Collard greens

A fast cool-season annual of the mustard family grown for its peppery, mustard-like salad greens - irregular, pinnately-lobed basal leaves in a low rosette, each with 4 to 10 small lateral lobes and a large terminal lobe (Missouri Botanical Garden). First cultivated by the ancient Greeks and Romans and still widely grown across Europe, it is best grown in the cooler spring and fall months rather than summer heat; leaves are harvested young and tender before they turn strong and bitter. Pale-yellow four-petalled flowers with dark brown or purple veins appear in corymbs if plants are left to bloom.

A warm-season member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) - a relative of tomato, potato, and pepper - grown for its showy, glossy edible berries that range from white and green through deep purple to nearly black depending on cultivar. The plant is technically a tender herbaceous perennial but is grown as an annual vegetable across most of North America, where it demands a long, hot, frost-free season to fruit well. Drooping violet star-shaped flowers give way to the familiar pendant fruit; the leaves, flowers, stems, and roots are toxic and only the fruit is eaten.

A warm-season vegetable producing sweet bell, hot cayenne, jalapeño, paprika, and ornamental cultivars all from a single species - capsaicin content varies dramatically across cultivars while the plant itself remains uniform in habit (compact mounded warm-season annual). NC State documents capsaicin-immune birds as opportunistic fruit consumers; self-pollinating with optional cross-pollination from bees increases fruit set.

A low, sprawling nightshade grown for the sweet golden berries that ripen inside papery, lantern-like husks and drop to the ground when ready - hence "ground cherry." Soft, slightly hairy stems with heart-shaped toothed leaves carry small yellowish bell-shaped flowers all summer. Grown like a tomato, it is a tender annual in most of the US but can persist as a short-lived perennial where frost is absent.

A tropical, frost-tender pepper grown for some of the hottest fruits in the kitchen garden - this single species includes the habanero, Scotch bonnet, ghost (bhut jolokia), and Carolina Reaper. Native to the Americas (the Amazon basin and the Caribbean), Capsicum chinense is a true perennial only in frost-free zones 10-11; across nearly all of North America it is grown as a heat-loving warm-season annual. It needs a long, hot season to ripen its lantern-shaped fruits, and the capsaicin in those fruits is potent enough to burn skin and eyes, so it rewards a sunny spot and careful handling.

Soybean grown as a fresh-shell vegetable - edamame - an easy warm-season annual in the bean family (Fabaceae), native to China and the Russian Far East. NC State Extension describes a columnar, dense, multi-stemmed mounding plant about 12 to 24 inches tall and 9 inches to 24 inches wide, with hairy compound leaves and small pinkish pea-type flowers that give way to fuzzy legume pods. Like other legumes it fixes nitrogen, and NC State recommends inoculating seed with a soybean inoculant for best results. Pods are picked young and green for edamame, or left to dry on the plant for dry soybeans.