Now on the shelves of shops you can find not only the usual cucumbers or tomatoes, but also exotic berries and fruits. Not everyone was lucky enough to visit a banana or pineapple plantation, so many do not know how exactly the familiar kiwi or avocado grow.
Fortunately, now there is the Internet, and to view exotic plants, it is not necessary to cross the ocean. We will not only show you how they look, but also tell you about some of the features of plants, dispel popular myths.
10. Caper
Capers are small shrubs with oval or rounded leaves, somewhat similar to a spoon. They are small, fleshy.
But in cooking, it’s not leaves that are used, but unblown flower buds called capers. They are collected, sorted, left overnight, after which they are salted or pickled.
Small capers are more delicate, while large ones have a spicy taste. Culinary experts prefer tight small buds up to 1 cm in length.
9. Artichokes
In appearance, the artichoke is very similar to a thistle. But it has larger flowers up to 20 cm in diameter, and the inflorescences are a pleasant blue-purple color. This plant has large carved leaves. Eat a flower basket.
Artichokes that do not exceed the size of an egg are consumed raw or canned, pickled. Large, which grow with an orange, boil, previously removing the hard hairs in the center and the tips of the leaves. If the flower has opened, become hard, it is not suitable for cooking.
8. Wasabi
This is an ordinary grassy inconspicuous plant, which has a long creeping or rising stem, growing to 45 cm.
It has small leaves of a round or heart-shaped shape located on a long petiole. Wasabi blooms in April or May; it has small white flowers. Then the fruit appears - a pod, inside which you can find 8 seeds.
He prefers to grow on the banks of mountain rivers. Another common name is "Japanese horseradish", but in fact it is not horseradish. In Japanese cuisine, its rhizome is used, from which “wasabi” seasoning is made.
Real wasabi is made only in Japan. To grow it, you need to observe a number of conditions, and this seasoning can not be cheap. For 1 kg of wasabi root, they usually pay more than 200 euros.
Other countries often use a substance called wasabi, but it’s actually a mixture of horseradish, food coloring and spices. In this paste, there is either no wasabi root at all, or its share is below 2%.
7. Qiwi
In China, treelike creepers used to be called the "Chinese gooseberry." Their real name is actinidia. Its fruits weighed only 30 g.
At the beginning of the 20th century, this plant was brought to New Zealand, where a new variety was bred, which had larger fruits with excellent taste. Kiwi now looks like a tree, but it needs support.
Over the course of one season, the color of the leaves changes in kiwi: from green they turn white, then pink and raspberry. The fruits of tropical creepers are collected in clusters and are located at the very top.
6. Bananas
Many people have no doubt that bananas grow on palm trees, i.e. these are the fruits that we collect from trees. And then a surprise awaits them, and not just one, but as many as 2. A banana grows up to 8 m in length, its stem diameter is 40 cm. But this is not a tree, but a grassy plant. Its leaves, which sometimes reach a length of up to 3 m, do not grow on branches, like all trees, but directly from the trunk.
Bananas themselves are not fruits, as we used to think, but berries. Wild varieties have seeds inside, but they are absent in the bananas we know, because breeders have worked on this. Fruits are collected in clusters, their number can reach up to 100 pieces.
The plant reaches 8 m in height in 9-10 months, after which a large inflorescence, a purple bud, is formed. It has female, bisexual and male flowers. Gradually a bunch of fruits forms. After fruiting, the banana stem dies, a new one grows in its place.
5. Pineapples
In appearance, the pineapple is similar to a bush. It grows to 60 cm in height. It has narrow, juicy, but rough leaves, serrated at the edges. In fact, it is also a perennial herb.
In the center of the pineapple, a flower shoot is formed, flowers appear on it, and later - the fruit. It somewhat resembles a bump, because all covered with scales. At the top are leaves.
4. Peanuts
Peanuts are often called peanuts. But in fact, peanuts are not nuts, but legumes. This is an annual plant that grows up to 25-40 cm in height, with branched shoots. It has straight stems that resemble a bush in shape.
Leaves reach 3-11 m in length, they are slightly pubescent. The flowers are yellow, can self-pollinate. The pedicel, which ends with an ovary, gradually lengthens and penetrates the ground. Seeds ripen in the soil.
One plant produces about 40 beans. From planting to harvesting takes from 120 to 160 days. As soon as the peanuts ripen, farmers rip out bushes and turn them over to dry the beans. Then they will not go bad.
3. Pomegranate
This is a small tree that stretches up to 5 m. It has narrow green leaves, which are up to 8 cm long and up to 2 cm wide. In the tropics, pomegranate remains evergreen, and in regions with cool winters its leaves fall.
At the age of 3 years, the first flowers appear on the tree. The pomegranate begins to bloom in spring, finishes towards the end of summer, and individual flowers may appear in autumn. Most varieties have bright red flowers.
4-5 months after flowering, the fruits ripen, but provided that the air temperature does not drop below 25 degrees. From one tree you can collect from 30 to 60 kg of fruit. In good conditions, it can bear fruit for up to 100 years.
2. Avocado
It grows on fast-growing strongly branched trees that grow up to 18-20 m in height. 150 to 200 kg of fruits are harvested from one tree.
It has oval leaves from 10 to 20 cm long, and at the end of the branches there are small greenish flowers. By its chemical composition, avocados are closer to vegetables than to fruits, because there is little sugar in its pulp, but it is very nutritious.
The leaves, peel and bone contain toxic persin, which is dangerous for people and animals. A person may have a malfunction of the digestive system or an allergy, and birds, rabbits, horses and other animals may die if they eat a bone or peel of an avocado.
1. Brussels sprouts
This is a vegetable crop that was bred from ordinary, kale in Belgium. This is a biennial plant with a thick stem that grows up to 20-60 cm in height. Small or medium-sized leaves grow on it, which are held on a long petiole (14-33 cm).
In the axils of these leaves, small heads of cabbage are formed, similar in size to walnuts, but in appearance not different from ordinary cabbage. From one plant you can collect from 20 to 40 heads of cabbage.
In the second year, cabbage shoots, blooms and gives seeds - a pod, inside which there are crayons, round, dark brown seeds.