Edible Plant Species

Zaiacca affinis Griff. Palmae.
Malay.
This palm is found in Malacca and is called by the natives salak batool. The fruit is edible.

Z. conferta Griff.
Malay and Sumatra.
The fruit is large, deep brown and hangs sometimes quite down in the mud in deeply clustered branches, almost hidden by the half-decayed bracts. The pulp surrounding the seeds is intensively acid and is much used by the Malays as a condiment.

Z. edulis Blume.
Burma and Malay.
The fruit is much sought after by the Burmese on account of the fleshy and juicy covering of the seeds, which has a pleasantly acid and refreshing taste. The fruit is eaten. It is about the size of a walnut and is covered with scales like those of a lizard; below the scales are two or three sweet, yellow kernels, which the Malays eat. A preserve is also made of the fruit.

Zamia chigua Seem. Cycadaceae (Zamiaceae).
New Granada.
The seeds are boiled and reduced to a mash which is served with milk and sugar. Bread is also made from them.

Z. furfuracea Ait. SAGO CYCAD.
Mexico.
This plant yields a sago which is much used in Jamaica.

Z. integrifolia Ait. SAGO CYCAD.
West Indies and Florida.
This cycad furnishes the Seminole Indians with their white meal. An arrowroot has been prepared from it at St. Augustine. It is now cultivated to a limited extent.

Z. pumila Linn.
West Indies.
The plant furnishes a kind of arrowroot.

Z. tenuis Willd.
Bahama Islands.
The plant yields from its trunk a pure starch, used as a fine arrowroot in the Bahamas.

Zanthoxylum alatum Roxb. Rutaceae.
Himalayas and China.
This is a small tree, the fruits of which are used in China as well as in India as a condiment. Its aromatic capsules are used as a condiment in India.

Z. budrunga Wall.
Himalayas and Burma.
The capsules are used for their warm, spicy, pepper-like pungency.

Z. piperitum DC.
China and Japan.
The bark, leaves and fruits are used as a spice.

Z. rhetsa DC.
East Indies.
The unripe capsules are like small berries and are gratefully aromatic, tasting like the peel of a fresh orange. The seeds are used as a condiment in Malabar. On the Coromandel Mountains, its aromatic bark is put in food as a condiment, and its seeds are used as a pepper substitute.