1.
Pea
–
The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum. Pea pods are botanically fruit, since they contain seeds and developed from the ovary of a flower, the name is also used to describe other edible seeds from the Fabaceae such as the pigeon pea, the cowpea, and the seeds from several species of Lathyrus. P. sativum is a plant, with a life cycle of one year. It is a crop grown in many parts of the world. The average pea weighs between 0.1 and 0.36 grams. The immature peas are used as a vegetable, fresh, frozen or canned and these are the basis of pease porridge and pea soup, staples of medieval cuisine, in Europe, consuming fresh immature green peas was an innovation of Early Modern cuisine. The wild pea is restricted to the Mediterranean basin and the Near East, the earliest archaeological finds of peas date from the late neolithic era of current Greece, Syria, Turkey and Jordan. In Egypt, early date from ca. 4800–4400 BC in the Nile delta area, and from ca, the pea was also present in Georgia in the 5th millennium BC. Farther east, the finds are younger, peas were present in Afghanistan ca.2000 BC, in Harappa, Pakistan, and in northwest India in 2250–1750 BC. In the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, this pulse crop appears in the Ganges Basin, a pea is a most commonly green, occasionally golden yellow, or infrequently purple pod-shaped vegetable, widely grown as a cool season vegetable crop. The seeds may be planted as soon as the temperature reaches 10 °C. They do not thrive in the heat of warmer temperate and lowland tropical climates. Many cultivars reach maturity about 60 days after planting, peas have both low-growing and vining cultivars. The vining cultivars grow thin tendrils from leaves that coil around any available support, a traditional approach to supporting climbing peas is to thrust branches pruned from trees or other woody plants upright into the soil, providing a lattice for the peas to climb. Branches used in fashion are sometimes called pea brush. Metal fences, twine, or netting supported by a frame are used for the same purpose, in dense plantings, peas give each other some measure of mutual support. In early times, peas were grown mostly for their dry seeds, from plants growing wild in the Mediterranean basin, constant selection since the Neolithic dawn of agriculture improved their yield
2.
Germination
–
Germination is the process by which a plant grows from a seed. The most common example of germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, in addition, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of hyphae from fungal spores, is also germination. Thus, in a sense, germination can be thought of as anything expanding into greater being from a small existence or germ. The seed of a plant is a small package produced in a fruit or cone after the union of male and female reproductive cells. All fully developed seeds contain an embryo and, in most plant species some store of food reserves, some plants produce varying numbers of seeds that lack embryos, these are called empty seeds and never germinate. Dormant seeds are seeds that do not germinate because they are subject to external environmental conditions that prevent the initiation of metabolic processes. Under proper conditions, the seed begins to germinate and the embryonic tissues resume growth, Seed germination depends on both internal and external conditions. The most important external factors include right temperature, water, oxygen or air, various plants require different variables for successful seed germination. Often this depends on the seed variety and is closely linked to the ecological conditions of a plants natural habitat. For some seeds, their future germination response is affected by environmental conditions during seed formation, mature seeds are often extremely dry and need to take in significant amounts of water, relative to the dry weight of the seed, before cellular metabolism and growth can resume. Most seeds need enough water to moisten the seeds but not enough to soak them, the uptake of water by seeds is called imbibition, which leads to the swelling and the breaking of the seed coat. When seeds are formed, most plants store a reserve with the seed, such as starch, proteins. This food reserve provides nourishment to the growing embryo, when the seed imbibes water, hydrolytic enzymes are activated which break down these stored food resources into metabolically useful chemicals. Oxygen is required by the seed for metabolism. Oxygen is used in respiration, the main source of the seedlings energy until it grows leaves. Oxygen is a gas that is found in soil pore spaces, if a seed is buried too deeply within the soil or the soil is waterlogged. Temperature affects cellular metabolic and growth rates, Seeds from different species and even seeds from the same plant germinate over a wide range of temperatures. Seeds often have a range within which they will germinate
3.
