261 articles
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.
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.
Agonis
Agonis (peppermints) is a genus of aromatic Myrtaceae shrubs and trees endemic to south-west Western Australia, with white flowers in globular heads and woody 3-valved capsules; type species Agonis flexuosa, the willow myrtle.
Alcea
Alcea (hollyhocks) is a genus of about 83 accepted species of Malvaceae herbs native from East Central Europe to Central Asia; Alcea rosea, the hollyhock, is a cultigen from Türkiye grown as an ornamental and used in traditional medicine.
Aleurites moluccanus
Aleurites moluccanus, the candlenut tree (kukui, kemiri, 石栗), is an Euphorbiaceae tree native from tropical Asia to the western Pacific, grown for oil-rich seeds used as food, medicine, candles, and biodiesel; invasive in Pacific islands.
Alliaria petiolata
Alliaria petiolata, known as garlic mustard, is a biennial mustard herb native to Europe that has become invasive in North American forests since the 1860s.
Alyssum
Alyssum (madwort) is a Brassicaceae genus of about 112 accepted species native from the Canary Islands and North Africa to temperate Eurasia; its Odontarrhena section contains many nickel hyperaccumulators, and sweet alyssum belongs instead to Lobularia.
American chestnut
American chestnut (Castanea dentata), eastern US canopy tree killed as a dominant species by chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica) after 1904; restoration via backcross hybrids, hypovirulence, and transgenic Darling 54.
Arabidopsis
Arabidopsis is a genus of nine Brassicaceae species, led by Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress), the first plant genome sequenced (2000, about 125 Mb, five chromosomes) and the standard model organism of plant biology.
Arabidopsis thaliana
Arabidopsis thaliana, or thale cress, is a small flowering plant in the mustard family and a central model organism in plant biology, with the first fully sequenced plant genome.
Aspen
Aspen, chiefly quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), is North America's most widely distributed tree, a clonal species regenerating by root suckering and seed, valued for biodiversity and acting as a natural wildfire firebreak.
Aurinia
Aurinia (L.) Desv., goldentuft or basket of gold, is a genus of 7 Brassicaceae species native to central and southeastern Europe to Türkiye; A. saxatilis is a popular yellow rock-garden perennial.
Averrhoa bilimbi
Averrhoa bilimbi, or tree sorrel, is a small tropical tree in the Oxalidaceae family, native to Malesia and grown for its extremely sour, cucumber-shaped fruit used in cooking.
Banisteriopsis
Banisteriopsis (ayahuasca vine genus, Malpighiaceae), lianas and shrubs from Mexico to tropical South America; 65 accepted species including Banisteriopsis caapi, the principal component of Ayahuasca tea; Miocene origin about 22 million years ago.
Banisteriopsis caapi
Banisteriopsis caapi (ayahuasca, yagé, caapi) is an Amazonian Malpighiaceae liana containing the β-carboline alkaloids harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine, MAO inhibitors that make DMT orally active in ayahuasca brews.
Barbarea
Barbarea (winter-cress) is a genus of 29 Brassicaceae species, temperate Northern Hemisphere and SE Australia, unique in the family for triterpenoid saponins conferring insect resistance, notably against the diamondback moth.
Birch
Birch (Betula L.) is a genus of about 60 to 66 deciduous trees and shrubs in Betulaceae, native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with peeling bark, monoecious catkins, winged wind-dispersed seeds, and major timber species such as silver, downy, paper, and river birch.
Bixa orellana
Bixa orellana, known as annatto, achiote, or the lipstick tree, is a tropical American shrub whose seed coats yield annatto, an orange-red natural food colorant.
Bok choy (小白菜)
Bok choy (小白菜, pak choi), Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis, is a non-heading Chinese cabbage with dark leaves and thick white stalks; cool-season crop harvested 40–50 days after sowing, 13 kcal per 100 g raw.
Brassica carinata
Brassica carinata, Ethiopian mustard or Abyssinian mustard, is an allotetraploid (BBCC, 2n=34) oilseed crop from the Ethiopian highlands, derived from B. nigra × B. oleracea, developed for jet fuel and industrial erucic oil.
Brassica nigra
Brassica nigra, black mustard (Sinapis nigra), an erect annual Brassicaceae herb with BB genome 2n=16, grown since antiquity for pungent sinigrin-rich seeds used as condiment mustard and oil; parent of B. juncea and B. carinata.
Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae (Cruciferae), the mustard or cabbage family of order Brassicales: ~4,000 species with cruciform flowers, tetradynamous stamens, siliques, glucosinolate defense, and crops like Brassica, plus Arabidopsis thaliana.
Calabash
Calabash, most often the bottle gourd Lagenaria siceraria (ユウガオ), an African-domesticated climbing cucurbit grown for edible young fruits and hard shells used as utensils, instruments, and watermelon rootstock; distinct from Crescentia cujete.
Callistemon
Callistemon (bottlebrush) is an Australian genus of Myrtaceae shrubs with brush-like staminate flower spikes; Kew synonymizes it under Melaleuca, but the Australian Plant Census retains it.
Calophyllaceae
Calophyllaceae, a pantropical family of flowering plants in Malpighiales split from Clusiaceae in APG III (2009), with 13 genera including Calophyllum, Kielmeyera, Mammea, and Mesua, secretory ducts, and coumarin chemistry.
Calophyllum
Calophyllum (beautiful leaf, Greek kalos + phyllon) is a Calophyllaceae genus of about 200 tropical evergreen tree species centered on Borneo; source of calanolide A anti-HIV lead and tamanu biodiesel oil.
Calophyllum antillanum
Calophyllum antillanum (galba, Santa Maria, calaba) is a Caribbean Calophyllaceae tree, treated by Kew as C. brasiliense var. antillanum; native to Central America and the West Indies, used for timber and shade, invasive in south Florida and Hawaii.
Calophyllum inophyllum
Calophyllum inophyllum (Alexandrian laurel, tamanu, mastwood, nyamplung) is a coastal tropical tree of Calophyllaceae from East Africa to the Pacific, valued for shipbuilding timber, tamanu seed oil, medicine, and biodiesel.
Camelina
Camelina, known as false flax or "gold of pleasure," is an annual oilseed crop of the mustard family, native to Eastern Europe and Western Asia and grown for omega-3-rich oil and protein-rich meal.