Edamame (soybean)

A leafy cool-season salad green in the daisy family (Asteraceae), grown as an annual (sometimes biennial) for its mildly bitter, edible rosette of leaves. NC State Extension describes an erect, rapid-growing plant about 10 inches to 24 inches tall, with two main leaf forms: the narrow, curly, dark-green leaves of the frisée types (var. crispum) and the broad, flat leaves of escarole (var. latifolium). It is native to the eastern Mediterranean and India and grows best at cool temperatures around 60 to 65°F, finishing a crop in about 70-100 days. The leaves are eaten raw or cooked, and growers often blanch the heads to soften the natural bitterness before harvest.

A cool-season leafy green eaten raw or lightly cooked - among the most fundamental garden vegetables. Bolts (sends up flower stalks) + turns bitter in heat above 70°F per NC State; cool-spring + cool-fall windows are the productive growing periods in most North American climates. Four habit groups: head (iceberg, crisphead), loose-leaf, romaine (cos), and butterhead (Bibb, Boston).

A cool-weather vegetable in the cabbage family (Brassicaceae) grown for the fat, rounded, turnip-like swelling of its stem just above the soil surface. Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder describes a low, compact annual crop about 0.75-1 foot tall and wide that rarely flowers and is best picked young, when the bulb reaches 2 to 3 inches across and is tender and sweet - left larger it turns tough and woody. It needs cool temperatures and grows poorly once daytime highs consistently exceed 80°F, so it is typically grown as a spring or fall crop. Both the swollen stem and the leafy tops are edible, raw or cooked.

A fast, erect cool-season annual in the mustard family (Brassicaceae), introduced to all of North America from Eurasia and grown widely as a leafy vegetable. NC State Extension describes a rapid-growing plant about 12 to 18 inches tall and wide with large (over 6 inches) leaves - lobed lower leaves and shorter-stalked upper leaves, smooth with a whitish bloom and sometimes purple veins or fully purple coloring. It does best in the cool of fall and spring and bolts in summer heat, throwing up terminal clusters of small four-petaled yellow flowers and developing a strong, spicy flavor. The leaves, seeds, flowers, and stems are all edible raw or cooked, making it a productive, peppery green for the edible garden.

A fast, cool-season leafy annual grown for its tender, vitamin-rich basal rosette of leaves - an excellent source of vitamins A, B, and C plus iron and phosphorus per the Missouri Botanical Garden. Cultivated in Europe since the 1400s and probably native to western Asia, it crops best in the cool temperatures of spring and fall and bolts (sends up greenish-yellow flower spikes of no ornamental value) once summer heat arrives, after which the leaves deteriorate.

A tender, tuberous-rooted morning-glory relative native to tropical America and cultivated for its starchy edible storage roots for over 2,000 years. Trailing stems mound only about 9 inches tall but sprawl 8 to 10 feet wide, rooting at the nodes, with heart-shaped to palmately-lobed leaves. The species occasionally bears pale-pink-to-violet trumpet flowers, though most cultivars rarely bloom. Winter hardy only to USDA Zones 9-11, it is grown as a warm-season annual everywhere colder.