Author Archives: Irene Lucas

Piperaceae – the Pepper family

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Irene Lucas

Introducing Piperaceae Piperaceae is commonly known as the pepper family.  The name Piperaceae comes from the Sanskrit ‘pippali’ which also gave rise to the Greek ‘peperi’, the Latin ‘piper’ and the English ‘pepper’. Originally this referred to Piper longum, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Crops, Palaeotropics, Species | 1 Comment

Ipomoea batatas – Sweet Potato or When is a potato not a potato?

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Irene Lucas

Many of you will be familiar with the knobbly, red-skinned, orange-fleshed, vegetable known as sweet potato but you might be surprised to learn that it is more closely related to the parasitic thread-like dodders than it is to our familiar … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Americas, Asia, Australia, Crops, Species, Students | 2 Comments