Seed
–
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering. The formation of the seed is part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, Seeds are the product of the ripened ovule, after fertilization by pollen and some growth within the mother plant. The embryo is developed from the zygote and the coat from the integuments of the ovule. Seed plants now dominate biological niches on land, from forests to both in hot and cold climates. The term seed also has a meaning that antedates the above—anything that can be sown, e. g. seed potatoes. In the case of sunflower and corn seeds, what is sown is the seed enclosed in a shell or husk, many structures commonly referred to as seeds are actually dry fruits. Plants producing berries are called baccate, sunflower seeds are sometimes sold commercially while still enclosed within the hard wall of the fruit, which must be split open to reach the seed. Different groups of plants have other modifications, the stone fruits have a hardened fruit layer fused to. Nuts are the one-seeded, hard-shelled fruit of plants with an indehiscent seed. Seeds are produced in several related groups of plants, and their manner of production distinguishes the angiosperms from the gymnosperms, angiosperm seeds are produced in a hard or fleshy structure called a fruit that encloses the seeds, hence the name. Some fruits have layers of hard and fleshy material. In gymnosperms, no special structure develops to enclose the seeds, however, the seeds do become covered by the cone scales as they develop in some species of conifer. Seed production in natural plant populations varies widely from year-to-year in response to weather variables, insects and diseases, over a 20-year period, for example, forests composed of loblolly pine and shortleaf pine produced from 0 to nearly 5 million sound pine seeds per hectare. Over this period, there were six bumper, five poor, and nine good seed crops, right after fertilization, the zygote is mostly inactive, but the primary endosperm divides rapidly to form the endosperm tissue. This tissue becomes the food the young plant will consume until the roots have developed after germination, after fertilization the ovules develop into the seeds. The ovule consists of a number of components, The funicle or seed stalk which attaches the ovule to the placenta and hence ovary or fruit wall, the nucellus, the remnant of the megasporangium and main region of the ovule where the megagametophyte develops. The micropyle, a pore or opening in the apex of the integument of the ovule where the pollen tube usually enters during the process of fertilization. The chalaza, the base of the ovule opposite the micropyle, the shape of the ovules as they develop often affects the final shape of the seeds
4.
Brassica rapa
–
Brassica rapa L. is a plant consisting of various widely cultivated subspecies including the turnip, napa cabbage, bomdong, bok choy, and cime di rapa, and. The oil made from the seed is also called canola, which is one reason why it is sometimes confused with rapeseed oil. The oilseeds known as canola are sometimes particular varieties of Brassica rapa but usually the related species Brassica napus, in the 18th century the turnip and the oilseed-producing variants were seen as being different species by Carl Linnaeus who named them B. rapa and B. campestris. 20th-century taxonomists found that the plants were cross fertile and thus belonged to the same species, since the turnip had been named first by Linnaeus, the name Brassica rapa was adopted. Many butterflies, including the small white pollinate the B. rapa flowers, media related to Brassica rapa at Wikimedia Commons Multilingual taxonomic information. PROTA database record on Brassica rapa L. Brassica rapa, Brassica rapa L. Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture
5.
