226 articles
Lonchocarpus
Lonchocarpus (lance fruit genus) is a genus of about 168 accepted Fabaceae trees and shrubs of tropical America and Africa, tribe Millettieae; roots of L. utilis, urucu, and nicou yield rotenone, used as insecticide and fish poison.
Lotus
Lotus L. (trefoils, birdsfoot trefoil) is an Old World Fabaceae genus of herbs and shrublets in tribe Loteae, published 1753, with Lotus corniculatus as major forage and Lotus japonicus as a model legume; unrelated to Nelumbo, the sacred lotus.
Lotus corniculatus
Lotus corniculatus, known as bird's-foot trefoil, is a perennial flowering legume of the pea family, native to temperate Eurasia and grown as forage that does not cause bloat in livestock.
Lupinus
Lupinus, commonly known as lupins or lupines, is a genus of herbs and shrubs in the legume family, Fabaceae, first published by Linnaeus in 1753.
Lupinus albus
Lupinus albus (white lupin, white lupine; synonym Lupinus termis) is an annual Mediterranean Fabaceae legume domesticated 3,000–4,000 years ago, with 38–44% seed protein, cluster roots for phosphate uptake, and subspecies albus and graecus.
Lupinus angustifolius
Lupinus angustifolius, narrow-leafed or blue lupin, Australian Sweet Lupin: annual Mediterranean legume domesticated from 1929, first WA cultivar 1967, over 95% of WA lupin grain, protein-rich seed used for feed and food.
Lupinus luteus
Lupinus luteus (yellow lupin, European yellow lupine) is an annual Mediterranean legume grown on sandy acidic soils for forage, feed, and green manure; domesticated for low alkaloids in 20th-century Germany.
Lupinus mutabilis
Lupinus mutabilis (tarwi, chocho, Andean lupin) is an Andean domesticated lupin with the highest protein (44%) and oil (18%) content among cultivated lupins, comparable to soybean, requiring debittering to remove quinolizidine alkaloids.
Lysiloma
Lysiloma (false tamarind, tzalam, sabicu) is a genus of eight dry-forest legume trees native from Arizona and Florida to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, sister to Hesperalbizia.
Macroptilium atropurpureum
Macroptilium atropurpureum (siratro, purple bean, atro; synonym Phaseolus atropurpureus) is a Fabaceae forage legume native from Mexico to western South America, with dark purple flowers, trifoliate leaves, cultivars Siratro and Aztec, and drought-avoidance physiology.
Mahogany
Mahogany: aromatic reddish hardwood of Swietenia (3 tropical American Meliaceae species) and African Khaya; prized for furniture since 1680, CITES-listed after depletion of S. mahagoni and S. macrophylla.
Maraschino cherry
Maraschino cherry: a preserved sweet cherry bleached in sulfite brine, sugared, dyed red, and almond-flavored (US style), or the original Marasca cherry candied in syrup by Luxardo since 1905; FDA name defined by 1940 TC-194.
Mastic (μαστίχα) (plant resin)
Mastic (μαστίχα, mastiha) is the aromatic resin of Pistacia lentiscus, produced almost exclusively in southern Chios, Greece; a PDO product since 1997, harvested by traditional incision, UNESCO-listed in 2014, and used in food, gum, and herbal medicine.
Medicago
Medicago, commonly called medics, is a genus of about 91 species of legume plants including alfalfa, the world's most widely cultivated forage crop, and the model species barrel medic.
Medicago lupulina
Medicago lupulina, black medick or black medic, is a selfing annual or short-lived perennial legume native from Europe to China, used as forage and cover crop, nodulating with Ensifer meliloti and E. medicae, and a common lawn weed in North America.
Medicago truncatula
Medicago truncatula (barrel medic), a Mediterranean annual legume and model organism for legume biology, with diploid genome 2n=16, Sinorhizobium nitrogen-fixing nodulation, and reference genomes A17 Mt3.5-Mt5.0 and R108.
Melilotus
Melilotus (sweet-clover, melilot) is a Fabaceae genus of fragrant annual and biennial herbs, 23 accepted species native from temperate Eurasia to South Africa, used as forage and cover crops, source of the anticoagulant dicoumarol, and invasive in North American grasslands.
Melilotus albus
Melilotus albus (white sweet-clover, Bokhara-clover), Fabaceae biennial legume native from Europe to China and N. Africa; grown for forage, honey, and green manure; coumarin-bearing, salt- and drought-relevant, invasive in North America.
Melilotus officinalis
Melilotus officinalis, yellow sweetclover or ribbed melilot, a Eurasian biennial Fabaceae legume introduced as forage, nitrogen-fixing and invasive in North America; moldy hay yields toxic dicoumarol.
Mesquite
Mesquite, also called mezquite or mesquite bush, is the common name for spiny, pod-bearing trees and shrubs of the legume genus Prosopis and relatives, used for food, fodder, and wood.
Mimosa
Mimosa is a pantropical legume genus of over 400 prickly, touch-sensitive plants, type species Mimosa pudica, the sensitive plant whose leaflets fold within seconds via pulvinar turgor loss and action potentials.
Mimosa pudica
Mimosa pudica, the sensitive plant or touch-me-not, is a Fabaceae herb native to Mexico and tropical America whose leaves fold when touched; it is a tropical invasive weed and medicinal plant.
Mimosa tenuiflora
Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.) Poir., synonym Mimosa hostilis, jurema-preta or tepezcohuite, is a Fabaceae shrub or tree from Mexico to Brazil whose tannin-rich bark is used for wounds and burns; clinical trial results in venous ulcers conflict.
Mucuna
Mucuna is a pantropical genus of about 112 accepted liana species in Fabaceae, tribe Phaseoleae, first published in 1763. Known for irritant pod hairs, explosive mammal pollination, floating seeds, and the velvet bean Mucuna pruriens.
Mucuna pruriens
Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean, cowitch, kapikacchu), a tropical Fabaceae climbing legume with irritant pod hairs, whose seeds contain 4–6% levodopa and have been trialed as a Parkinson's disease treatment and nitrogen-fixing cover crop.
Myrrh
Myrrh (mo yao 沒藥) is the aromatic gum-resin of Commiphora myrrha/molmol trees of Arabia and the Horn of Africa, traded since antiquity as perfume, incense, embalming agent, and medicine, now CITES-listed and EU-monographed.
Neroli
Neroli is the steam-distilled essential oil of bitter orange (Citrus aurantium var. amara) blossoms, named after the Princess of Nerola; key note of eau de cologne, ~0.1% yield, mainly from Tunisia.
Nut (food)
Nut (food): edible hard-shelled kernels including true botanical nuts, drupes, and seeds such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and peanuts. Eaten since prehistoric times; linked to lower cardiovascular and all-cause mortality; main hazard is aflatoxin.
Onobrychis viciifolia
Onobrychis viciifolia (common sainfoin) is a perennial Fabaceae forage legume native to Central and SE Europe, non-bloating due to condensed tannins, drought tolerant via a deep taproot, and under study as a protein-rich perennial pulse crop.
Ornithopus
Ornithopus (bird's-foot, serradella) is a genus of six annual legume species in Fabaceae, tribe Loteae, native from Macaronesia and Europe to Iran and disjunctly to South America; O. sativus is a widely sown forage legume on acidic sandy soils.