Okra, cultivated across tropical regions from Southeast Asia to West Africa, became central to African diasporic survival and cultural identity in the Americas. Enslaved Africans likely transported okra seeds via ships during the Middle Passage to ensure their own sustenance.

Indigo shaped colonial commerce and art across continents, from Vermeer's faded backgrounds to Caribbean plantations built on enslaved labor. Vermeer's indigo pigment likely came from the Americas, produced through systematic exploitation that stained both textiles and human hands.

Soybeans transformed from a weedy Asian plant into a global commodity now covering six percent of Earth's surface, driving industrial agriculture and environmental destruction. Genetically modified Roundup Ready soybeans achieved near-total adoption in Argentina within a decade, but triggered herbicide-resistant weeds that forced farmers to apply increasingly toxic chemicals.

Breadfruit, a Pacific staple transported by human migration, became central to British colonial strategy in the Caribbean through Captain Bligh's 1793 expedition. Genetic analysis reveals two Caribbean cultivars directly descended from Tahitian ancestors after over two centuries of separation.

Quinoa sustained Andean communities for over five thousand years before becoming a global "superfood" in 2013, raising critical questions about food justice and cultural appropriation. A 1994 American patent on quinoa seeds bred by Bolivian farmers prompted fierce resistance and prompted Bolivia's constitutional protection of genetic resources.

The opium poppy shifted from sacred medicinal plant to symbol of addiction and colonial exploitation, tracing its cultural value across ancient rituals, artistic inspiration, and geopolitical conflict. Colombian artists expose how eradication policies transformed the flower into an emblem of displacement and environmental devastation.

The katsura tree at Dumbarton Oaks exemplifies how ornamental plants traveled from East Asia through imperial trade networks to North America. Its 80-million-year lineage makes it a living link to the Cretaceous period, now supported by traditional Japanese horticultural techniques.

Herbarium specimens are pressed plants preserved since the 16th century that document biodiversity, species ranges, and climate change. A 1558 tomato specimen's DNA revealed it was a domesticated variety, proving early colonial-era cultivation of New World crops in Europe.

Eggplant traveled from Asian domestication through Islamic and Mediterranean culinary traditions to become a global vegetable laden with cultural meaning. The Kama Sutra recommended rubbing eggplant on male genitals to produce month-long swelling.

Wild yam's rhizomes enabled birth control pill synthesis after chemist Russell Marker extracted diosgenin from the plant in 1940. Marker committed biopiracy by smuggling a Mexican yam tuber across the U.S. border, launching a pharmaceutical industry that harvested 75,000 tons annually.

Sugi, Japan's national tree, shaped postwar landscape through massive afforestation but created monoculture forests now causing public health crises. One-quarter of Japan's population suffers allergies from the tree's prolific spring pollen.

Ayahuasca, an Amazonian psychoactive brew, served Indigenous communities for millennia in healing, spiritual initiation, and divination rituals. Loren Miller's 1986 patent on a cultivar was overturned not by recognizing Indigenous rights, but by a pressed plant specimen from a Chicago museum.