Fluorescent lamp
–
A fluorescent lamp or a fluorescent tube is a low pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor which produces ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor coating on the inside of the lamp to glow. A fluorescent lamp converts electrical energy into useful light much more efficiently than incandescent lamps, the typical luminous efficacy of fluorescent lighting systems is 50–100 lumens per watt, several times the efficacy of incandescent bulbs with comparable light output. Compact fluorescent lamps are now available in the same sizes as incandescents and are used as an energy-saving alternative in homes. Because they contain mercury, many fluorescent lamps are classified as hazardous waste, the United States Environmental Protection Agency recommends that fluorescent lamps be segregated from general waste for recycling or safe disposal, and some jurisdictions require recycling of them. Fluorescence of certain rocks and other substances had been observed for hundreds of years before its nature was understood, by the middle of the 19th century, experimenters had observed a radiant glow emanating from partially evacuated glass vessels through which an electric current passed. The explanation relied on the nature of electricity and light phenomena as developed by the British scientists Michael Faraday in the 1840s and James Clerk Maxwell in the 1860s. Little more was done with this phenomenon until 1856 when German glassblower Heinrich Geissler created a vacuum pump that evacuated a glass tube to an extent not previously possible. Geissler invented the first gas-discharge lamp, the Geissler tube, consisting of an evacuated glass tube with a metal electrode at either end. When a high voltage was applied between the electrodes, the inside of the lit up with a glow discharge. By putting different chemicals inside, the tubes could be made to produce a variety of colors, more important, however, was its contribution to scientific research. One of the first scientists to experiment with a Geissler tube was Julius Plücker who systematically described in 1858 the luminescent effects that occurred in a Geissler tube and he also made the important observation that the glow in the tube shifted position when in proximity to an electromagnetic field. Alexandre Edmond Becquerel observed in 1859 that certain substances gave off light when they were placed in a Geissler tube and he went on to apply thin coatings of luminescent materials to the surfaces of these tubes. Fluorescence occurred, but the tubes were very inefficient and had an operating life. Inquiries that began with the Geissler tube continued as even better vacuums were produced, the most famous was the evacuated tube used for scientific research by William Crookes. That tube was evacuated by the highly effective mercury vacuum pump created by Hermann Sprengel, Research conducted by Crookes and others ultimately led to the discovery of the electron in 1897 by J. J. Thomson and X-rays in 1895 by Wilhelm Roentgen. While Becquerel was interested primarily in conducting research into fluorescence. Although Edison lost interest in fluorescent lighting, one of his employees was able to create a gas-based lamp that achieved a measure of commercial success
6.
Cereal
–
A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain, composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grains are grown in quantities and provide more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop and are therefore staple crops. Edible grains from plant families, such as buckwheat, quinoa. In their natural form, cereals are a source of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, oils. When refined by the removal of the bran and germ, the endosperm is mostly carbohydrate. In some developing nations, grain in the form of rice, wheat, millet, in developed nations, cereal consumption is moderate and varied but still substantial. The word cereal is derived from Ceres, the Roman goddess of harvest, agriculture allowed for the support of an increased population, leading to larger societies and eventually the development of cities. It also created the need for organization of political power, as decisions had to be made regarding labor and harvest allocation and access rights to water. Agriculture bred immobility, as populations settled down for long periods of time, early Neolithic villages show evidence of the development of processing grain. The Levant is the ancient home of the ancestors of wheat, barley and peas, there is evidence of the cultivation of figs in the Jordan Valley as long as 11,300 years ago, and cereal production in Syria approximately 9,000 years ago. During the same period, farmers in China began to farm rice and millet, using man-made floods, fiber crops were domesticated as early as food crops, with China domesticating hemp, cotton being developed independently in Africa and South America, and Western Asia domesticating flax. The first cereal grains were domesticated by early primitive humans, about 8,000 years ago, they were domesticated by ancient farming communities in the Fertile Crescent region. Emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, and barley were three of the so-called Neolithic founder crops in the development of agriculture, around the same time, millets and rices were starting to become domesticated in East Asia. Sorghum and millets were also being domesticated in sub-Saharan West Africa, while each individual species has its own peculiarities, the cultivation of all cereal crops is similar. Most are annual plants, consequently one planting yields one harvest, wheat, rye, triticale, oats, barley, and spelt are the cool-season cereals. These are hardy plants grow well in moderate weather and cease to grow in hot weather. The warm-season cereals are tender and prefer hot weather, barley and rye are the hardiest cereals, able to overwinter in the subarctic and Siberia. Many cool-season cereals are grown in the tropics, however, some are only grown in cooler highlands, where it may be possible to grow multiple crops per year
7.
