For many people across sub-Saharan Africa, Cleome gyandra, commonly known as the spider plant, is not food: it’s a weed. A tall, leggy plant with stars of almond-shaped leaves and clusters of white flowers, the spider plant is particularly common in Southern and East African countries. Yet until recently, it was a “forgotten” crop: sometimes eaten by rural people for subsistence, but for the most part neglected in larger food systems. This, even though its peppery, mustard-flavored leaves and stems are rich in vitamins, minerals and nutrients — and the fact it may prove more resilient than other staples in a region rapidly being transformed due to climate change. The spider plant is one of 52 crops identified in a 2023 study recently awarded the prestigious Cozzarelli Prize from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study examined “forgotten” crops that may help make sub-Saharan food systems more resilient, and more nutritious, as climate change makes it harder to grow the maize, rice, cassava and yams that the region currently relies on. “The changing environment, together with the need to diversify the food system and to chase away some of the health issues that we are having now, should trigger us to change the way we grow things, the way we eat,” says co-author Enoch Achigan-Dako, director of the Genetics, Biotechnology & Seed Sciences Laboratory at Benin’s University of Abomey-Calavi. “The diversity we need is already available.” The researchers began by looking at the present and future…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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