Native fruits and vegetables

Tomatoes are a native of the Americas

Saturday, May 27, 2023

With global access to seeds and plants these days, it is difficult to tell what are native to our area, region, continent and what was brought here over the centuries.  The difference between "native" and "heirloom" is that an heirloom only needs to have been grown here for at least 50 years whereas native is a plant that originated here; some natives are thousands of years old.

We don't have many native fruit trees in North America; most of our popular fruit trees were brought over as folks immigrated from Europe and other parts of the world. Black cherry, American persimmon, mayhaw, farkleberry and pawpaw trees are natives.  Apple, pear, plum, lime, and lemon trees all hail from Asia and Europe.

We have quite a few native berries in North America.  Strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, red and black raspberries, serviceberries, North American grapes (like Concord and mustang), loganberries, gooseberries, elderberries, chokeberries, buffalo berries, and huckleberries. 

There are many globally popular vegetables that originated in the Americas.  America's favorite garden vegetable, tomatoes, originated in South and Central America.  Other natives include maize (corn-Mexico), beans (Central and South America), squash (Mexico and Central America), avocados (Mexico), peppers (Central or South America), potatoes (Peru), tomatillos (Mexico), sweet potatoes (Peru), peanuts (South America).  A couple of grains that are native are wild rice (Great Lakes) and amaranth (South America).  All of these crops spread across North and South America thousands of years ago, well before European explorers came to the Americas.

Peppers, a native of the Americas

Some were taken back to Europe from the Americas and cultivated widely before being brought back to the colonies.  Great examples are the tomato and potato.  We associate potatoes with the Irish and British and tomatoes with Italy but their origin was actually in the Americas.

There are several edible greens that are native to North America like ramps, lambsquarter, wild onion, wild garlic, and fiddle leaf fern but are not commonly cultivated in the garden.  They are packed with nutrition so great to add to salads.  The greens of amaranth can also be used as a summer substitute for lettuce.