207 articles
Acaena
Acaena is a genus of about 56 species of perennial herbs and dwarf shrubs in the rose family, known for burr-like fruits that attach to animals and clothing.
Agrimonia eupatoria
Agrimonia eupatoria (agrimony, church steeples) is a Rosaceae perennial herb of Europe, North Africa, and Asia; its dried flowering tops (Agrimoniae herba) are a tannin-rich traditional astringent drug regulated by an EMA monograph.
Alchemilla
Alchemilla (lady's mantle), Rosaceae genus of perennial herbs with palmately lobed leaves and greenish flowers; apomictic microspecies; used traditionally for gynecological and digestive complaints.
Alder
Alder (Alnus), a genus of about 40 birch-family trees and shrubs of the temperate Northern Hemisphere to the Andes, identified by stalked buds and persistent cones, and fixing nitrogen through Frankia root nodules.
Almond
Almond (Prunus dulcis, syn. P. amygdalus), an early-domesticated Near Eastern nut tree; wild ancestor likely P. fenzliana; California grows about 80% of world supply; kernels contain amygdalin.
Alnus glutinosa
Alnus glutinosa, common or black alder, is a European wetland tree in Betulaceae that fixes nitrogen via Frankia root nodules, has sticky buds, water-durable timber, and is invasive in North America, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Alnus rubra
Alnus rubra, the red alder, is a fast-growing deciduous tree of the birch family native to the Pacific Coast from Alaska to California, the largest alder in the Americas.
Alnus viridis
Alnus viridis (green alder, now often Alnus alnobetula) is a fast-growing deciduous nitrogen-fixing alder shrub of cool Northern Hemisphere subalpine zones, a pioneer on disturbed soils, 0.5–6 m tall.
Amelanchier
Amelanchier (serviceberry, juneberry, saskatoon, shadbush) is a Rosaceae genus of about 20 species of North American, European, and Asian shrubs and small trees with white flowers and edible sweet pomes; taxonomy is complicated by polyploidy, apomixis, and hybridization.
Amelanchier alnifolia
Amelanchier alnifolia, the saskatoon berry or Saskatoon serviceberry, is a North American Rosaceae shrub grown for sweet purple pomes rich in anthocyanins, fiber, and minerals; distinct from other serviceberries by alder-like leaves and western prairie range.
Amelanchier ovalis
Amelanchier ovalis (snowy mespilus, garden serviceberry), Medik. 1793, syn. Mespilus amelanchier L., a Rosaceae shrub native from Europe to the Caucasus and NW Africa, with diploid 2n=34 and tetraploid 2n=68 cytotypes and edible bluish-black fruits.
Angel Oak
Angel Oak: famous Southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) in Angel Oak Park, Johns Island, Charleston, SC; 65 ft tall, 25.5 ft trunk circumference, 17,000 sq ft canopy; age estimates 300-500 years; city-owned since 1991, free admission, ~400,000 visitors yearly.
Apricot
Apricot (Prunus armeniaca), a Rosaceae stone fruit from Central Asia with two domestication events; Turkey leads fresh production (1.27 Mt, 2024) and Türkiye dominates dried apricots; kernels contain toxic amygdalin.
Apricot kernel
Apricot kernel (Prunus armeniaca seed, amygdalin, laetrile, vitamin B17): seed inside the apricot pit; contains amygdalin that releases cyanide; no evidence it treats cancer; sale restricted in AU/NZ and EU.
Argentina anserina
Argentina anserina (silverweed, silverweed cinquefoil; formerly Potentilla anserina) is an allotetraploid stoloniferous Rosaceae perennial of temperate wetlands across the Northern Hemisphere, invasive in Patagonia, IUCN least concern.
Aria torminalis
Aria torminalis, the wild service tree (syn. Sorbus torminalis, Torminalis glaberrima), is a suckering Rosaceae tree of Europe to Iran and NW Africa, with chequer fruits, prized timber, and IUCN Least Concern status.
Aronia
Aronia, known as chokeberry or chokeberries, is a genus of deciduous shrubs in the rose family native to eastern North America, grown for its dark, polyphenol-rich fruit used in juice and wine.
Aronia melanocarpa
Aronia melanocarpa (black chokeberry) is a North American Rosaceae shrub grown for astringent, polyphenol- and anthocyanin-rich berries used in juices and functional foods; human RCT meta-analyses show no significant cardiometabolic effects.
Artocarpus
Artocarpus (breadfruit genus) is a Moraceae tree genus of about 70 species from tropical Asia to the western Pacific, with Borneo as its ancestral range; it yields jackfruit, breadfruit, cempedak, and marang, with compound syncarp fruits up to 45 kg.
Artocarpus integer
Artocarpus integer, cempedak (champada, chempedak), a Moraceae fruit tree native from Peninsula Thailand to Malesia, related to jackfruit and breadfruit; aromatic 0.6–3.5 kg fruits, teak-strength timber, IUCN Least Concern.
Banyan
Banyan (Ficus benghalensis, Indian banyan, Bengal fig): national tree of India, a fig whose aerial roots become prop trunks, letting one tree cover acres; Great Banyan near Kolkata spans ~1.5 ha with 3,000+ pillar roots; sacred, wasp-pollinated, invasive in Florida and Hawaii (Chinese banyan).
Beech
Beech (Fagus), genus of ~15 Northern Hemisphere deciduous trees in Fagaceae; smooth grey bark, three-angled nuts in spiny cupules, masting every 5–8 years, hard 710 kg/m3 timber, threatened by bark and leaf disease and warming.
Begonia
Begonia is a mega-diverse genus of Begoniaceae with roughly 1,400–2,167 species of succulent herbs across tropical Africa, America, Asia, and Oceania, known for asymmetric leaves, monoecious flowers, three-winged capsules, and thousands of ornamental hybrids.
Begoniaceae
Begoniaceae (begonia family), C.Agardh 1824, a Cucurbitales family with two genera, Begonia (1,400-2,200+ species, pantropical) and monotypic Hawaiian Hillebrandia; asymmetric leaves, inferior ovary, three-winged capsules, sister to Datiscaceae.
Betula alleghaniensis
Betula alleghaniensis, yellow birch (bouleau jaune), a large eastern North American birch with bronze peeling bark and wintergreen twigs; IUCN Least Concern, major timber and veneer species.
Betula papyrifera
Betula papyrifera, paper birch or canoe birch, a North American birch with white peeling bark, native from subarctic America to Virginia, used for revegetation, traditional bark crafts, and hybridizing with yellow birch.
Betula pendula
Betula pendula (垂枝桦), silver birch or European white birch, is a pioneer broadleaved tree of Europe and western Asia with white papery bark, pendulous resin-glanded twigs, IUCN Least Concern status, and the Finnish national tree designation.
Betula pubescens
Betula pubescens (downy birch, moor birch) is a tetraploid (2n=56) Eurasian birch tree, native from Newfoundland to the Russian Far East, distinguished from silver birch by downy shoots and wet-site habitat, and prone to widespread introgression.
Betulaceae
Betulaceae, the birch family of Fagales, has six genera (Alnus, Betula, Carpinus, Corylus, Ostrya, Ostryopsis) and about 160 northern-temperate tree and shrub species in two subfamilies.
Breadfruit
Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) is a tropical tree in the mulberry family, cultivated for starchy fruits that taste like bread when roasted and grown in 90 countries.