299 articles
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.
Brugmansia
Brugmansia (angel's trumpets, floripondios, tree daturas) is a Solanaceae genus of six to eight woody Andean South American species with pendulous fragrant trumpet flowers, tropane alkaloid toxicity, and close relation to Datura.
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.
Callicarpa
Callicarpa (beautyberry) is a Lamiaceae genus of about 140-170 shrub and small tree species, type species C. americana, native from the Americas to Asia, the Pacific, and Australia, with showy purple drupes and mosquito-repellent leaf compounds.
Calotropis
Calotropis (akund, milkweed, Aak) is an Apocynaceae genus of latex-bearing shrubs native to the Old World tropics, with three accepted species including C. procera and C. gigantea, used medicinally and as fiber plants.
Calotropis procera
Calotropis procera (apple of sodom, calotrope, rubber bush, ushar) is a latex-bearing Apocynaceae shrub native from Africa to Indo-China, used in traditional medicine yet cardiotoxic, and an invasive weed infesting 1.8-3.7 million hectares of northern Australia.
Capsicum
Capsicum is the Solanaceae genus of chili and bell peppers, native from Mexico to tropical America, with about 43 accepted species, five independently domesticated (annuum, chinense, frutescens, baccatum, pubescens), and pungency from capsaicinoids.
Capsicum annuum
Capsicum annuum is the most widespread domesticated chili pepper species, covering bell peppers, jalapeños, and cayenne. Domesticated in Mexico over 6,500 years ago from wild var. glabriusculum, it reached Europe in the late 15th century and now anchors global pepper breeding.
Caryopteris × clandonensis
Caryopteris × clandonensis (bluebeard, blue mist shrub) is a hybrid shrub from Clandon, Surrey, bred by Arthur Simmonds around 1930 from C. incana and C. mongholica, grown for late-summer blue flowers that attract pollinators.
Cascabela thevetia
Cascabela thevetia, yellow oleander (syn. Thevetia peruviana), is a toxic Apocynaceae shrub native from Mexico to South America, containing digoxin-like cardiac glycosides such as thevetin A and B, and a frequent agent of self-poisoning in India and Sri Lanka.
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.
Catharanthus roseus
Catharanthus roseus (Madagascar periwinkle, formerly Vinca rosea), Apocynaceae ornamental native to Madagascar and sole natural source of anticancer alkaloids vinblastine and vincristine, made via strictosidine from tryptamine and secologanin.
Catnip
Catnip (Nepeta cataria), a mint-family perennial herb, contains nepetalactone, which makes about 68% of domestic cats euphorically rub and roll and repels mosquitoes comparably to DEET.
Centaurium erythraea
Centaurium erythraea, common centaury, is a Gentianaceae biennial herb native from the Azores and Morocco to SW Siberia and Iran, used in traditional medicine for dyspepsia and loss of appetite, with an EU traditional-use herbal monograph and bitter secoiridoid constituents.
Cerbera manghas
Cerbera manghas, the sea mango or pink-eyed cerbera (海杧果), is a poisonous Apocynaceae coastal tree from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific; its seeds contain the cardiac glycoside cerberin, lethal at half a seed.
Cerbera odollam
Cerbera odollam, the suicide tree or pong-pong (Apocynaceae), is a coastal Asian-Pacific tree whose cerberin-rich seeds cause digoxin-like cardiac poisoning, driving many suicides and homicides, especially in Kerala, India.
Ceropegia
Ceropegia (Ceropegia L., Apocynaceae) is an Old World genus of about 380 perennial herbs with tuberous roots and flask-shaped trap flowers that temporarily imprison fly pollinators via brood-site deception; Brachystelma and stapeliads are now included.
Cestrum nocturnum
Cestrum nocturnum, lady-of-the-night or night-blooming jasmine (रातकि रानी), a Solanaceae shrub native from Mexico to Venezuela with strongly night-scented flowers; all parts are poisonous to humans and livestock, and it is invasive in parts of Australia and India.
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.
Chia seed
Chia seed, the edible seed of Salvia hispanica, a Mesoamerican mint-family crop rich in omega-3 ALA, fiber, and calcium; mucilage-forming functional food with mixed clinical-trial evidence for cardiometabolic benefits.
Chili pepper
Chili pepper (Capsicum): American-native Solanaceae fruit whose capsaicin activates TRPV1, causing pungency. Domesticated in Mexico ~6,000 years ago; five domesticated species; capsaicin is an approved topical pain treatment.
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.
Clerodendrum
Clerodendrum (glorybower, bagflower, bleeding-heart) is a Lamiaceae genus of about 250 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas of the Old World tropics, with tubular flowers and accrescent fruiting calyces.
Coffea
Coffea is a genus of flowering plants in the madder family (Rubiaceae) whose roasted seeds yield coffee, with about 133 species native to Africa and tropical Asia.
Coleus
Coleus is a genus of about 320 species of aromatic herbs and shrubs in the mint family, native to the Old World tropics and Australia.
Coleus amboinicus
Coleus amboinicus (syn. Plectranthus amboinicus), Indian borage, is an aromatic Lamiaceae perennial herb native to Africa, Arabia, and India, used as a culinary and medicinal plant with phenolic, terpenoid, and flavonoid phytochemistry.
Convolvulaceae
Convolvulaceae, the morning-glory or bindweed family, is a family of about 1,700 to 2,000 twining flowering plants, sister to the nightshade family and including the sweet potato.