261 articles
Euphorbiaceae
Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae Juss., 1789), is a Malpighiales family of about 230 genera and 6,500+ species with unisexual flowers, latex, and the unique cyathium; includes Hevea rubber, cassava, and castor oil plants.
Feijoa sellowiana
Feijoa sellowiana, also called pineapple guava or Acca sellowiana, is a South American evergreen shrub grown for its sweet, pineapple-flavored green fruit, developed as a crop mainly in New Zealand.
Flax
Flax (Linum usitatissimum, from wild L. bienne) is a founder crop grown for linen fibre and linseed. Fibre types are tall and unbranched, oil types short and branched; seeds hold 40-45% oil, over 50% linolenic acid, and flax is the richest known lignan source.
Fuchsia
Fuchsia, genus of about 108 flowering plant species in Onagraceae, native from Mexico to tropical South America, New Zealand, and Tahiti; named by Plumier after Leonhart Fuchs; known for pendulous two-tone flowers, edible berries, and thousands of garden hybrids.
Garcia
Garcia (Vahl ex Rohr, 1792) is a two-species genus of Euphorbiaceae shrubs and trees native from Mexico to Brazil, including Garcia nutans (false tungoiltree), whose oil-rich seeds are used medicinally and studied as a drying oil.
Garcinia
Garcinia (Clusiaceae, Malpighiales) is a pantropical genus of latex-bearing dioecious trees and shrubs, first published by Linnaeus in 1753, with hundreds of species including the mangosteen, kokum, and gamboge-yielding plants.
Garcinia indica
Garcinia indica (kokum), Western Ghats endemic tree of Clusiaceae; dried rind used as souring agent, seeds yield kokum butter; contains hydroxycitric acid and garcinol; IUCN vulnerable.
Garcinia kola
Garcinia kola (bitter kola, false kola) is a Clusiaceae tree of West and Central Africa whose resin-rich seeds are chewed and used in folk medicine; its compounds show animal-model pharmacology but no confirmed human clinical efficacy.
Geraniaceae
Geraniaceae, the geranium family (Geraniales, rosids), includes Geranium, Pelargonium, Erodium, Monsonia, Sarcocaulon, California, and Hypseocharis; herbs and shrubs with five-parted flowers and beaked schizocarp fruits, about 830 species, mainly temperate.
Geranium robertianum
Geranium robertianum, herb Robert or red robin, is a pink-flowered annual or biennial geranium native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, self-seeding explosively up to 6.5 m, rich in phenolics, and a noxious weed in Washington State.
Gossypium
Gossypium (cotton genus), Malvaceae tribe Gossypieae; 20–50 tropical species, four independently domesticated; G. hirsutum and G. barbadense supply ~98% of world cotton fiber.
Grape
Grape, fruit of Vitis vinifera (grapevine), a climbing vine eaten fresh, dried as raisins, or made into wine and juice; 77.7 million t of fresh grapes in 2024, led by China, Italy, and the USA, with Near East domestication origin.
Guava
Guava (Amrood, Peyara) is a tropical fruit tree of the myrtle family, an evergreen shrub or small tree grown throughout the tropics for its sweet aromatic fruit.
Hawaiian hibiscus
Hawaiian hibiscus (aloalo) are the roughly six native Hibiscus species of Hawaii, including fragrant white kokiʻo keʻokeʻo (Hibiscus arnottianus, H. waimeae) and the endangered yellow state flower maʻo hau hele (Hibiscus brackenridgei).
Hazelnut
Hazelnut (fandoq), the nut of Corylus avellana: winter-flowering, wind-pollinated, self-incompatible; Turkey grows over 65% of the ~1.08 million-ton world crop, Italy second, Oregon 99% of US output; eastern filbert blight drives breeding.
Hesperis matronalis
Hesperis matronalis, dame's rocket or dame's violet, is a Eurasian biennial mustard with fragrant four-petaled purple or white flowers, widely naturalized and invasive in North America, attacked by the weevil Ceutorhynchus inaffectatus, and often confused with five-petaled garden phlox.
Hevea
Hevea is a genus of ten Euphorbiaceae tree species native to South Tropical America; Hevea brasiliensis, the rubber tree, supplies all commercial natural rubber, used mainly in tires, with guayule and dandelion as alternatives.
Hibiscus syriacus
Hibiscus syriacus, rose of Sharon or shrub althea, is a deciduous Malvaceae shrub native to southern China and Taiwan, the national flower of South Korea, hardy to USDA zone 5, with white-to-purple summer flowers and many cultivars.
Hickory
Hickory (Carya, Juglandaceae): about 16 hardwood species native to Asia, Central America, and North America, prized for shock-resistant tool-handle wood and oil-rich nuts; European species went extinct in the Ice Age.
Hornbeam
Hornbeam (Carpinus), a birch-family hardwood genus of about 19-40 Northern hemisphere species; European hornbeam (C. betulus) is a 25 m coppice and hedging tree of heavy lowland soils, with very hard wood used for cogs and mallets.
Horseradish
Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana), a Brassicaceae perennial from southeastern Europe and western Asia, grown over 3,000 years for its pungent taproot; allyl isothiocyanate from sinigrin gives the heat, and it substitutes for wasabi.
Hura crepitans
Hura crepitans, the sandbox tree or jabillo, is a spiny Euphorbiaceae tree native to tropical America with toxic sap and explosive fruit capsules that launch seeds at about 43 m/s up to 45 m.
Hydnocarpus kurzii
Hydnocarpus kurzii, commonly called chaulmoogra, is a dioecious evergreen tree native from Assam to Peninsular Malaysia whose seed oil was a standard historical treatment for leprosy.
Hypericaceae
Hypericaceae, the St. John's wort family (Hypericaceae Juss., 1789), is a Malpighiales family of herbs and shrubs with gland-dotted leaves; its dominant genus Hypericum holds 521 species, and sister family is Podostemaceae.
Hypericum
Hypericum (St. John's worts), genus of Hypericaceae with about 500 yellow-flowered species of herbs and shrubs, cosmopolitan mainly in temperate regions; includes medicinal H. perforatum and invasive weeds.
Hypericum perforatum
Hypericum perforatum (St. John's wort, Klamath weed) is a perennial Hypericaceae herb native from Europe to China and NW Africa, used for mild to moderate depression; extracts show efficacy near standard antidepressants but induce CYP3A4 and P-glycoprotein, causing major drug interactions.
Isatis tinctoria
Isatis tinctoria (woad, dyer's woad, pastel) is a Brassicaceae biennial native from SE and E Europe to Türkiye, the historical European source of indigo dye via precursors indican and isatan B, displaced by tropical indigo and synthetic indigo.
Jabuticaba
Jabuticaba (jaboticaba, Brazilian grape tree, Plinia cauliflora) is a slow-growing Myrtaceae fruit tree from Brazil whose dark purple berries and white flowers grow directly on the trunk (cauliflory); grown in zones 9a-11, fruiting in 8-10 years from seed.
Jatropha
Jatropha, a Euphorbiaceae genus of about 150 tropical species including the physic nut (Jatropha curcas), a toxic-seeded oil crop promoted for biodiesel whose large plantations proved barely financially viable.
Jatropha curcas
Jatropha curcas, physic nut or piñón de purga, a toxic Euphorbiaceae shrub native from Mexico to tropical America, grown as hedges and promoted as a biodiesel feedstock; seeds contain phorbol esters and curcin, making the oil non-edible.