A luxury import from Persia that the Abbasid Caliphate aggressively monopolized across the Mediterranean in the eighth century AD.

A tree biologically capable of producing sugar, but ancient European farmers completely lacked the technology to tap and boil its sap.

An ancient crop brought to Europe that functioned primarily as animal feed, definitively not a chocolate substitute.

A heavily consumed modern staple crop originating from the Americas that was entirely absent from the ancient Mediterranean diet.

A citrus fruit from Persia that was actively developed as a commercial crop only after the Muslim conquests.

An opuntia cactus imported from Mesoamerica by conquistadores that now heavily dominates the Mediterranean landscape.

A New World crop completely unknown to the ancient Mediterranean, first recorded in Milan in the 1890s.