Forests of the World

Chocolate begins as beans inside rainforest cocoa pods that grow straight from the trunk.

Coffee beans are the seeds inside bright red “cherries” that grow best in shady mountain forests.

A banana plant is actually a giant herb, not a tree — and every bunch grows pointing at the sky.

Vanilla comes from the pod of a climbing orchid — the only orchid grown for food.

Cinnamon is the inner bark of a tree, peeled off and dried until it curls into sticks.

Cloves are flower buds picked before they open, then dried in the sun.

One fruit gives two spices — nutmeg from the seed and mace from the red net around it.

Peppercorns grow on a rainforest vine and were once so precious they were used as money.

The mango is the most eaten fruit in the world and has grown in tropical forests for 4,000 years.

A pineapple is really many little fruits fused together, and each plant makes just one at a time.

Avocados are a creamy fruit with a giant single seed, first grown in Central American forests.

Brazil nuts only grow in wild Amazon forest — they need a special bee and an agouti to survive.

Açaí berries grow high on Amazon palms and are harvested by climbers who shin up the trunk.

Rubber is made from the milky sap of a rainforest tree, tapped by cutting a groove in its bark.

Wild apples first grew in temperate mountain forests of Central Asia before spreading worldwide.

Sweet chestnuts grow inside spiky green cases and were once called “the bread of the forest”.

Hazelnuts grow on woodland shrubs and are a favourite autumn feast for squirrels and dormice.

Prized mushrooms like porcini sprout from a vast underground web that links forest trees together.

Wild blueberries carpet northern forest floors and bears gobble them by the thousands before winter.

It takes about 40 buckets of maple tree sap to boil down into a single bucket of syrup.

Olive trees can live for over a thousand years and still give fruit for oil every autumn.

Cork is the thick bark of the cork oak, peeled off gently so the living tree keeps growing.

Jackfruit is the biggest fruit that grows on a tree — a single one can weigh as much as a small child.

Papayas hang in a ring just under the leaves, and the whole plant grows from seed to fruit in under a year.

Cassava roots feed over a billion people and are the plant that tapioca and garri are made from.

Taro has been grown in forest clearings for thousands of years and has huge heart-shaped leaves.

Bamboo shoots are the tender young sprouts of bamboo, which can grow almost a metre in a single day.

The spicy part of ginger is the underground stem, grown in the warm shade beneath rainforest trees.

Turmeric roots are bright orange inside and give curry powder its golden colour.

Cardamom pods grow at the foot of the plant and are one of the most expensive spices by weight.

Star anise is a dried fruit shaped like a perfect star, each point holding one shiny seed.

Allspice tastes like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg all at once — which is how it got its name.

Wild garlic carpets spring woodlands with a garlicky scent and clouds of white star-shaped flowers.

Bay leaves come from the laurel tree — the same leaves once woven into crowns for ancient champions.

Each cashew nut hangs below a juicy “cashew apple”, with the nut growing outside the fruit.

Macadamias come from Australian rainforests and have one of the hardest shells of any nut.

Walnuts grow inside a green husk on the tree, hiding the wrinkly brain-shaped nut we eat.

Known as the “king of fruits,” durian smells so strong it is banned on many buses and hotels across Southeast Asia.

Called the “queen of fruits,” its thick purple rind hides sweet, snow-white segments that taste like peach and citrus.

Its name comes from the Malay word for “hair” — the red fruit is covered in soft, bendy spines.

Dragon fruit grows on a climbing cactus whose giant flowers bloom for just one night.

Lychees have been prized in China for over 2,000 years and were once rushed to emperors by horseback.

The fruit comes from a vine with one of the most elaborate flowers on Earth, pollinated by large carpenter bees.

Also called guanábana, this spiky fruit has creamy flesh that tastes like a blend of strawberry and pineapple.

When roasted, breadfruit tastes like fresh bread — a single tree can feed a family for decades.

This tender vegetable is harvested from the soft inner core of certain palm trees.

These curled young fern shoots are foraged in spring and must be cooked before eating.

This peppery West African spice was so valuable in medieval Europe it was traded like gold.