop
Safflower
Carthamus tinctorius
Safflower is a spiny, deep-rooted annual oilseed grown for its seeds, valued for drought tolerance and its ability to use residual soil moisture in semi-arid cropping systems.
- Spice crop
Saffron
Crocus sativus
Saffron is a perennial corm-forming plant grown for the dried stigmas of its autumn-flowering blooms, hand-harvested in a labor-intensive process that makes it one of the most valuable spices by weight.
- Culinary herb crop
Sage
Salvia officinalis
Sage is a woody-based perennial herb of Mediterranean origin, grown for its soft, gray-green aromatic leaves, used fresh and dried as a culinary herb and as a source of essential oil.
- Forage crop
Sainfoin
Onobrychis viciifolia
Sainfoin is a forage legume that does not cause bloat. Its condensed tannins bind protein in the rumen, which removes the foam that kills animals on clover and changes how the protein is digested.
- Vegetable crop
Scarlet Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum
Scarlet eggplant is one of the five most important vegetables of Central and West Africa, and its four cultivar groups divide it into two different crops — some grown for fruit, one grown as a leafy vegetable.
- Fruit crop
Sea Buckthorn
Hippophae rhamnoides
Sea buckthorn berries cannot practically be picked: the standard commercial harvest is to cut the fruiting branch, freeze it, and shake the berries off — which destroys next season's wood on that shoot and turns pruning and harvest into the same operation.
- Oilseed crop
Sesame
Sesamum indicum
Sesame is a warm-season annual oilseed grown for its small, oil-rich seeds, valued for drought tolerance and adaptability to marginal soils across tropical and subtropical regions.
- Forage crop
Signal Grass
Urochloa brizantha
Signal grass is an East African grass that became the pasture of Brazil, planted on something in the order of fifty million hectares — and because it reproduces by apomixis, most of that area is a small number of clones.
- Fibre crop
Sisal
Agave sisalana
Sisal flowers once and dies, sets essentially no seed, and is propagated instead from bulbils that form on the flowering pole — while the fibre it is grown for is only around four per cent of the leaf it is cut from.
- Cereal crop
Sorghum
Sorghum bicolor
Sorghum is a warm-season cereal grass valued for its drought and heat tolerance, grown for grain, forage, and sweet-stalk products across semi-arid and tropical regions.
- Fruit crop
Sour Cherry
Prunus cerasus
Sour cherry is a different species from sweet cherry, self-fertile where sweet cherry is not, and shake-harvested into water tanks because it is destined for processing rather than the fresh market.
- Legume crop
Soybean
Glycine max
Soybean is an annual legume grown worldwide for its protein- and oil-rich seed, used extensively in food, animal feed, and industrial products, and valued in cropping systems for its symbiotic nitrogen fixation.
- Cereal grain
Spelt
Triticum aestivum subsp. spelta
Spelt is bread wheat’s hulled subspecies: the same hexaploid genome, wrapped in glumes that threshing will not remove. That single difference adds a processing step, changes the supply chain and defines the crop commercially.
- Vegetable crop
Spinach
Spinacia oleracea
Spinach is a fast-growing, cool-season annual leafy vegetable grown for its tender leaves, used fresh, cooked, and in a range of processed and frozen products.
- Spice crop
Star Anise
Illicium verum
Star anise is harvested as an unripe fruit from trees that take years to bear, and its principal commercial risk is adulteration with the toxic Japanese star anise, which the dried fruits closely resemble.
- Industrial crop
Stevia
Stevia rebaudiana
Stevia is harvested before it flowers, because flowering reduces the steviol glycoside content of the leaf that the entire crop exists to supply — and it is short-day, so the crop is racing its own flowering signal.
- Fruit crop
Strawberry
Fragaria × ananassa (garden strawberry)
Strawberry is a low-growing perennial fruit crop widely grown for fresh consumption and processing. Commercial production ranges from perennial matted-row systems to annual plasticulture, depending on climate and market.
- Forage crop
Stylo
Stylosanthes guianensis
Stylo is the legume that puts nitrogen into acid, low-phosphorus tropical pasture, and its history is a single disease: anthracnose destroyed the first widely sown cultivars and every selection since has been judged on resistance to it.
- Root and industrial crop
Sugar beet
Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris (Altissima Group)
Sugar beet is a biennial root crop grown as an annual for its sucrose-rich storage root, providing a temperate-climate alternative to sugarcane for sugar production.
- Industrial crop
Sugarcane
Saccharum officinarum and interspecific Saccharum hybrids (Saccharum spp.)
Sugarcane is a tall, perennial tropical grass grown for its sucrose-rich stalks, used to produce sugar, ethanol, and molasses. A single planting is harvested over several successive ratoon cycles before replanting.
