112 articles
Acanthaceae
Acanthaceae, the acanthus family (Lamiales), is a pantropical family of over 4,000 species in about 191 genera, defined by opposite cystolith-bearing leaves and explosively dehiscent capsules with retinacula, classified into four subfamilies including Acanthoideae.
Acanthus
Acanthus (bear's breeches) is a genus of about 25–30 Acanthaceae herbs and shrubs from southern Europe to N. Australia and Africa, used in traditional medicine and as the Corinthian capital's leaf motif.
Aloysia citrodora
Aloysia citrodora (lemon verbena, lemon beebrush; syn. Aloysia triphylla, Lippia citriodora) is a lemon-scented Verbenaceae shrub native to southern Bolivia and northwest Argentina, grown for herbal tea and medicine; verbascoside is its key extract constituent.
Anchusa
Anchusa (bugloss, alkanet) is a Boraginaceae herb genus published by Linnaeus in 1753, with about 35 species from the Mediterranean to Mongolia, Pakistan, and South Africa, used in traditional medicine and as a red dye source.
Andrographis
Andrographis (king of bitters; A. paniculata, kalmegh, chuan xin lian) is a genus of 27 accepted Acanthaceae herbs native to the Indian Subcontinent to Myanmar, source of andrographolide.
Andrographis paniculata
Andrographis paniculata, known as King of Bitters or kalmegh, is an annual acanthus herb native to the Indian subcontinent and used for centuries in traditional Asian medicine.
Antirrhinum
Antirrhinum (snapdragons), a Mediterranean genus of Plantaginaceae with about 20-24 diploid species (2n=16), whose type species Antirrhinum majus is a leading model for flower development genetics, the ABC model, and bee-pollinated personate flowers.
Antirrhinum majus
Antirrhinum majus, the garden snapdragon (muflier), a Plantaginaceae species native to Spain and France, self-compatible, bee-pollinated, and a model plant in genetics with a 510 Mb genome.
Avicennia
Avicennia is a genus of eight accepted species of mangrove trees and shrubs in the Acanthaceae family, distinguished by salt-secreting leaf glands, non-dormant seeds, and aerial roots.
Avicennia germinans
Avicennia germinans, black mangrove, is an Acanthaceae mangrove tree native from the SE United States and Caribbean to South America and West Tropical Africa to Angola, with pneumatophores, salt-excreting leaves, and major blue carbon storage.
Bacopa monnieri
Bacopa monnieri, called brahmi or water hyssop, is a creeping wetland herb used in Ayurvedic medicine as a memory enhancer and studied as a nootropic.
Bignonia
Bignonia (紫葳屬), bignonias, a conserved Linnaean genus of woody lianas in Bignoniaceae, tribe Bignonieae, native from central and eastern USA to Argentina, with 31 accepted species and Bignonia capreolata, the crossvine, as type.
Bignoniaceae
Bignoniaceae, the trumpet creeper or bignonia family (Juss., 1789, nom. cons.), is a pantropical Lamiales family of woody trees, shrubs, and lianas with zygomorphic flowers, centered in northern South America, with about 79-110 genera and 790-901 species.
Bontia daphnoides
Bontia daphnoides (white alling, wild olive, sea olive) is the sole species of the genus Bontia, a coastal Caribbean and northern South American shrub or small tree in Scrophulariaceae, used as a hedge, windbreak, and medicine, introduced to Florida and Hawaii.
Borage
Borage (Borago officinalis, starflower) is a Mediterranean annual herb with edible blue star flowers and cucumber-flavored leaves; its seed oil is the richest plant source of GLA, though oral borage oil shows no benefit for eczema.
Boraginaceae
Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-not family (Boraginales), comprises roughly 90 genera and 1,600–1,700 species sensu stricto, with rough-haired alternate leaves, scorpioid cymes, gynobasic styles, and four-nutlet fruits; APG IV treats it as the sole family of its order.
Boraginales
Boraginales, the borage order, is an order of lamiid flowering plants with ~2,700 species; APG IV treats it as one family Boraginaceae, while recent phylogenomics proposes nine families.
Buddleja
Buddleja (buddleia, butterfly bush) is a genus of about 114 accepted species of shrubs in Scrophulariaceae, native to tropical and subtropical America, Africa, Madagascar, and Asia; Buddleja davidii is a popular but invasive garden plant.
Catalpa
Catalpa (catalpa, Indian bean tree) is a genus of about eight Bignoniaceae tree species native to China, eastern North America, and the Greater Antilles, grown for showy white flowers and long bean-like pods; southern catalpa C. bignonioides and hardier northern catalpa C. speciosa are the common ornamentals.
Chelone
Chelone (turtlehead) is a genus of six perennial wetland herbs in Plantaginaceae, native from southeastern Canada to the eastern and central United States, with two-lipped white to purple flowers pollinated by bumblebees.
Cinchona
Cinchona, Andean Rubiaceae tree genus (quina, fever tree), source of quinine bark used against malaria since the 1630s; 24 species, Java plantations, 1942 Cinchona Missions.
Cistanche
Cistanche (desert hyacinth, desert ginseng; Rou Cong Rong) is a genus of holoparasitic Orobanchaceae desert plants from Macaronesia to China, used for millennia in herbal medicine, taxonomically confused, with C. deserticola CITES-listed and cultivated in Inner Mongolia.
Coprosma
Coprosma (mirror plant, karamū) is a genus of about 120 dioecious, wind-pollinated Rubiaceae shrubs centered in New Zealand, spread across the Pacific by birds, with fleshy orange to purple-black drupes.
Cordia alliodora
Cordia alliodora (laurel, solera, nogal cafetero), a Boraginaceae timber tree native from Mexico to Argentina, grown for mahogany-like wood and as shade over coffee and cacao; fast-growing, IUCN Least Concern, invasive in parts of the Pacific.
Cordia subcordata
Cordia subcordata (kou, mareer, sea trumpet, kerosene tree) is a coastal Pacific and Indian Ocean borage-family tree with orange funnel-shaped heterostylous flowers, floating corky fruits, prized carving wood, and IUCN Least Concern status.
Cynoglossum officinale
Cynoglossum officinale, houndstongue or gypsy-flower, is a biennial Boraginaceae herb native from Europe to Siberia and Iran, invasive in North America, with barbed nutlets and pyrrolizidine alkaloids toxic to livestock via contaminated hay.
Digitalis lanata
Digitalis lanata (woolly or Grecian foxglove), Plantaginaceae, a biennial/perennial herb native from SE Europe to NW Türkiye, cultivated for digoxin and lanatosides; introduced and weedy in North America.
Digitalis purpurea
Digitalis purpurea, common foxglove, is a biennial European plant with purple tubular flowers, source of cardiac glycosides like digitoxin, codified by Withering in 1785, and toxic in all parts.
Duranta
Duranta (golden dewdrop, skyflower) is a Verbenaceae genus of Neotropical shrubs and small trees, type species Duranta erecta, recognized by axillary spines and yellow four-pyrene drupes; about 29-35 species, ornamental, invasive, and toxic.
Duranta erecta
Duranta erecta (golden dewdrop, pigeon berry, skyflower; synonym Duranta repens) is a thorny Verbenaceae shrub native from Mexico to South America and Florida, grown ornamentally, toxic to people via saponin-rich berries, and invasive in Florida, Australia, China, Taiwan, and Fiji.