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c. Fruits and vegetables

Fruits are described as the ripened seeds of plants

and the adjoining tissues which house them (Oni-

mawo and Egbekun, 1998). They are commonly

used as desserts.

Vegetables are the leafy outgrowth of plants or part

of plants that are used in making soups or eaten

with the principal part of a meal. In southern Nige-

ria, leafy vegetables are grouped into:

i cultivated leafy vegetables such as pumpkin,

green (spinach), bitter leaf, ewedu, water leaf;

ii semi-wild vegetables which grow wild in the bush

but are now protected to grow in the home garden,

e.g. utazi, uziza, atama (Ibos) okpai (Edo);

iii wild vegetables – okazi, edikan (Ibibio and Efik).

Many useful fruit trees which are exploited from

semi-wild conditions include breadfruit (Treculiasp.),

African pear (Dacroydessp.), Irvingiasp. and

Pentaclethra macrophylla(oil bean seed),Dialium

sp., Parkia vitexandChrysophyllumsp. Wild and

semiwild leaf vegetables of importance include

Pterocarpussp.,Pergulariasp. and Gnetumsp.

Several fruits exist in Nigeria. These fruits are dis-

tributed across the agro-ecological zones. In the

humid savannah several of the fruits include paw-

paw (Carica papaya), oranges, guava, lime, grapes,

African star apple (udara), mangoes, velvet tamarin

(Vitex doniana), bananas, tangerine, cashew, garden

eggs. In the northern part of Nigeria, particularly in

the Plateau State axis there are different types of

vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, water melon,

garden eggs. About 294 species and over 40 0

varieties of foods were documented in the south-

A bunch of bananas

Tomatoes

Mango

Pawpaw