- Oilseed crop
Sunflower
Helianthus annuus
Sunflower is a broadleaf annual grown mainly for its oil-rich seed, cultivated across temperate and semi-arid regions and generally regarded as more drought-tolerant than many other oilseed crops.
- Root and tuber crop
Swede
Brassica napus Napobrassica Group
Swede is the same species as oilseed rape grown for a root, and it is the brassica root that stores: months in a clamp against a turnip's weeks, which is what makes it a winter feed rather than an autumn one.
- Vegetable crop
Sweet Pepper
Capsicum annuum
Sweet pepper is a warm-season solanaceous fruiting vegetable grown for its mild, non-pungent fruit, cultivated in open fields and increasingly in protected culture such as greenhouses.
- Root and tuber crop
Sweet Potato
Ipomoea batatas
Sweet potato is a tropical and subtropical vining crop grown for its starchy, nutrient-dense storage roots, valued for good performance on lighter soils and reasonable drought tolerance.
- Vegetable crop
Sweetcorn
Zea mays var. saccharata (and var. rugosa)
Sweetcorn is a vegetable form of maize bred for high sugar content in the kernel, harvested immature at the milk stage and eaten fresh, canned, or frozen rather than dried for grain or feed.
- Leafy vegetable
Swiss Chard
Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris (Cicla group)
Swiss chard is a leaf beet grown for its large, tender leaves and colorful, succulent stalks, a hardy, productive, cut-and-come-again vegetable of the same species as beetroot and sugar beet.
- Industrial crop
Switchgrass
Panicum virgatum
Switchgrass is harvested after the crop has already moved its nutrients back into the roots, because a biomass buyer wants low ash and low nitrogen — the opposite of what a forage grower would cut for.
- Forage crop
Tall Fescue
Lolium arundinaceum
Tall fescue is the most widely sown pasture grass of the humid transition zone, and the only forage crop whose defining management question is which fungus is living inside the seed.
- Fruit and tree crop
Tamarind
Tamarindus indica
Tamarind is a long-lived tropical legume tree grown for its tangy, pulpy pods used as a souring agent and flavoring, valued for hardiness, drought tolerance, and multipurpose products across the semi-arid tropics.
- Root and tuber crop
Tannia
Xanthosoma sagittifolium
Tannia is an American aroid that became a West African staple, and its central production problem is a single soil pathogen: Pythium root rot, against which the vegetatively propagated commercial clones have almost no resistance.
- Root and tuber crop
Taro
Colocasia esculenta
Taro is a tropical aroid grown for its starchy edible corms and nutritious leaves, cultivated in both wetland and upland systems, and an important staple across the Pacific, Africa, and Asia.
- Beverage crop
Tea
Camellia sinensis
Tea is a perennial evergreen shrub maintained through regular pruning as a low, flat-topped "plucking table," grown mainly in highland and monsoon-influenced regions for its young leaves and buds.
- Cereal crop
Teff
Eragrostis tef
Teff is a fine-grained, gluten-free warm-season cereal native to the Ethiopian highlands, the staple grain for the flatbread injera, valued for adaptability to varied conditions and grown for both grain and forage.
- Culinary herb crop
Thyme
Thymus vulgaris
Thyme is a low-growing, woody-based perennial herb of Mediterranean origin, grown for its small aromatic leaves, used fresh and dried as a culinary herb and as a source of essential oil.
- Forage crop
Timothy
Phleum pratense
Timothy is the hay grass of cool temperate agriculture. It is late-heading, stores its reserves in a swollen stem base rather than in a crown, and is cut rather than grazed — which is why it dominates the export hay trade and disappears under close stocking.
- Industrial crop
Tobacco
Nicotiana tabacum
Tobacco is a warm-season annual grown for its leaves, which are cured through various methods after harvest to produce the raw leaf used in manufactured tobacco products.
- Vegetable crop
Tomatillo
Physalis philadelphica
Tomatillo is self-incompatible, which is why a single plant sets nothing and why it is the one solanaceous fruit vegetable that cannot be grown alone. It is harvested when the fruit fills its papery husk.
- Vegetable crop
Tomato
Solanum lycopersicum (syn. Lycopersicon esculentum)
Tomato is a fruiting vegetable crop grown worldwide for fresh consumption and processing, cultivated in open-field, high-tunnel, and greenhouse systems across a wide range of climates.
- Cereal crop
Triticale
×Triticosecale spp. (intergeneric hybrid of wheat, Triticum, and rye, Secale)
Triticale is a human-made cereal hybrid of wheat and rye grown mainly for livestock feed and forage, combining wheat-like grain yield potential with rye-like hardiness and tolerance of poorer soils.
- Spice crop
Turmeric
Curcuma longa
Turmeric is a perennial rhizomatous herb grown mainly in South and Southeast Asia for its bright yellow-orange rhizome, used as a culinary spice and natural food colorant.
