881 articles
Chamaecrista
Chamaecrista (L.) Moench, a genus of about 350–379 legume species (Fabaceae, Cassiinae) of herbs and shrubs native to the tropics and subtropics; nodulating, buzz-pollinated, extrafloral-nectary-bearing plants distinct from Cassia and Senna.
Chamaenerion angustifolium
Chamaenerion angustifolium, fireweed or rosebay willowherb (syn. Epilobium angustifolium, Chamerion angustifolium), a perennial Onagraceae herb of the temperate Northern Hemisphere that colonizes burned ground, produces about 80,000 wind-dispersed seeds yearly, and is used in traditional herbal medicine.
Char magaz
Char magaz (चार मगज) is a blend of watermelon, melon, cucumber, and pumpkin seed kernels used in Indian and Pakistani cuisines, especially Rajasthani and Mughlai gravies like korma.
Charas
Charas, also known as gardaa, is the resin of the cannabis plant, collected as it exudes naturally and historically produced, sold, and taxed across northern South Asia.
Chestnut
Chestnut, genus Castanea: nut trees of Asia, Europe, and North America. Covers the four main species, nutrition, cultivation, the 1904 chestnut blight that killed 3-4 billion American chestnuts, and restoration breeding.
China rose
China rose: common name for the tropical hibiscus Hibiscus (×) rosa-sinensis (Chinese hibiscus, shoeblack plant), a Malvaceae cultigen unknown in the wild, and also for Rosa chinensis, the repeat-flowering Chinese rose ancestor of hybrid tea roses.
Chinmay Saha
Chinmay Saha is an Indian plant–microbe researcher at HHMI, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, known for bacterial colonization of plants and rice nitrogen nutrition.
Christia
Christia (island pea; 蝙蝠草属) is a Fabaceae genus of herbs established by Moench in 1802, native from tropical Asia to northern Australia, with about 11 species including the ornamental butterfly-leaf C. vespertilionis.
Chrysobalanaceae
Chrysobalanaceae (cocoa plum family), pantropical trees and shrubs in Malpighiales, about 500 species, mostly Neotropical; gynobasic style, drupaceous fruit, silica-rich wood; formerly placed in Rosaceae.
Cissus quadrangularis
Cissus quadrangularis (veldt grape, Hadjod, Asthisamharaka) is a climbing succulent in Vitaceae native from Africa to Myanmar, used in Ayurveda for bone fractures; clinical evidence supports fracture-related benefit but remains low certainty.
Cistaceae
Cistaceae, the rockrose family, is a Malvales family of eight genera and about 180 species of aromatic shrubs and herbs, concentrated in the Mediterranean, including Cistus, Helianthemum, Fumana, Halimium, and Tuberaria.
Cistus ladanifer
Cistus ladanifer, known as common gum cistus, gum rockrose, or jara, is a shrub native to the western Mediterranean whose sticky exudate, labdanum, is used as a fixative in perfumes.
Citrullus
Citrullus is a genus of seven African Cucurbitaceae species including the watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), colocynth, citron melon, and egusi watermelon; the Kordofan melon is the watermelon's closest wild relative.
Citrullus colocynthis
Citrullus colocynthis, colocynth or bitter apple (alhandal, handal), a perennial desert cucurbit vine from Macaronesia to Myanmar; bitter fruits rich in cucurbitacins, used traditionally as a purgative and antidiabetic, but toxic with a narrow therapeutic index.
Citrus
Citrus is a Rutaceae genus of evergreen fruit trees (oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits, mandarins) native from the Himalaya to Japan and the SW Pacific; largest world fruit crop, now threatened by huanglongbing (citrus greening).
Citrus unshiu
Citrus unshiu (ウンシュウミカン), satsuma mandarin, is a seedless easy-peeling mandarin from China/Japan, the most cold-tolerant commercial citrus, Japan's top fruit crop with 617,100 tons in 2023 and over 100 cultivars.
Clausena
Clausena (Burm.f.), a genus of aromatic shrubs and trees in Rutaceae (citrus family) native from tropical Africa and Asia to Australia; includes wampee (Clausena lansium); known for carbazole alkaloids, coumarins, and essential oils.
Claytonia
Claytonia (springbeauties) is a genus of about 33 Montiaceae herbs native to temperate Asia and North and Central America, named for botanist John Clayton; includes edible-tubered C. virginica and miner's lettuce C. perfoliata, moved from Portulacaceae by APG III in 2009.
Clitoria
Clitoria (butterfly pea genus) is a pantropical Fabaceae genus published by Linnaeus in 1753, with 30-70 species centered in northern South America; C. ternatea yields ternatins, cyclotides, and butelase-1.
Clitoria ternatea
Clitoria ternatea (butterfly pea, blue pea), a perennial Fabaceae legume native to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, grown for forage and ornament and known for ternatin blue anthocyanins, cyclotides, and food-colorant use.
Clover
Clover (Trifolium), also called trefoils, is a legume genus of about 240+ species centered in north temperate regions; white clover (T. repens) and red clover (T. pratense) are major forage and nitrogen-fixing pasture plants.
Clusia
Clusia (attorney) is a Neotropical genus of about 250-310 Clusiaceae trees and shrubs with leathery leaves and latex, the only dicotyledonous tree genus with CAM photosynthesis species.
Clusiaceae
Clusiaceae, commonly called the mangosteen family and alternatively known as Guttiferae, is a family of pantropical flowering plants in the order Malpighiales, named by John Lindley in 1836.
Cnidoscolus
Cnidoscolus (spurge nettle, chaya) is an American Euphorbiaceae genus of about 93–99 stinging-haired species centered in Mexico and Brazil, used in folk medicine and as the leafy vegetable chaya, which must be boiled to remove cyanogenic glycosides.
Coca
Coca (Erythroxylum coca, E. novogranatense; Spanish coca, 古柯) is a South American shrub whose cocaine-bearing leaves have been chewed for 8,000 years; four cultivated varieties contain 0.11-1.02% cocaine.
Coccinia
Coccinia (ivy gourd genus, Cucurbitaceae, Benincaseae) is a genus of dioecious African climbing gourds with scarlet berries; 25 species per Holstein's 2015 monograph, with Coccinia grandis naturalized across the tropics and used medicinally against diabetes.
Coccinia grandis
Coccinia grandis, ivy gourd or scarlet-fruited gourd (Cucurbitaceae), is a dioecious perennial tuberous climber to 20 m native from tropical Africa to Asia, eaten as a vegetable, studied as an antidiabetic herb, and a noxious invasive weed in Hawaii.
Cocoa butter
Cocoa butter, the fat of Theobroma cacao beans, is the continuous phase of chocolate, ~30% of the product, with POS/SOS/POP TAGs, six polymorphs, Form V tempering, and CBE/CBR/CBS alternatives.
Cocobolo
Cocobolo, the heartwood of Dalbergia retusa, a Central American rosewood tree from Mexico to Colombia; dense, oily, figured timber for instruments and luxury furniture; CITES Appendix II and IUCN Critically Endangered.
Codiaeum variegatum
Codiaeum variegatum, the garden croton (garden croton, fire croton, Joseph's Coat), is an Euphorbiaceae shrub native from Malesia to the SW Pacific, grown for variegated foliage in over 300 cultivars; mildly toxic sap, IUCN least concern.