881 articles
Balm of Gilead
Balm of Gilead: biblical Hebrew tsori resin of Gilead, ancient Judean Commiphora balsam of Jericho and Ein Gedi, poplar-bud herbal salve, and the "There Is a Balm in Gilead" spiritual metaphor.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Bersama
Bersama Fresen. (1837), a genus of African evergreen trees and shrubs in Francoaceae (formerly Melianthaceae), type species B. abyssinica; 7 accepted species per Kew, widely used in traditional medicine.
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.
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.
Bistorta officinalis
Bistorta officinalis (bistort, common bistort, European bistort; formerly Polygonum bistorta) is a Polygonaceae perennial of temperate Eurasia and Morocco with a contorted tannin-rich rhizome, pink flower spikes, medicinal and food uses, and garden cultivars.
Bixa
Bixa is a Neotropical plant genus of Bixaceae (Malvales), native Mexico to southern tropical America, with six accepted species; Bixa orellana, the annatto or lipstick tree, yields the apocarotenoid pigment bixin used as food coloring E160b.
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.
Blighia sapida
Blighia sapida (ackee, akee), Sapindaceae tree native to West and West Central Africa, national fruit of Jamaica; red capsules with edible yellow aril, toxic unripe due to hypoglycin A causing Jamaican vomiting sickness.
Boiled peanuts
Boiled peanuts, also called goober peas or pindars, are raw in-shell peanuts simmered in salted water until soft, a Southern US snack and South Carolina's official state snack since 2006, with West African origins.
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.
Bombax
Bombax (red silk cotton trees) is a genus of about eight Malvaceae trees native from tropical Africa to northern Australia; type species Bombax ceiba, source of kapok-like fibre, low-grade timber, and traditional medicine.
Boswellia
Boswellia (frankincense genus), Burseraceae trees of Africa, Arabia, and India; 25 species; resin contains boswellic acids (AKBA, KBA) inhibiting 5-LOX; studied for osteoarthritis; many species endangered.
Boswellia sacra
Boswellia sacra (Arabian frankincense tree, olibanum) is a 1.5–8 m Burseraceae tree of Somalia, Yemen, and Oman's Dhofar, source of frankincense resin traded since at least 2000 BC; Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List.
Boswellia serrata
Boswellia serrata (Indian frankincense, Shallaki) is an Indian resin-yielding tree whose boswellic acids, especially AKBA, underpin supplements studied mainly for knee osteoarthritis; evidence is modest and industry-funded.
Brachystegia
Brachystegia (msasa, miombo) is a genus of about 29 African legume trees dominating miombo woodlands of central and southern Africa, valued for timber, bark fibre, and food, with Pliocene diversification and hybridization complicating its taxonomy.
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.
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.