The term Grains of Paradise refers to a West African spice obtained from the plant Aframomum melegueta (Ginger family, Zingiberaceae) which gives pungent, peppery flavor. It is also known as Guinea pepper, Melegueta pepper, alligator pepper and Guinea grains.
Aframomum melegueta is a herbaceous perennial plants native to swampy habitats along the West African coast. Its trumpet-shaped, purple flowers develop into 5 to 7 cm long pods containing numerous small, reddish-brown seeds.
The seeds have a pungent, peppery taste due to aromatic ketones, e.g., (6)-paradole (systematic name: 1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-decan-3-one). Essential oil, which is the dominating flavor component in the closely related cardamom, occur only in traces.
Grains of paradise are commonly employed in the cooking styles of West Africa and also North Africa, where they have been traditionally imported via caravan routes through the Sahara desert. In Europe, they enjoyed a short peaked popularity in the 14th century, when Portuguese sailors reached West Africa in their first steps to establish a sea route to India. When Vasco da Gama finally reached India in 1498, the new influx of relatively cheap black pepper ended the popularity of grans of paradise in Europe.
In West African folk medicine, grains of paradise are valued for their warming and digestive properties. Grains of paradise have been introduced to the Caribbean islands, where they are used as medicine and for religious ( Voodoo) rites.
Today it is used in the brewing of Samuel Adams Summer Ale and the distilling of Bombay Sapphire gin.

Plants are a major group of living things including familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, and ferns. About 350,000 species of plants have been estimated to exist. As of 2004, some 287,655 species had been identified, of which 258,650 are flowering.
Aristotle divided all living things between plants, which generally do not move or have sensory organs, and animals. In Linnaeus' system, these became the Kingdoms Vegetabilia (later Plantae) and Animalia. Since then, it has become clear that the Plantae as originally defined included several unrelated groups, and the fungi and several groups of algae were removed to new kingdoms. However, these are still often considered plants in many contexts. Indeed, any attempt to match "plant" with a single taxon is doomed to fail, because plant is a vaguely defined concept unrelated to the presumed phylogenic concepts on which modern taxonomy is based.

Embryophytes
Most familiar are the multicellular land plants, called embryophytes. They include the vascular plants, plants with full systems of leaves, stems, and roots. They also include a few of their close relatives, often called bryophytes, of which mosses and liverworts are the most common.
All of these plants have eukaryotic cells with cell walls composed of cellulose, and most obtain their energy through photosynthesis, using light and carbon dioxide to synthesize food. About three hundred plant species do not photosynthesize but are parasites on other species of photosynthetic plants. Plants are distinguished from green algae, from which they evolved, by having specialized reproductive organs protected by non-reproductive tissues.
Bryophytes first appeared during the early Palaeozoic. They can only survive where moisture is available for significant periods, although some species are desiccation tolerant. Most species of bryophyte remain small throughout their life-cycle. This involves an alternation between two generations: a haploid stage, called the gametophyte, and a diploid stage, called the sporophyte. The sporophyte is short-lived and remains dependent on its parent gametophyte.
Vascular plants first appeared during the Silurian period, and by the Devonian had diversified and spread into many different land environments. They have a number of adaptations that allowed them to overcome the limitations of the bryophytes. These include a cuticle resistant to desiccation, and vascular tissues which transport water throughout the organism. In most the sporophyte acts as a separate individual, while the gametophyte remains small.