Veggiebonds

CLASSIC PLANTS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ARE IMMIGRANTS

Idon’t know if you’ve noticed (I'm being sarcastic), but everyone is either in Europe, on some Indonesian island, or living it up in the Hamptons. Our Instagram feeds have been bombarded with friends that are travelling like never before, and with our new hybrid work lifestyles, it’s never been easier to be a vagabond.

Yet, if you think about it, when you're sitting in Italy enjoying a delicious Caprese salad, that tomato on your plate is also a veggiebond. You see, tomatoes aren't Italian (I can hear an Italian nonna faint as she cries for my head). Just like people, plants tend to move around the world. The culinary type tends to do it faster than the non-edibles due to their value exchange. But nowadays, some house plants migrate faster than a Western family to Dubai. So, buckle up and brace for impact as we look at plants that are associated with one region, but are in fact the ultimate veggiebonds.

Side note: The word ‘vegetable’ is not a botanical term, but only culinary. The vegetative part of the plant is usually the part that can be consumed.

Let’s ketchup on the journey of the tomato

Often associated with pasta, the acidic fruit of the nightshade family has fooled everyone. Probably because Italians popularised the fruit so much, and when immigrants travelled to North America in the 1900s, the tomato came back to its home continent. Yes, it came back to the Americas. Originally, the plant was cultivated by the Aztecs and naturally grew in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The Spanish colonised South America and, like everything else, they took this fruit to their European homeland for trade in the 1500s. Bamboozled.

The land of the lovely lavender

Lavender is often found in a typical English garden setting – a staple for anyone who yearns for the romance of an English cottage. I hate to break it to you, but it’s not English at all. As a matter of fact, this plant hails from the Middle East, India, and some Mediterranean regions to the south. History describes lavender as an aromatic commonly used by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans to scent their baths, clothes, and hair. They aptly gave it the Latin name 'lavare', which means ‘to bathe’. France aided in popularising the flower, as its climate perfectly suits the plant and perfumers use the oil in fragrances. A member of the mint family, lavender is also used as an ingredient in cuisine, especially baking.

"We’ve learned to embrace, enjoy, love, and treat these exotic plants with the care and admiration we would our own."

As fair as an English rose

We’ve all heard the saying some time or another, but it should probably be rehashed, since roses are actually of Asian descent. Central Asia to be exact. The rose is one of the oldest flowering plants and has been cultivated for over 5000 years. Pink roses are the most commonly occurring natural variety, but colonialists and enthusiasts have also made hybrids of some pretty amazing varieties.

Mark Mac Hattie

Landscape Designer @that_other_plant_dad

Palm tree paradise

Palm trees usually make you think of California or the Arabian desert. They’re probably the tree you associate the most with taking a holiday, which is why they’ve travelled so far and wide. It also helps that it’s extremely hardy and wind resistant. But our renowned holiday destination icon is originally from India, Northern Africa, regions of Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Those Spanish colonisers were at it again with this one, as the common palm made its way to the Californian coast on their boats, either intentionally or by waste.

Wild goose chase to the Cape

Cape gooseberries are common in South African gardens. I mean, it’s in the name, so it’s definitely from Cape Town, right? Not so much... The Spanish really said ‘Let’s colonise the world with plants,’ because our beloved Cape gooseberry is in fact Peruvian. Another one of the agents of Spain to infiltrate the world, this member of the nightshade family gives us a tart little fruit inside a leafy husk. The name ‘Cape gooseberry’ is an indication of the calyx or hood that grows around the berry. And once the fruit matures, the hood dries out, and the fruit should be golden in color and sweet with a tart aftertaste.

There you have it. Tomatoes aren’t Italian; roses and lavender aren’t English; palms aren't Californian; and Cape gooseberries are actually an old Aztec favourite. Yet, we’ve learned to embrace, enjoy, love, and treat these exotic plants with the care and admiration we would our own. So, if we can manage to accept foreign plants as well as we have, without even knowing their true origin, we could happily live in a world where we eat South American tomatoes in our Italian caprese salad, while enjoying a lavender and rose-infused water under our Indian palm tree with our Asian partner and 100 houseplants as we celebrate the diversity of this world.