Plant · P-076

Moringa

Moringa oleifera Lam.

Moringa is a fast-growing tree that can turn a single hot summer into a year-round pantry: its leaves cook like spinach or dry into a storable powder, running 7 to 10 percent protein, while young pods eat like asparagus and mature seeds roast like peanuts or press into a clear, slow-to-spoil cooking oil. Crushed seed also clarifies muddy water, working as a natural coagulant. It thrives in extreme heat and tolerates alkaline clay, but a hard freeze kills it to the ground, so where winters truly freeze it is grown as an annual that still reaches 10 feet or more in one season. Its leaf makes rich livestock feed, but the seed is toxic to rabbits and the root bark carries its own toxic compounds, so only the leaves, pods and seed are treated as food.