261 articles
Juglans
Juglans, the walnut genus of Juglandaceae, has 21 accepted species including J. regia, J. nigra, and J. cinerea, native from the Americas to East Asia; threatened by thousand cankers disease and butternut canker.
Khat
Khat (Catha edulis, qat, miraa) is an evergreen Celastraceae shrub of East Africa and Yemen whose fresh leaves, containing the amphetamine-like alkaloid cathinone, are chewed as a stimulant by about 20 million people.
Kola nut
Kola nut (Cola acuminata, Cola nitida), the caffeine-rich seed chewed in West Africa and once flavoring Coca-Cola; contains 1.5–3.8% caffeine, GRAS status, 280,000 t produced in 2016.
Lagerstroemia
Lagerstroemia (crape myrtle genus), Lythraceae, ~50 accepted species of Asian-Australian trees and shrubs; ornamental L. indica, L. speciosa; timber like teak; crinkled petals, winged seeds.
Lagerstroemia speciosa
Lagerstroemia speciosa (banaba, queen's crape myrtle, pride of India) is a tropical Asian Lythraceae tree with large pink-mauve panicles, native from Yunnan to Malesia, used as timber, ornamental, and antidiabetic herbal medicine.
Lawsonia inermis
Lawsonia inermis, henna (also mehndi, Egyptian privet), the sole Lythraceae species of its genus; a 2–6 m shrub whose leaves yield the dye lawsone, used for millennia as hair and skin colorant and in traditional medicine.
Lepidium
Lepidium (peppergrasses, cresses) is a cosmopolitan genus of about 264 accepted species in Brassicaceae, tribe Lepidieae, first published by Linnaeus in 1753; it includes garden cress (L. sativum) and maca (L. meyenii).
Lepidium meyenii
Lepidium meyenii (maca) is a Brassicaceae perennial of the high Andes, cultivated at 4,000–4,400 m for its hypocotyl; synonyms include Lepidium peruvianum; studied for sexual function with limited clinical evidence.
Licania
Licania Aubl. is a Neotropical tree genus of Chrysobalanaceae, apetalous flowers, ovary at receptacle base, about 100 species from Mexico to southeastern Brazil after the 2016 split of the former polyphyletic 214-species genus into eight genera.
Linaceae
Linaceae, the flax family, is a cosmopolitan family of about 9 genera and 280 species in the order Malpighiales, including Linum, the source of linen and linseed oil.
Linum
Linum (flax genus), Linaceae, a genus of about 215 accepted species of herbs with showy blue, yellow, pink, red, or white flowers; includes cultivated flax Linum usitatissimum, source of linen and linseed oil.
Lophira
Lophira Banks ex C.F.Gaertn. is a genus of two African tree species in the Ochnaceae family, native from western tropical Africa to Uganda, first published in 1805.
Ludwigia
Ludwigia is a genus of about 87 species of flowering plants in the evening-primrose family, mostly annual or perennial herbs of wet places with usually yellow flowers.
Luma
Luma A.Gray is a genus of two Myrtaceae tree species, L. apiculata (arrayán, Chilean myrtle) and L. chequen, native to Chile and western Argentina, grown ornamentally and for honey, fruit, and hard timber.
Lunaria
Lunaria (honesty, money plant, silver dollar) is a European Brassicaceae genus with three species, L. annua, L. rediviva, and L. telekiana, known for silvery disc-like seed pods and erucic and nervonic acid rich seed oil.
Lunaria annua
Lunaria annua, honesty or annual honesty (money plant, silver dollar plant), is a biennial Brassicaceae herb native to south-central and southern Europe, grown for pink spring flowers and papery coin-like silicles used in dried arrangements.
Lythraceae
Lythraceae, the loosestrife family (Myrtales), is a family of 28 genera and ca. 625 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees, including pomegranate (Punica), henna (Lawsonia), crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia), and water chestnut (Trapa).
Macaranga
Macaranga (Thouars, 1806) is a genus of about 300 dioecious Euphorbiaceae trees and shrubs of the Old World tropics, sister to Mallotus, with 3-4-locellate anthers, hollow-twig ant-plant symbioses, and pioneer secondary-forest ecology.
Malpighiaceae
Malpighiaceae (Barbados cherry family), a Malpighiales family of trees, shrubs, and lianas; 72 genera, 1,499 species, mostly Neotropical; oil-secreting sepals pollinated by oil-collecting bees; 2024 monophyletic classification.
Malpighiales
Malpighiales is a large order of flowering plants (about 16,000 species, 36-42 families) in the rosid fabids, including Euphorbiaceae, Salicaceae, Malpighiaceae, and Rafflesiaceae; its deep phylogeny, long unresolved, was clarified by plastid phylogenomics.
Manchineel
Manchineel (Hippomane mancinella), also called beach apple or manzanilla de la muerte, is a highly toxic Euphorbiaceae tree of Caribbean and Central American coasts; sap, fruit, and even rainwater from its canopy cause blistering dermatitis and poisoning.
Mangosteen
Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana, Thai มังคุด), the Queen of Fruits, a Southeast Asian evergreen tree with apomictic seeds, 5-6 year juvenile phase, Thailand the top producer, and gamboge as the main fruit quality disorder.
Manihot
Manihot is a genus of about 140 species of latex-producing shrubs and trees in the spurge family, native from the southern United States to northwestern Argentina.
Melaleuca
Melaleuca, the paperbarks, is a Myrtaceae genus of about 260 to 382 species native from Indo-China to Australia and New Caledonia. Its species yield tea tree and niaouli oils, while M. quinquenervia has invaded over 200,000 hectares of Florida Everglades wetlands.
Melaleuca alternifolia
Melaleuca alternifolia, the Australian tea tree, a Myrtaceae shrub native to Queensland and northeast NSW; source of tea tree oil (terpinen-4-ol type, ISO 4730), used topically for acne and infections, toxic if swallowed.
Melastoma malabathricum
Melastoma malabathricum (senduduk, Singapore rhododendron, Malabar melastome) is a Melastomataceae shrub native from Seychelles and Asia to Australia, a folk-medicinal aluminum-accumulating weed with purple berries that stain the mouth black.
Melastomataceae
Melastomataceae Juss., the melastome family, a pantropical Myrtales family of about 150–190 genera and 4,500–5,800 species, recognized by acrodromous leaf venation, hypanthiate flowers, and buzz-pollinated poricidal anthers.
Mercurialis
Mercurialis (annual mercury, dog's mercury) is a genus of about 10 dioecious herbaceous Euphorbiaceae species native from Macaronesia and Europe to the Himalaya, type species M. annua, used in traditional medicine but toxic when fresh.
Mercurialis perennis
Mercurialis perennis, dog's mercury, a dioecious clonal perennial herb of European woodlands and ancient-woodland indicator; spreads mainly by rhizomes, toxic, pH 4.3–8.5, common in Britain.
Metrosideros
Metrosideros, the rātā and pōhutukawa genus of Myrtaceae, is a group of about 60 Pacific woody species with centres of diversity in New Zealand and New Caledonia, wind-dispersed seeds, red flowers, and vulnerability to myrtle rust and rapid ʻōhiʻa death.