Perennial plant
–
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is widely used to distinguish plants with little or no woody growth from trees and shrubs. Tomato vines, for example, live several years in their natural habitat but are grown as annuals in temperate regions because they dont survive the winter. There is also a class of evergreen, or non-herbaceous, perennials, an intermediate class of plants is known as subshrubs, which retain a vestigial woody structure in winter, e. g. Penstemon. The local climate may dictate whether plants are treated as shrubs or perennials, for instance, many varieties of Fuchsia are shrubs in warm regions, but in colder temperate climates may be cut to the ground every year as a result of winter frosts. The symbol for a plant, based on Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, is. Perennial plants can be short-lived or they can be long-lived, as are some plants like trees. They include an assortment of plant groups from ferns and liverworts to the highly diverse flowering plants like orchids. Plants that flower and fruit only once and then die are termed monocarpic or semelparous, however, most perennials are polycarpic, flowering over many seasons in their lifetime. Perennials typically grow structures that allow them to adapt to living one year to the next through a form of vegetative reproduction rather than seeding. These structures include bulbs, tubers, woody crowns, rhizomes plus others and they might have specialized stems or crowns that allow them to survive periods of dormancy over cold or dry seasons during the year. Many perennials have developed specialized features that allow them to extreme climatic. Some have adapted to hot and dry conditions or cold temperatures. Those plants tend to invest a lot of resource into their adaptations and often do not flower, Many perennials produce relatively large seeds, which can have an advantage, with larger seedlings produced after germination that can better compete with other plants. Some annuals produce many seeds per plant in one season, while some perennials are not under the same pressure to produce large numbers of seeds. In warmer and more favorable climates, perennials grow continuously, in seasonal climates, their growth is limited to the growing season. In some species, perennials retain their foliage all year round, other plants are deciduous perennials, for example, in temperate regions a perennial plant may grow and bloom during the warm part of the year, with the foliage dying back in the winter
8.
Carrot
–
The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist. Carrots are a form of the wild carrot, Daucus carota, native to Europe. The plant probably originated in Persia and originally cultivated for its leaves, the most commonly eaten part of the plant is the taproot, although the greens are sometimes eaten as well. The domestic carrot has been bred for its greatly enlarged, more palatable. The carrot is a plant in the umbellifer family Apiaceae. At first, it grows a rosette of leaves while building up the enlarged taproot, fast-growing cultivars mature within three months of sowing the seed, while slower-maturing cultivars are harvested four months later. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reports that production of carrots and turnips for the calendar year 2013 was 37.2 million tonnes. Carrots are widely used in many cuisines, especially in the preparation of salads, in Old English, carrots were not clearly distinguished from parsnips, the two were collectively called moru or more. Various languages still use the word for carrot as they do for root. Molecular and genetic studies, along with history, support the idea that the cultivated/domesticated carrot has a single origin in Central Asia. The wild ancestors of the carrot are likely to have originated in Persia, which remains the centre of diversity for Daucus carota, when they were first cultivated, carrots were grown for their aromatic leaves and seeds rather than their roots. Carrot seeds have been found in Switzerland and Southern Germany dating back to 2000–3000 BC, some close relatives of the carrot are still grown for their leaves and seeds, for example, parsley, cilantro/coriander, fennel, dill and cumin. Three different types of carrots are depicted, and the states of them that the root can be cooked. The plant appears to have been introduced into Spain by the Moors in the 8th century, in the 10th century, in worldwide locations like West Asia, India and Europe, the roots were purple. The modern carrot originated in Afghanistan at about this time, the Jewish scholar Simeon Seth describes both red and yellow carrots in the 11th century. The 12th-century Arab-Andalusian agriculturist, Ibn al-Awwam, also mentions roots of these colours, cultivated carrots appeared in China in the 14th century, and in Japan in the 18th century. Orange-coloured carrots appeared in the Netherlands in the 17th century, which has been related to the fact that the Dutch flag at the time, the Princes Flag, included orange. These, the carrots, were intended by the English antiquary John Aubrey when he noted in his memoranda
9.
