Economic Botany: Edible Parts, Crop Scientific Names, Plant Diseases and Useful Plant Products

Economic Botany: Which Part of the Plant We Actually Eat

Economic botany studies the plants that feed, clothe and heal us. In general science papers it is a reliable scoring area, because the questions are factual and keep returning to the same small set of plants. A question rarely asks what a potato is; it asks which part of the plant a potato is, and the obvious answer, root, is wrong.

This short covers four lists that exams draw from: the edible part of common vegetables and fruits, the scientific names of major crops, the plant diseases with the organism that causes each, and useful products such as rubber, quinine, cotton and jute with the plant part they come from.

The rule behind most traps is simple. Judge an organ by its structure and origin, not by how it looks or whether it lies underground.

1. The edible part of the potato is a modified:

2. In which of these plants is the edible part an inflorescence?

3. The fleshy edible part of an apple develops from the:

4. Citrus canker is caused by a:

5. What is the scientific name of wheat?

6. Cotton fibre is obtained from which part of the cotton plant?

7. The white edible kernel of a coconut is its:

8. Late blight of potato is caused by: