List of food plants native to the Americas

A number of popular and commercially important food plants are native to the Americas. Some are endemic, meaning they occur naturally only in the Americas and nowhere else, while others occur naturally both in the Americas and on other continents as well.

When complete, the list below will include all food plants native to the Americas (genera marked with a dagger ^† are endemic), regardless of when or where they were first used as a food source. For a list of food plants and other crops which were only introduced to Old World cultures as a result of the Columbian Exchange touched off by the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, see New World crops.

Grains

• Corn/Maize (Zea^†)
• Quinoa (Chenopodium)
• Several (though not all) species of amaranth (Amaranthus)
• Some species of wild rice (Zizania)
• Indian Corn (Flint Corn)
• Sorghum

Legumes

• Peanut (Arachis^†})
• Pinto, black, kidney, navy, scarlet runner (Phaseolus coccineus) and lima beans (Phaseolus^†)

Nightshades

• Potato (Solanum)
• Tomato (Solanum)
• Bell and chili peppers (Capsicum^†)
• Tomatillo (Physalis philadelphica)

Fruits

Nuts

Other

See also

• Columbian Exchange
• List of food origins
• New World crops

References

1. Lists of plants
2. New World crops
3. Indigenous peoples of the Americas
4. Indigenous cuisine of the Americas
5. Bush tucker
6. Columbian exchange
7. List of pre-Columbian inventions and innovations of Indigenous Americans
8. List of food origins
9. List of poisonous plants
10. Bannock (Indigenous American food)
11. List of soul foods and dishes
12. List of psychoactive plants
13. Native Americans in the United States
14. List of forageable plants
15. List of crop plants pollinated by bees
16. List of domesticated plants
17. Native American disease and epidemics
18. Australian Native Plants Society
19. Food
20. Native American ethnobotany