Parinarium-Paspalum (Sturtevant, 1919)

← Pangium-Parietaria

Sturtevant, Notes on edible plants, 1919 Parinarium-Paspalum (Sturtevant, 1919)

Passiflora →

Parinarium campestre Aubl.

Rosaceae.

French Guiana. The drupe is small, oval, yellow. The single seed is edible.

Parinarium excelsum Sabine.

ROUGH-SKINNED OR GRAY PLUM.

Tropical Africa. The fruit is greatly esteemed by the negroes and is plentifully supplied in the markets. It is produced in the greatest abundance and is about the size and shape of an Imperatrice plum, with a coarse skin of a grayish color. The pulp is dry, farinaceous, small in quantity and of an insipid taste.

Parinarium macrophyllum Sabine.

GINGERBREAD PLUM.

Tropical Africa. The fruit is oblong in form, twice the size of that of P. excelsum but otherwise resembling it in flavor and appearance.

Parinarium montanum Aubl.

French Guiana. The drupe is large, ovate, smootn and fibrous, has a thick, acrid rind, and the nut, or kernel, is sweet and edible.

Parinarium nonda F. Muell.

NONDA.

Northeast Australia. This species bears edible, mealy, plum-like fruit.

Paris polyphylla Sm.

Liliaceae.

Himalayan region and China. The seeds are eaten by the Lepchas of the Himalayas. They are sweet but mawkish.

Parkia africana R. Br.

Leguminosae. AFRICAN LOCUST.

Tropical western Africa. The natives of Sudan, who call the tree dours, roast the seeds and then bruise and allow them to ferment in water until they become putrid, when they are carefully washed, pounded into powder and made into cakes, which are excellent sauce for all kinds of food but have an unpleasant smell. An agreeable beverage is prepared from the sweet, farinaceous pulp surrounding the seeds. Sweetmeats are also made of it. The pods contain a yellow, farinaceous substance enveloping the seeds, of which the negroes of Sierra Leone are fond, its flavor being similar to that of the monkey-bread. This is the fruit mentioned by Park as a mimosa called by the negroes nitta, which furnishes a nutritive and agreeable food from its seed-pods.

Parkia biglandulosa Wight & Am.

Malay. The seeds are eaten by the Malays, who relish them as well as the mealy matter which surrounds them. The former tasce like garlic.

Parmentiera edulis DC.

Bignoniaceae.

Mexico. The fruit resembles a cucumber in shape, with a rough surface and is eaten. The tree is middle-sized.

Paropsia edulis Thou.

Passifloreae.

Madagascar. The aril of the seeds is edible.

Paspalum ciliatum H. B. & K.

Gramineae.

Brazil. This is a perennial and a lauded cereal grass of tropical South America.

Paspalum exile Kippist

Tropical Africa. This is a food grass called fundunjii in west Africa.

Paspalum scorbiculatum Linn.

KODA MILLET.

Old World tropics. This grain is grown to some extent in most parts of India. The seed is an article of diet with the Hindus, particularly with those who inhabit the hill regions and the most barren parts of the country, for it is in such districts it is chiefly cultivated, being an unprofitable crop and not sown where others more beneficial will thrive. It is used only by the poorest classes, says Elliott and is not reckoned very wholesome. Graham says this millet is very common and cheap about Bombay but unwholesome. It is the agrion krithon, furnishing good bread and gruel but which, at first, killed the horses of the Greeks until by degrees they became accustomed to it, as related by Theophrastus.