Celery
–
Celery is a marshland plant in the family Apiaceae that has been cultivated as a vegetable since antiquity. Celery has a long fibrous stalk tapering into leaves, depending on location and cultivar, either its stalks, leaves, or hypocotyl are eaten and used in cooking. Celery seed is used as a spice, its extracts are used in medicines. Celery leaves are pinnate to bipinnate with rhombic leaflets 3–6 cm long, the flowers are creamy-white, 2–3 mm in diameter, and are produced in dense compound umbels. The seeds are ovoid to globose,1. 5–2 mm long. Modern cultivars have been selected for solid petioles, leaf stalks, a celery stalk readily separates into strings which are bundles of angular collenchyma cells exterior to the vascular bundles. The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek se-ri-no, celery was described by Carl Linnaeus in Volume One of his Species Plantarum in 1753. Wild celery, Apium graveolens var. graveolens, grows to 1 m tall, by the 19th century, the season for celery had been extended, to last from the beginning of September to late in April. In North America, commercial production of celery is dominated by the cultivar called Pascal celery, Gardeners can grow a range of cultivars, many of which differ from the wild species, mainly in having stouter leaf stems. They are ranged under two classes, white and red, the stalks grow in tight, straight, parallel bunches, and are typically marketed fresh that way, without roots and just a little green leaf remaining. The stalks are eaten raw, or as an ingredient in salads, or as a flavoring in soups, stews, in Europe, another popular variety is celeriac, Apium graveolens var. rapaceum, grown because its hypocotyl forms a large bulb, white on the inside. The bulb could be kept for months in winter and mostly serves as an ingredient in soup. It can also be ground up and used in salads, the leaves are used as seasoning, the small, fibrous stalks find only marginal use. Leaf celery or Chinese celery, Apium graveolens var. secalinum, is a cultivar from East Asia, the wild form of celery is known as smallage. It has a stalk with wedge-shaped leaves, the whole plant having a coarse, earthy taste. The stalks are not usually eaten, but the leaves may be used in salads, with cultivation and blanching, the stalks lose their acidic qualities and assume the mild, sweetish, aromatic taste particular to celery as a salad plant. Harvesting occurs when the size of celery in a field is marketable, due to extremely uniform crop growth. The petioles and leaves are removed and harvested, celery is packed by size, under optimal conditions, celery can be stored for up to seven weeks between 0 to 2 °C
10.
Parsley
–
Where it grows as a biennial, in the first year, it forms a rosette of tripinnate leaves 10–25 cm long with numerous 1–3 cm leaflets, and a taproot used as a food store over the winter. Parsley is widely used in European, Middle Eastern, and American cooking, curly leaf parsley is often used as a garnish. In central Europe, eastern Europe and southern Europe, as well as in western Asia, root parsley is very common in central, eastern and southern European cuisines, where it is used as a snack or a vegetable in many soups, stews, and casseroles. Mycenaean Greek se-ri-no, in Linear B, is the earliest attested form of the word selinon, garden parsley is a bright green, biennial, plant in temperate climates, or an annual herb in subtropical and tropical areas. Where it grows as a biennial, in the first year, it forms a rosette of tripinnate leaves 10–25 cm long with numerous 1–3 cm leaflets, and a taproot used as a food store over the winter. In the second year, it grows a stem to 75 cm tall with sparser leaves. The seeds are ovoid, 2–3 mm long, with prominent style remnants at the apex, one of the compounds of the essential oil is apiol. The plant normally dies after seed maturation, Parsley grows best in moist, well-drained soil, with full sun. It grows best between 22–30 °C, and usually is grown from seed, germination is slow, taking four to six weeks, and it often is difficult because of furanocoumarins in its seed coat. Typically, plants grown for the crop are spaced 10 cm apart. Parsley attracts several species of wildlife, bees and other nectar-feeding insects also visit the flowers. Birds such as the goldfinch feed on the seeds, in cultivation, parsley is subdivided into several cultivar groups, depending on the form of the plant, which is related to its end use. Often these are treated as varieties, but they are cultivated selections. The two main groups of parsley used as herbs are curly leaf and Italian, or flat leaf, of these, a third type, sometimes grown in southern Italy, has thick leaf stems resembling celery. Another type of parsley is grown as a vegetable, the Hamburg root parsley. This type of parsley produces much thicker roots than types cultivated for their leaves. Although seldom used in Britain and the United States, root parsley is common in central and eastern European cuisine, although root parsley looks similar to the parsnip, which is among its closest relatives in the family Apiaceae, its taste is quite different. Parsley is widely used in Middle Eastern, European, Brazilian and American cooking, curly leaf parsley is used often as a garnish
11.
