261 articles
Campomanesia
Campomanesia Ruiz & Pav. is a South American genus of about 43-45 woody Myrtaceae species in tribe Myrteae, recognized by a 4-18-locular ovary and a glandular false seed coat; includes guabiroba (C. xanthocarpa) and cambuci (C. phaea).
Caper
Capparis spinosa, the caper bush or caper, is a spiny perennial Capparaceae subshrub native from the Mediterranean to Central Asia and the Pacific, whose pickled flower buds are the condiment capers; rich in rutin and other flavonoids.
Capparaceae
Capparaceae (caper family), Capparaceae Juss., a woody flowering-plant family in Brassicales with about 15 genera and 500 tropical species, including Capparis spinosa; distinguished from Brassicaceae and Cleomaceae by fleshy replum-less fruits and a gynophore.
Capparales
Capparales, also called the mustard-oil order, is a historical plant order name now treated as a synonym of Brassicales, containing Brassicaceae, Capparaceae, and Cleomaceae among 17 glucosinolate-producing families.
Capparis
Capparis (caper genus) is the largest genus of Capparaceae, about 142 Old World tropical and subtropical species from Africa and the Mediterranean to Asia, Australia, and the Pacific; includes Capparis spinosa, the source of culinary capers.
Capsella
Capsella is a small genus of flowering plants in the mustard family and a wild relative of Arabidopsis, containing five species including shepherd's purse (C. bursa-pastoris).
Capsella bursa-pastoris
Capsella bursa-pastoris, shepherd's purse, a worldwide Brassicaceae weed and medicinal herb; recent allopolyploid related to Arabidopsis, serious wheat weed in China with ALS herbicide resistance, EU traditional medicine for heavy menstrual bleeding.
Cardamine
Cardamine (bittercress, toothwort) is a Brassicaceae genus of about 264 accepted species published by Linnaeus in 1753, type species C. pratensis, with explosive siliques, heavy polyploidy, and model species such as C. hirsuta.
Caricaceae
Caricaceae, the papaya family, is a small Brassicales family of tropical American trees, shrubs, and herbs plus African Cylicomorpha; sister to Moringaceae; includes Carica papaya, the fourth most important tropical fruit crop.
Caryocar
Caryocar (pequi trees) is a genus of 16 Neotropical tree species in Caryocaraceae, Malpighiales, native to Tropical America; C. brasiliense yields pequi fruit and oil rich in oleic acid.
Caryocar costaricense
Caryocar costaricense (ajo, ajillo, manú) is an endangered Central American timber tree of Caryocaraceae, the family's only Central American species, native to Costa Rica and adjacent Panama, with garlic-scented yellow flowers and CITES Appendix II listing.
Cassava
Cassava (Manihot esculenta, yuca, manioc, tapioca) is a drought-tolerant Euphorbiaceae root crop from the Americas feeding ~800 million people; cyanogenic roots need processing; major diseases CMD and CBSD; used for starch and bioethanol.
Ceiba pentandra
Ceiba pentandra (kapok tree, silk cotton tree, 吉贝) is a Malvaceae tree up to 70 m, native from Mexico to tropical America, widely planted pantropically; source of kapok floss and light timber, IUCN Least Concern (2017).
Celastrales
Celastrales, an order of rosid flowering plants with Celastraceae and Lepidobotryaceae, about 1,355 species in 94 genera, part of the unresolved COM clade with Oxalidales and Malpighiales.
Cephalotus
Cephalotus, the Australian or Albany pitcher plant (Cephalotus follicularis), is the sole species of Cephalotaceae, a carnivorous pitfall-trap plant endemic to southwest Western Australia, IUCN Vulnerable, with a 2017 genome revealing convergent co-option of digestive enzymes.
Chamaenerion angustifolium
Chamaenerion angustifolium, fireweed or rosebay willowherb (syn. Epilobium angustifolium, Chamerion angustifolium), a perennial Onagraceae herb of the temperate Northern Hemisphere that colonizes burned ground, produces about 80,000 wind-dispersed seeds yearly, and is used in traditional herbal medicine.
Chestnut
Chestnut, genus Castanea: nut trees of Asia, Europe, and North America. Covers the four main species, nutrition, cultivation, the 1904 chestnut blight that killed 3-4 billion American chestnuts, and restoration breeding.
Chrysobalanaceae
Chrysobalanaceae (cocoa plum family), pantropical trees and shrubs in Malpighiales, about 500 species, mostly Neotropical; gynobasic style, drupaceous fruit, silica-rich wood; formerly placed in Rosaceae.
Cissus quadrangularis
Cissus quadrangularis (veldt grape, Hadjod, Asthisamharaka) is a climbing succulent in Vitaceae native from Africa to Myanmar, used in Ayurveda for bone fractures; clinical evidence supports fracture-related benefit but remains low certainty.
Clusia
Clusia (attorney) is a Neotropical genus of about 250-310 Clusiaceae trees and shrubs with leathery leaves and latex, the only dicotyledonous tree genus with CAM photosynthesis species.
Clusiaceae
Clusiaceae, commonly called the mangosteen family and alternatively known as Guttiferae, is a family of pantropical flowering plants in the order Malpighiales, named by John Lindley in 1836.
Cnidoscolus
Cnidoscolus (spurge nettle, chaya) is an American Euphorbiaceae genus of about 93–99 stinging-haired species centered in Mexico and Brazil, used in folk medicine and as the leafy vegetable chaya, which must be boiled to remove cyanogenic glycosides.
Coca
Coca (Erythroxylum coca, E. novogranatense; Spanish coca, 古柯) is a South American shrub whose cocaine-bearing leaves have been chewed for 8,000 years; four cultivated varieties contain 0.11-1.02% cocaine.
Coccinia grandis
Coccinia grandis, ivy gourd or scarlet-fruited gourd (Cucurbitaceae), is a dioecious perennial tuberous climber to 20 m native from tropical Africa to Asia, eaten as a vegetable, studied as an antidiabetic herb, and a noxious invasive weed in Hawaii.
Codiaeum variegatum
Codiaeum variegatum, the garden croton (garden croton, fire croton, Joseph's Coat), is an Euphorbiaceae shrub native from Malesia to the SW Pacific, grown for variegated foliage in over 300 cultivars; mildly toxic sap, IUCN least concern.
Combretaceae
Combretaceae R.Br., the combretum or terminalia family, is a pantropical Myrtales plant family of 10 genera and about 568 species, sister to the rest of the order, with Combretum and Terminalia its largest genera and mangrove members Lumnitzera, Conocarpus, and Laguncularia.
Corymbia
Corymbia, the bloodwood eucalypts, a genus of about 95 Australian and New Guinean Myrtaceae trees split from Eucalyptus in 1995; includes spotted gums and ghost gums; non-monophyletic, with Blakella proposed as a separate genus in 2024.
Corymbia citriodora
Corymbia citriodora, the lemon-scented gum (formerly Eucalyptus citriodora), is an Australian Myrtaceae tree from Queensland to NE New South Wales, grown for citronellal-rich essential oil, heavy-construction timber, and ornamental planting.
Crambe
Crambe L. is a Brassicaceae genus of about 30-37 herb species from Europe, Macaronesia, and Asia, whose type species is sea kale; C. abyssinica is an industrial oilseed crop rich in erucic acid.
Crassula ovata
Crassula ovata, the jade plant (also money plant, lucky plant; Japanese kanenonaruki カネノナルキ), is a succulent Crassulaceae shrub native from SE Mozambique to South Africa's Cape, widely grown as a houseplant; synonym Crassula argentea, Least Concern.