- Root and tuber crop
Turnip
Brassica rapa Rapifera Group
Turnip is fast enough to be sown after a cereal harvest and grazed in the field before winter, which is what put it into the Norfolk four-course rotation and what still keeps it in livestock systems.
- Root and tuber crop
Ulluco
Ullucus tuberosus
Ulluco keeps its brilliant colour and waxy skin because it is never peeled and never really softens, and the crop's central problem is that every planting is a clone carrying the viruses of the last one.
- Fibre crop
Upland Cotton
Gossypium hirsutum
Gossypium hirsutum supplies the large majority of world cotton fibre. It is one of four cultivated cotton species, and the medium-staple lint it produces sets the specification that most spinning systems are built around.
- Spice crop
Vanilla
Vanilla planifolia
Vanilla is a climbing, vine-like orchid grown for its long seed pods, hand-pollinated and cured through a lengthy process to develop the characteristic aroma used in flavoring and fragrance.
- Cover crop
Velvet Bean
Mucuna pruriens
Velvet bean is grown to smother a weed. Its adoption across West Africa and Latin America followed from one capability: a mucuna fallow suppresses Imperata cylindrica, the grass that makes land unfarmable.
- Tree nut crop
Walnut
Juglans regia
Walnut is a temperate deciduous tree grown for its edible kernel and, in some regions, for valuable timber. Flowering biology that separates male and female maturity on the same tree makes cultivar interplanting an important orchard-design consideration.
- Vegetable crop
Wasabi
Eutrema japonicum
Wasabi is grown in beds of continuously flowing cool spring water, takes around two years to reach harvest, and loses its pungency within minutes of grating — which is why most product sold as wasabi contains none of it.
- Vegetable crop
Water Spinach
Ipomoea aquatica
Water spinach is a fast leafy vegetable grown either floating in water or on land, cut repeatedly from the same planting — and a regulated noxious weed in parts of the United States for exactly the traits that make it productive.
- Aquatic leaf vegetable crop
Watercress
Nasturtium officinale
Watercress is a semi-aquatic leaf vegetable traditionally grown in beds of clean, flowing water over sand or gravel, valued for its peppery, fast-growing edible leaves and stems.
- Vegetable crop
Waterleaf
Talinum fruticosum
Waterleaf reaches its first harvest in about 35 to 45 days and is then cut every two weeks for roughly a year, which makes it one of the fastest-returning vegetables a smallholder can plant.
- Vine fruit crop
Watermelon
Citrullus lanatus
Watermelon is a warm-season annual vine crop grown for its large, juicy fruit. It is direct-seeded or transplanted each season and requires warm soil, ample space, and typically insect pollination to set fruit.
- Vegetable
Welsh Onion
Allium fistulosum
Welsh onion is a bulbless perennial Allium harvested whole for its blanched shaft and green leaf, divided rather than sown where it is grown as a stand, and the main scallion of East Asian production.
- Cereal crop
Wheat
Triticum aestivum (bread wheat); Triticum durum (durum wheat)
Wheat is a temperate cereal grown worldwide for grain used in flour, feed, and processed foods. It is cultivated as winter or spring types across a wide range of climates and soils.
- Forage crop
White Clover
Trifolium repens
White clover is the legume of grazed pasture. It spreads by stolons rather than from a crown, which lets it survive close and repeated grazing that would end a taprooted legume, and it supplies fixed nitrogen to the grass growing with it.
- Cereal grain
Wild Rice
Zizania palustris
Wild rice is a different genus from rice, an aquatic annual of North American lakes and rivers, and one of very few crops harvested both from managed paddies and from natural stands under treaty-protected rights.
- Pulse crop
Winged Bean
Psophocarpus tetragonolobus
Winged bean is the rare crop where pod, seed, leaf, flower and tuberous root are all harvested and eaten, and its tuber carries a protein content far above that of other root crops.
- Root and tuber crop
Yam
Dioscorea spp., principally Dioscorea rotundata, D. alata, and D. cayenensis
Yam is a climbing tropical vine grown for its starchy underground tubers, propagated from seed tubers or setts and a staple and culturally significant crop across parts of West Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific.
- Vegetable crop
Yardlong Bean
Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis
Yardlong bean is cowpea grown for a pod that reaches half a metre or more, picked immature every day or two — a vegetable subspecies of a grain legume, and the two are managed as different crops entirely.
- Beverage crop
Yerba Mate
Ilex paraguariensis
Yerba mate leaf has to be flash-heated within about a day of cutting to stop it browning, so the first processing step sits in the field — and the finished product is then aged for months before it is sold.
- Vegetable crop
Zucchini
Cucurbita pepo
Zucchini is a fast-growing warm-season summer squash grown for its immature, tender fruit, valued for rapid, prolific production over a relatively short growing period.