Salt

Bamboo

Number of times mentioned: 6
Latin name: Bambusa vulgaris
Region of origin: Asia

Quotations:

"Like a troupe of magicians, each one with a top hat, a black cape, a silver-topped cane, a briefcase, eyes shielded from the light by a pair of dark shades, and one ear wired with a hearing-aid, they came to ascend platforms decorated with palm and bamboo leaves and photographs of The Leader [...]" (19)

"He had walled it with a latticework of bamboo strips, temporarily (‘Until I get the proper kind of grass and mud to plaster it with’)." (71)

"He loved the look of bamboo, the feel of it." (109)

"He would say over and over again with regret, to his wife and children, If I wasn't in this business, I would make a million from bamboo." (109)

"He spent his time on the platform talking about birdcages and bamboo and wood, about corraili and bhaji and baigan, about scrubbing- boards and dog chains, so that the majority of people walked away from his meetings and those who remained did so only because they felt entertained by his utterances." (110)

"Outside in the yard people were beating bamboo and dancing bongo." (125)


Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 721, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.

Beetroot

Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Beta vulgaris
Region of origin: Middle East

Quotations:

"If your belly full up now with profits, if you ready now to abandon us because you getting sugar from beet that you growing over there in England, give us the island to run." (85)



Botanical reference: Parvin Mirmiran et al., “Functional Properties of Beetroot (Beta Vulgaris) in Management of Cardio-Metabolic Diseases,” Nutrition & Metabolism 17 (January 7, 2020): 3–3, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12986-019-0421-0.

Coffee

Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Coffea arabica
Region of origin: Ethiopia

Quotations:

"Mother Ethel said to her, ‘Go and get some coffee to give out to people.’" (125)



Botanical reference: V. Merot-L’anthoene et al., “Development and Evaluation of a Genome-Wide Coffee 8.5K SNP Array and Its Application for High-Density Genetic Mapping and for Investigating the Origin of Coffea Arabica L.,” Plant Biotechnology Journal 17, no. 7 (01 2019): 1418–30, https://doi.org/10.1111/pbi.13066.

Cumin (also known as geera)

Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Cuminum cyminum
Region of origin: Mediterranean region

Quotations:

"He went into Woodford Square, walking through the grandest guard of honour ever assembled for anybody in this country, the line stretching from the Singer entrance on Frederick Street right up to the podium, the whole country gathered there, the place looking and smelling like Trinidad and Tobago, market women in Shouters' headdress, smelling of red lavender and rosewater, vendors of paratha roti in orhnis, about them the scent of fresh coconut oil and burnt geera, clapping hands and shaking tambourines; stevedores with flags in their huge fists and towels draped over their formidable shoulders, nurses in grey stockings and starched aproned uniforms, vagrants in their Sunday best, soapbox politicians with their fingers on their lips, choirs of schoolchildren, oyster vendors and sugarcane workers, and a contingent of supporters from the opposition parties." (57)


Botanical reference: Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Cumin." Encyclopedia Britannica, May 5, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/plant/cumin.

Eggplant (also known as baigan)

Number of times mentioned: 2
Latin name: Solanum melongena
Region of origin: India, China

Quotations:

"Food: paratha and buss-up shot with delicacies from chataigne and baigan and bhaji to feed the whole of Cunaripo and Cascadu." (110)

"He spent his time on the platform talking about birdcages and bamboo and wood, about corraili and bhaji and baigan, about scrubbing- boards and dog chains, so that the majority of people walked away from his meetings and those who remained did so only because they felt entertained by his utterances." (110)

Botanical reference: Sandra Knapp, Maria S. Vorontsova, and Jaime Prohens, “Wild Relatives of the Eggplant (Solanum Melongena L.: Solanaceae): New Understanding of Species Names in a Complex Group,” PLOS ONE 8, no. 2 (February 22, 2013): e57039, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0057039.

Mustard

Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Sinapis alba
Region of origin: Europe, Africa, and Asia

Quotations:

"Nearby, the girls are skipping rope, screaming, as they turn the rope faster and faster: ‘Salt ... Vinegar ... Mustard ... Pepper ... Pepper, pepper!’" (36)



Botanical reference: Pedro Acevedo and Mark Strong, “Catalogue of Seed Plants of the West Indies,” Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98 (January 1, 2012): 177, https://doi.org/10.5479/si.0081024X.98.1.

Orange

Number of times mentioned: 2
Latin name: Citrus sinensis
Region of origin: China, India, Myanmar

Quotations:

"Maybe if Gandhi drank only water, then he would drink only orange juice." (41)

"‘OK, OK,’ Villaroel said. ‘Drink orange juice. What you wearing?’" (41)




Botanical reference: Julia F Morton, Fruits of Warm Climates, ed. Curtis F. Dowling (Miami, FL: Julia F. Morton, 1987), 134–42.