Tomato
–
The tomato is the edible fruit of Solanum lycopersicum, commonly known as a tomato plant, which belongs to the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The species originated in Central and South America, the Nahuatl word tomatl gave rise to the Spanish word tomate, from which the English word tomato originates. Numerous varieties of tomato are widely grown in temperate climates across the world, with greenhouses allowing its production throughout the year, the plants typically grow to 1–3 meters in height and have a weak stem that often sprawls over the ground and vines over other plants. It is a perennial in its habitat, and grown as an annual in temperate climates. An average common tomato weighs approximately 100 grams and its use as a food originated in Mexico, and spread throughout the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Tomato is consumed in diverse ways, including raw, as an ingredient in dishes, sauces, salads. While tomatoes are botanically fruits, they are considered culinary vegetables. The word tomato comes from the Spanish tomate, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl word tomatl and it first appeared in print in 1595. The native Mexican tomatillo is tomate, meaning fat water or fat thing), when Aztecs started to cultivate the Andean fruit, bigger and red, they called the new species xitomatl. It first appeared in print in 1595, the scientific species epithet lycopersicum means wolf peach, and comes from German werewolf myths. The Italian word, pomodoro was borrowed into Polish, and via Russian, the usual pronunciations of tomato are /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ and /təˈmɑːtoʊ/. The words dual pronunciations were immortalized in Ira and George Gershwins 1937 song Lets Call the Whole Thing Off and have become a symbol for nitpicking pronunciation disputes. In this capacity, it has become an American and British slang term. Or Its all the same to me, botanically, a tomato is a fruit, a berry, consisting of the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. However, the tomato has a lower sugar content than other edible fruits. Typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, rather than at dessert, it is, in the US, considered a culinary vegetable. One exception is that tomatoes are treated as a fruit in home canning practices, they are acidic enough to process in a water bath rather than a pressure cooker as vegetables require. Tomatoes are not the food source with this ambiguity, bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans, eggplants, avocados
12.
Sweet potato
–
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the morning glory family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are a root vegetable, in some parts of the English-speaking world, sweet potatoes are locally known by other names such as kumara, but people usually confused it with yam due to their similar appearances. The young leaves and shoots are eaten as greens. The sweet potato is only related to the potato and does not belong to the nightshade family Solanaceae. The plant is a perennial vine, bearing alternate heart-shaped or palmately lobed leaves. The edible tuberous root is long and tapered, with a smooth skin whose color ranges between yellow, orange, red, brown, purple, and beige and its flesh ranges from beige through white, red, pink, violet, yellow, orange, and purple. Sweet potato cultivars with white or pale yellow flesh are less sweet and moist than those with red, Ipomoea batatas is native to the tropical regions in the Americas. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of Convolvulaceae, I. batatas is the crop plant of major importance—some others are used locally. The genus Ipomoea that contains the sweet potato also includes several garden flowers called morning glories, some cultivars of Ipomoea batatas are grown as ornamental plants under the name tuberous morning glory, used in a horticultural context. To add to the confusion, a different crop plant, the oca, is called a yam in many parts of Polynesia, the United States Department of Agriculture requires that the label yam always be accompanied by sweet potato in U. S. retail sales of sweet potato. Although the sweet potato is not closely related botanically to the common potato, the first Europeans to taste sweet potatoes were members of Christopher Columbuss expedition in 1492. Later explorers found many cultivars under an assortment of local names, the Spanish combined this with the Quechua word for potato, papa, to create the word patata for the common potato. The first record of the sweet potato is found in the Oxford English Dictionary of 1775. In Argentina, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic the sweet potato is called batata, in Mexico, Peru, Chile, Central America, and the Philippines, the sweet potato is known as camote, derived from the Nahuatl word camotli. In New Zealand, the most common cultivar is the red cultivar called kumara, a derived from the Māori name kūmara. Kumara is particularly popular as a food, or in contemporary cuisine as kumara chips, often served with sour cream. Occasionally, shops in Australia will label purple cultivars as purple sweet potato to denote the difference to the other cultivars, about 95% of Australias production is of the orange cultivar named Beauregard, originally from North America, known simply as sweet potato. A reddish-purple cultivar, Northern Star, is 4% of production and is sold as kumara, the origin and domestication of sweet potato is thought to be in either Central America or South America
