881 articles
Abelmoschus
Abelmoschus is a genus of about 13 species of herbs and shrubs in the mallow family, best known for containing okra, a widely cultivated vegetable.
Abrus precatorius
Abrus precatorius (rosary pea, jequirity bean), a Fabaceae vine native to the tropical Old World, bears scarlet seeds containing abrin, a ribosome-inactivating protein over 70 times more toxic than ricin, with no antidote.
Abscisic acid
Abscisic acid (ABA), also historically called dormin or abscissin, is a sesquiterpenoid plant hormone governing stomatal closure, drought and cold stress responses, and seed dormancy via PYR/PYL/RCAR receptor-PP2C-SnRK2 signaling.
Abutilon theophrasti
Abutilon theophrasti (velvetleaf, China jute, Indian mallow), an annual Malvaceae native to Central Asia and China, long grown for bast fiber since about 2000 BC, now a major weed of maize, cotton, and soybean in North America.
Acacia
Acacia, a Fabaceae tree and shrub genus retypified in 2005 with Australian A. penninervis, now covering about 1,000 mostly Australian phyllode wattles; African and American acacias moved to Vachellia and Senegalia.
Acacia auriculiformis
Acacia auriculiformis, earleaf acacia or earpod wattle (Darwin black wattle), is a fast-growing nitrogen-fixing Fabaceae tree native to Maluku, New Guinea, and northern Australia, widely planted for fuelwood and restoration but invasive in Florida and Singapore.
Acacia cyclops
Acacia cyclops (coastal wattle, rooikrans, red eye) is an Australian coastal shrub or small tree introduced to South Africa around 1835 for dune stabilization, now a massive-impact invasive controlled by seed-feeding weevils and gall midges.
Acacia dealbata
Acacia dealbata, silver wattle or mimosa, a fast-growing nitrogen-fixing Australian legume tree to 30 m with silvery bipinnate leaves and yellow spring flowers; invasive in western Iberia, South Africa and New Zealand, listed by EPPO, used for pulp, perfume and ornament.
Acacia harpophylla
Acacia harpophylla (brigalow) is a nitrogen-fixing Australian acacia tree of Queensland and New South Wales clay soils, reproducing mainly by root suckers. Its dominant ecological community is EPBC-listed endangered after declining to about 10% of former extent, though the species itself is IUCN Least Concern.
Acacia mangium
Acacia mangium (brown salwood, hickory wattle) is a fast-growing Fabaceae tree native to Maluku, New Guinea, and north Queensland, widely planted in tropical Asia for pulpwood, with about 450,000 hectares in the Asia-Pacific and known invasive behavior in some introduced ranges.
Acacia mearnsii
Acacia mearnsii (black wattle), Fabaceae tree native to southeastern Australia, grown worldwide for bark tannin (30-40% dry weight), pulp, and fuelwood; introduced to over 150 countries and listed among the world's 100 worst invasive alien species, notably invasive in South Africa.
Acacia sensu lato
Acacia sensu lato is the traditional broad genus of thorny acacia trees and shrubs, later split into seven separate genera after molecular studies showed it was polyphyletic.
Acaena
Acaena is a genus of about 56 species of perennial herbs and dwarf shrubs in the rose family, known for burr-like fruits that attach to animals and clothing.
Acalypha
Acalypha (copperleaf) is a pantropical genus of about 432 accepted species in Euphorbiaceae, described by Linnaeus in 1753, with 8-stamen male flowers, fringed styles, and medicinal and ornamental species such as A. hispida.
Acalypha indica
Acalypha indica L. (Indian acalypha, Indian copperleaf, kuppa meni) is an annual Euphorbiaceae herb native from Eritrea to South Africa and Arabia to tropical Asia, a medicinal weed whose ingestion can cause hemolysis and methemoglobinemia.
Acer campestre
Acer campestre, field maple or hedge maple, is a small deciduous Sapindaceae tree native from Europe to Iran and N. Algeria, common in hedges and woodland edges, drought- and salt-tolerant, with three accepted subspecies.
Acer negundo
Acer negundo, boxelder or ashleaf maple (Manitoba maple), the only compound-leaved maple, a fast-growing dioecious North American riparian tree reaching 21 m, valued for Great Plains shelterbelts and invasive in European riparian forests.
Acer pensylvanicum
Acer pensylvanicum, striped maple or moosewood, is a small shade-tolerant understory tree of eastern North American forests with white vertical stripes on green bark, dioecious sex expression, heavy wildlife browse value, and IUCN Least Concern status.
Acer platanoides
Acer platanoides, Norway maple, is a large Sapindaceae tree native from Europe to Central Asia, planted as a street tree since 1756 in North America, where it is now a regulated invasive species.
Acer pseudoplatanus
Acer pseudoplatanus, sycamore maple (sycamore in Britain), a large deciduous Sapindaceae tree native to Europe and W Caucasus, naturalised and invasive in Norway, threatened by sooty bark disease under warming climates.
Acer rubrum
Acer rubrum, red maple, a widespread eastern North American maple tree with red spring flowers and fall foliage; hexaploid-octoploid, hybridizes with silver maple as Acer × freemanii, widely planted in cultivars.
Acer saccharinum
Acer saccharinum, silver maple (soft maple, river maple), a fast-growing deciduous tree native from southeastern Canada to the central and eastern United States, with silvery leaf undersides, the largest samaras of native maples, and the Freeman maple hybrid with red maple.
Acer saccharum
Acer saccharum, sugar maple (hard maple, rock maple), a large deciduous hardwood of eastern North America; primary source of maple syrup with sap of about twice the sugar content of other maples, and a valuable timber species.
Acorn
Acorn: the nut fruit of oaks (Quercus), one seed in a cupule; white oaks ripen in one year, red oaks in two; tannin-rich but leachable, ~4,994 kcal/kg, staple food and wildlife mast.
Adansonia
Adansonia (baobab) is a genus of eight massive Malvaceae trees: A. digitata in Africa, A. gregorii in Australia, six endemic to Madagascar; genomic studies trace the origin to Madagascar about 41 million years ago.
Adansonia digitata
Adansonia digitata, the African baobab or upside-down tree, is a massive long-lived Malvaceae tree of dry Africa and Arabia; fruit pulp rich in vitamin C, over 300 traditional uses, IUCN Least Concern, Madagascar-origin genus.
Aegle
Aegle is a monotypic genus of Rutaceae (Sapindales) whose single species, Aegle marmelos (bael, Bengal quince), is a spiny South Asian tree with hard-shelled aromatic fruit, sacred in Hinduism and used in Ayurveda.
Aegle marmelos
Aegle marmelos (bael, bilva, Bengal quince) is a spiny Rutaceae tree native to the Indian Subcontinent, sacred in Hinduism and used in Ayurveda; fruit 5–15 cm, bioactives include marmelosin and aegeline.
Aeschynomene
Aeschynomene L. (joint vetch) is a pantropical legume genus of about 150-190 species, many aquatic, famous for stem nodulation by photosynthetic Bradyrhizobium lacking nodABC genes; A. evenia is its Nod-independent model legume.
Aesculus
Aesculus (horse-chestnuts, buckeyes) is a genus of about 12 tree and shrub species in Sapindaceae, native from SE Europe to Japan and North America, containing the toxin aesculin and including the widely planted European horse-chestnut.