edgepedia

Rosids

881 articles

Capsella

Capsella is a small genus of flowering plants in the mustard family and a wild relative of Arabidopsis, containing five species including shepherd's purse (C. bursa-pastoris).

Capsella bursa-pastoris

Capsella bursa-pastoris, shepherd's purse, a worldwide Brassicaceae weed and medicinal herb; recent allopolyploid related to Arabidopsis, serious wheat weed in China with ALS herbicide resistance, EU traditional medicine for heavy menstrual bleeding.

Caragana

Caragana (锦鸡儿属), peashrub, a Fabaceae genus of spiny shrubs native from eastern Europe to temperate Asia; 63-105 species, arid Miocene origin in the Junggar Basin, nitrogen-fixing windbreak shrubs like the Siberian peashrub.

Cardamine

Cardamine (bittercress, toothwort) is a Brassicaceae genus of about 264 accepted species published by Linnaeus in 1753, type species C. pratensis, with explosive siliques, heavy polyploidy, and model species such as C. hirsuta.

Caricaceae

Caricaceae, the papaya family, is a small Brassicales family of tropical American trees, shrubs, and herbs plus African Cylicomorpha; sister to Moringaceae; includes Carica papaya, the fourth most important tropical fruit crop.

Carob

Carob (Ceratonia siliqua), Mediterranean evergreen legume; sweet pods ground as caffeine-free cocoa substitute, seeds yield locust bean gum; major producers Spain, Italy, Portugal.

Carpinus betulus

Carpinus betulus, the European hornbeam, a Betulaceae tree native from Europe to Iran; dense hard wood, coppiced for firewood, used as hedge and shade tree, tolerant of wet clay soils and shade.

Carya

Carya (hickories), genus of Juglandaceae trees native from Assam to China and Indo-China and E. Canada to Mexico; disjunct EA-ENA distribution, origin ~66.64 Ma, includes pecan C. illinoinensis.

Caryocar

Caryocar (pequi trees) is a genus of 16 Neotropical tree species in Caryocaraceae, Malpighiales, native to Tropical America; C. brasiliense yields pequi fruit and oil rich in oleic acid.

Caryocar costaricense

Caryocar costaricense (ajo, ajillo, manú) is an endangered Central American timber tree of Caryocaraceae, the family's only Central American species, native to Costa Rica and adjacent Panama, with garlic-scented yellow flowers and CITES Appendix II listing.

Cassava

Cassava (Manihot esculenta, yuca, manioc, tapioca) is a drought-tolerant Euphorbiaceae root crop from the Americas feeding ~800 million people; cyanogenic roots need processing; major diseases CMD and CBSD; used for starch and bioethanol.

Cassia fistula

Cassia fistula, the golden shower tree or amaltas, is a Fabaceae tree native to India and Sri Lanka with yellow pendulous blooms and long black pods used as a laxative; Thailand's national flower.

Castanea mollissima

Castanea mollissima (板栗), Chinese chestnut, a Fagaceae tree native to China and Korea grown for edible nuts; blight-resistant donor species used in American chestnut restoration breeding, cultivated in China for at least 2,000 years.

Castanea pumila

Castanea pumila, chinquapin or Allegheny chinquapin, is a rhizomatous North American shrub or small tree in Fagaceae with one sweet nut per spiny bur, moderately resistant to chestnut blight.

Castanea sativa

Castanea sativa, sweet or European chestnut, is the only European Castanea species, a large deciduous nut and timber tree native from the Balkans to northern Iran, threatened by chestnut blight and ink disease.

Castanopsis

Castanopsis (chinquapin, chinkapin) is a genus of about 110-145 species of evergreen Fagaceae trees native to tropical and subtropical Asia, sister to Castanea, with spiny cupules enclosing edible nuts and valuable timber.

Casuarina

Casuarina is a genus of about 17 species of flowering trees and shrubs, native from tropical Asia to the western Pacific, known as she-oak or Australian pine.

Casuarinaceae

Casuarinaceae R.Br. (she-oaks, beefwoods) is a Fagales family of four genera, Allocasuarina, Casuarina, Ceuthostoma, Gymnostoma, and about 90-97 species, native to Australia, Malesia, and the western Pacific, with jointed photosynthetic twigs, scale leaves, woody cones, and Frankia nitrogen-fixing root nodules.

Ceanothus

Ceanothus, known in gardens as California lilac or wild lilac, is a genus of about 55 to 60 North American shrubs with dense blue spring flowers.

Cedrela

Cedrela (Spanish cedar, Cedrela odorata) is a Neotropical Meliaceae tree genus, sister to Toona in tribe Cedreleae, native Mexico to Argentina, with aromatic timber, CITES Appendix II protection, and Hypsipyla grandella shoot-borer damage.

Cedrela odorata

Cedrela odorata (Spanish cedar, cigar-box cedar) is a Meliaceae timber tree native from Mexico to tropical America, valued for aromatic, insect-repelling wood; IUCN Vulnerable and CITES Appendix II.

Ceiba pentandra

Ceiba pentandra (kapok tree, silk cotton tree, 吉贝) is a Malvaceae tree up to 70 m, native from Mexico to tropical America, widely planted pantropically; source of kapok floss and light timber, IUCN Least Concern (2017).

Celastraceae

Celastraceae R.Br. (bittersweet family, spindle-tree family), order Celastrales: ca. 100 genera, 1,300 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas; includes Euonymus, Celastrus, Maytenus, Catha edulis; Hippocrateaceae and Parnassiaceae synonymized.

Celastrales

Celastrales, an order of rosid flowering plants with Celastraceae and Lepidobotryaceae, about 1,355 species in 94 genera, part of the unresolved COM clade with Oxalidales and Malpighiales.

Celtis

Celtis (hackberries, nettle trees) is a genus of about 70-80 tree and shrub species in Cannabaceae, formerly Ulmaceae, with 3-veined leaves and 1 cm drupes; type species Celtis australis, cosmopolitan range.

Celtis australis

Celtis australis, the southern nettle tree or European hackberry, is a deciduous Cannabaceae tree native from the Mediterranean to northern Iran, grown ornamentally and for erosion control, drought-tolerant, a weed in Australia.

Centrosema

Centrosema (DC.) Benth., a Fabaceae genus (subtribe Clitoriinae) of climbing tropical American legumes, about 30–45 species, type C. brasilianum; used as tropical forage, pasture, cover crop, and green manure.

Cephalotus

Cephalotus, the Australian or Albany pitcher plant (Cephalotus follicularis), is the sole species of Cephalotaceae, a carnivorous pitfall-trap plant endemic to southwest Western Australia, IUCN Vulnerable, with a 2017 genome revealing convergent co-option of digestive enzymes.

Ceratonia

Ceratonia is a small Fabaceae genus of two evergreen species, carob (Ceratonia siliqua) and C. oreothauma, native from the Mediterranean to Arabia and Somalia, grown for pods and locust bean gum.

Chaenomeles

Chaenomeles (flowering quince, Japanese quince) is an Asian genus of four spiny Rosaceae shrubs, grown for early spring flowers and aromatic fruit used in jams and traditional Chinese medicine.