Things that are Spiky

All but one of these plants grow in Ecuador. Genus and species for each, and bonus points for pointing out the one I don't have in my garden.

 

2. Gomphocarpus sp.
3. Datura sp.
4. Castanea sp.

 

D is Castanea sativa, and is the one you don't have in your garden in Ecuador

 

So far, so good... A & E are outstanding.

 

1 Durio?

 

Nope. Think smaller!

 

#1 - Hybrid between Litchi chinensis and Nephelium lappaceum?? (if such exists!!)

 

Nope. Much more common, and a species, not a hybrid! The plant is named after the area in Ecuador where it was first described.

 

E a Raphia palm or perhaps Elaeis oleifera, oil palm?

 

Right family, wrong genus and species. Think about your elephants and all will become clear....

 

Phytelephas the only elephant palm realted thing I could thing of? P. aequatorialis being one from Ecuador with identical flowering/seed?

 

That would be it, alright - the Tagua palm, and source of sought-after vegetable ivory. It's also edible.

Is nobody going to take a stab at A, the Ecuadorean-named native shrub? It's in almost all your food.

 

Never seen one of those in my food!

 

Well, not the spiky bit directly. But the plant is used in almost every processed food in the US. Not sure for the UK.

 

More likely the region and plant are both named for thhe same explorer.

 

The name was applied to the plant in 1687 and the province was created in 1998.

 

Well, presumably the plant is named after the explorer, but I know that the province was named after the plant, although the capital city of the province in question is also named for the explorer who founded it...

Is anyone going to come out and say what we're talking about?

 

Aha . . . Annatto Bixa orellana. Yes, it is used as a food colouring over here, but not a huge lot, and getting less used too since health concerns were raised about it about 15 years ago (linked to hyperactivity in children, and various allergies and intolerance).

http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/factsheets/Factannatto.htm

Very little of the food that I eat has any in.

 

Almost all of my cheese has a bit in, but then again... It's not like everything I eat has Annato in it. Equally, Ecuador uses whole-seed extracts rather than the more complex single-dye extracts (160b) that are used in the developed world, so perhaps that has something to do with why none of the symptoms on that site are present in this country. Achiote (annato paste) is a traditional ingredient in a huge number of dishes.

Ding ding ding WINNER.