881 articles
Broussonetia papyrifera
Broussonetia papyrifera, paper mulberry (tapa cloth tree), a Moraceae tree native from India to Korea and Indo-China; inner bark used for washi paper and Pacific tapa; carried by Austronesians to Remote Oceania, now invasive in parts of the USA, Ghana, and India.
Bryonia
Bryonia (bryony) is a genus of ten climbing Cucurbitaceae herbs native from Macaronesia and Europe to Central Asia, sister to Ecballium, with dioecious and monoecious species and a two-millennium medicinal history.
Bulgur
Bulgur (bulgar, bulghur, burgul) is parboiled, dried, partially debranned wheat, usually durum, sold cracked or whole; a Middle Eastern staple, tabbouleh base, and Turkey-dominated trade (HS 190430) with GI about 55-65.
Bursera
Bursera is an American genus of resinous, deciduous trees and shrubs in Burseraceae, centered in Mexico, with about 80-120 species yielding copal incense resin; B. simaruba is widespread, B. hollickii critically endangered.
Bursera graveolens
Bursera graveolens, palo santo or incense tree, is a dry-forest tree from Mexico to Peru, burned as incense and distilled for limonene-rich essential oil; IUCN Least Concern but Critically Endangered under Peruvian law.
Bursera simaruba
Bursera simaruba (gumbo limbo, West Indian birch, palo mulato) is a Burseraceae tree native from Mexico to Brazil and the Caribbean, with peeling coppery bark, IUCN Least Concern status, and medicinal, fencepost, and fuel uses.
Burseraceae
Burseraceae Kunth, a conserved name published in 1824, is a pantropical family of resin-producing trees and shrubs in Sapindales, best known as the source of frankincense, myrrh, and copal.
Butea monosperma
Butea monosperma (Palash, पलाश, Flame of the Forest, Dhak) is a Fabaceae tree of the Indian subcontinent and Indochina with scarlet flowers, sacred in Hinduism, used in Ayurveda, IUCN Least Concern.
Caesalpinia
Caesalpinia Plum. ex L. is a genus of about ten neotropical legume trees and shrubs, once a pantropical genus of c. 150 species, split by 2016 phylogenetics into 26 genera including Paubrasilia.
Caesalpinia pulcherrima
Caesalpinia pulcherrima (L.) Sw., pride of Barbados or peacock flower (formerly Poinciana pulcherrima), is a prickly leguminous shrub native to SE Mexico to Central America, widely grown in tropics for red-orange flowers; medicinal, toxic seeds, national flower of Barbados.
Cajanus
Cajanus, a Fabaceae genus of 34 species native to the tropical Old World to north Australia; its sole cultivated species, Cajanus cajan (pigeonpea, arhar), was domesticated in India from C. cajanifolius.
Calabash
Calabash, most often the bottle gourd Lagenaria siceraria (ユウガオ), an African-domesticated climbing cucurbit grown for edible young fruits and hard shells used as utensils, instruments, and watermelon rootstock; distinct from Crescentia cujete.
Callistemon
Callistemon (bottlebrush) is an Australian genus of Myrtaceae shrubs with brush-like staminate flower spikes; Kew synonymizes it under Melaleuca, but the Australian Plant Census retains it.
Calophyllaceae
Calophyllaceae, a pantropical family of flowering plants in Malpighiales split from Clusiaceae in APG III (2009), with 13 genera including Calophyllum, Kielmeyera, Mammea, and Mesua, secretory ducts, and coumarin chemistry.
Calophyllum
Calophyllum (beautiful leaf, Greek kalos + phyllon) is a Calophyllaceae genus of about 200 tropical evergreen tree species centered on Borneo; source of calanolide A anti-HIV lead and tamanu biodiesel oil.
Calophyllum antillanum
Calophyllum antillanum (galba, Santa Maria, calaba) is a Caribbean Calophyllaceae tree, treated by Kew as C. brasiliense var. antillanum; native to Central America and the West Indies, used for timber and shade, invasive in south Florida and Hawaii.
Calophyllum inophyllum
Calophyllum inophyllum (Alexandrian laurel, tamanu, mastwood, nyamplung) is a coastal tropical tree of Calophyllaceae from East Africa to the Pacific, valued for shipbuilding timber, tamanu seed oil, medicine, and biodiesel.
Calotropis gigantea
Calotropis gigantea (crown flower, giant milkweed, madar) is an Apocynaceae shrub native to South China and tropical Asia, grown ornamentally, used in traditional medicine and fiber making, and an invasive weed in Africa, Australia, and the Pacific.
Camelina
Camelina, known as false flax or "gold of pleasure," is an annual oilseed crop of the mustard family, native to Eastern Europe and Western Asia and grown for omega-3-rich oil and protein-rich meal.
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).
Canavalia ensiformis
Canavalia ensiformis, commonly known as the jack bean, is a tropical legume grown as a cover crop, green manure, and forage; its seeds are protein-rich but toxic unless processed.
Cannabaceae
Cannabaceae (Martinov 1820, nom. cons.; synonyms Celtidaceae, Lupulaceae) is a Rosales family of 10–11 genera, about 117–170 species, including hemp (Cannabis), hops (Humulus), and hackberry trees, wind-pollinated with achenes, drupes, or samaras.
Cannabis
Cannabis (marijuana, hemp; Cannabis sativa L.) is a Cannabaceae genus domesticated in East Asia about 12,000 years ago, debated as one or several species, defined by THC content, and now partly legalized and reclassified medically.
Cannabis indica
Cannabis indica, named by Lamarck in 1785 from Indian specimens, is a contested cannabis taxon now usually treated as C. sativa subsp. indica or subsumed into a monotypic, highly diverse species; vernacular indica labels do not reliably predict chemistry.
Cannabis ruderalis
Cannabis ruderalis Janisch., a putative third cannabis species described by Janischevsky in 1924, now usually a synonym of Cannabis sativa; source of the day-neutral autoflowering trait via Autoflower1/Autoflower2 loci.
Cannabis sativa
Cannabis sativa (hemp, marijuana) is an herbaceous annual Cannabaceae crop domesticated in Central Asia ~12,000 years ago; cannabinoids like THC and CBD are made in female-flower trichomes, and the 0.3% THC threshold legally separates hemp from marijuana.
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.