Pomegranate

Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Punica granatum
Region of origin: Middle East

Quotations:

"‘How you know to come to me now?’ asked Mother Ethel, pushing herself up from the bench facing the shrine in the yard, with the calabash tree and the pomegranate tree with the iron for Ogun and the conch shell for Yemanja and the sugarcane plant, for Damballah, the snake." (14)



Botanical reference: Abdullah M. Al-Sadi et al., “Genetic Analysis Suggests a Shared Origin of Punicagranatum Cultivars in Oman with Cultivars from the Center of Origin, Iran,” Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 62, no. 6 (August 1, 2015): 815–21, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-015-0256-0.

Red lavender

Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Lavandula dentata
Region of origin: Spain, Gibraltar, north-western Africa, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Israel, Jordan and the Arabian Peninsula.

Quotations:

"He went into Woodford Square, walking through the grandest guard of honour ever assembled for anybody in this country, the line stretching from the Singer entrance on Frederick Street right up to the podium, the whole country gathered there, the place looking and smelling like Trinidad and Tobago, market women in Shouters' headdress, smelling of red lavender and rosewater, vendors of paratha roti in orhnis, about them the scent of fresh coconut oil and burnt geera, clapping hands and shaking tambourines; stevedores with flags in their huge fists and towels draped over their formidable shoulders, nurses in grey stockings and starched aproned uniforms, vagrants in their Sunday best, soapbox politicians with their fingers on their lips, choirs of schoolchildren, oyster vendors and sugarcane workers, and a contingent of supporters from the opposition parties." (57)



Botanical reference: “Lavandula Dentata L.,” Plants of the World Online, accessed June 27, 2021, http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:449031-1.

Rice

Number of times mentioned: 4
Latin name: Oryza sativa
Region of origin: China

Quotations:

"LUNCH: / Fish or Meat 4 ounces / Rice / Provisions / Salad / Avocado / Fruit" (32)

"DINNER: / Steak / Chocolate (hot) / Rice or potatoes" (32)

"They had their basket with pigeon peas and rice and chicken and they had an icebox with cool drinks and a bottle of rum and they spread a towel underneath one of the trees in the Memorial Park next to the Savannah [...]." (78)

"The first of his family to run for election was the grandfather who they tell Sonan he take after, his father's father Moon, who forty-nine years earlier had appeared in Cascadu from Poole Sugar estate, with his wife Dularie and his sister Jasodra and his five children, four boys and a daughter, walking through the main street of the village, pushing a pushcart with all their belongings: wire cages with chickens, wooden crates with two dogs panting, a bag of flour, a bag of rice [...]." (107)


Botanical reference: Jae Young Choi and Michael D. Purugganan, “Multiple Origin but Single Domestication Led to Oryza Sativa,” G3 8 (2018): 797–803.

Rosemary

Number of times mentioned: 2
Latin name: Rosmarinus officinalis
Region of origin: Mediterranean region

Quotations:

" As the music struck up, she watched him set out for the corner where she was standing with her two sisters and Marya Balandra in a row of the most stylishly dressed girls from the town, each one with her hair fashioned in the same style, the same expression on each face, the whole preened and self-important gaggle of them swamped in the potent chemistry of cheap perfume, rosemary, Limacol, Pond's baby powder and freshly ironed hair, each one masticating chewing-gum with the intimidating power of her indifference to any but the prince she was awaiting." (10)

"He remembered the silence of the evening he saw his brother Noble, just sixteen, standing with this big straw hat on his head and the big soldier boots on his feet, his eyes huge and serene as if he was looking out a window at the whole huge world, and their mother sitting on the bed in the small room, smelling of coconut oil and rosemary, of ginger and sleep [...]." (83)


Botanical reference: Marianne Jennifer Datiles and Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, “Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary),” CAB International, 2014, https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/47678.

Tea

Number of times mentioned: 2
Latin name: Camellia sinensis
Region of origin: China, India

Quotations:

"Ladies in lace petticoats and bonnets of silk are having tea on the cool veranda while Black maids with abundant bosoms and willing hands hold the trays." (62)

"She would feel tears just watching him on a Saturday afternoon lead the Cascadu team on to the field, all of them in baptismal white, leisurely like princes dismounted from horses, throwing the ball and catching it and flinging it backwards and flinging it high into the air, time belonging to them, time to check the direction of the wind, the hardness of the pitch to be concerned whether it suited pace or spin, time for tea -- really a drink of water or a cup of juice or an ice cream from one of the ladies selling around the ground [...]." (71)


Botanical reference: Muditha K Meegahakumbura et al., “Domestication Origin and Breeding History of the Tea Plant (Camellia Sinensis) in China and India Based on Nuclear Microsatellites and CpDNA Sequence Data,” Frontiers in Plant Science 8 (January 25, 2018): 2270–2270, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.02270.

Watermelon

Number of times mentioned: 1
Latin name: Cucumis citrullus
Region of origin: Northeastern Africa

Quotations:

"Another brother, Mano, who used to play music in the parang band, put down his cuatro and take up a dougla girl from in the back of Princes Town and gone in the forest to build a house and squat a piece of land and plant watermelon and make children." (73)

Botanical reference:

Harry S. Paris, “Origin and Emergence of the Sweet Dessert Watermelon, Citrullus Lanatus,” Annals of Botany 116, no. 2 (August 1, 2015): 133–48, https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcv077.

Basil / Albahaca

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