2,112 articles
Beta vulgaris
Beta vulgaris (beet) is a biennial Amaranthaceae species whose varieties include beetroot, Swiss chard, spinach beet, sugar beet, and fodder beet, all descended from wild sea beet subsp. maritima; sugar beet supplies about 35% of world sugar.
Betel
Betel (Piper betle, paan leaf): climbing Piperaceae vine of Indo-China to Malesia whose leaves wrap the betel quid with areca nut and lime; quid and areca nut are IARC Group 1 carcinogens, the leaf itself is not.
Betonica
Betonica (betony) is a genus of 10 perennial Lamiaceae species native to Europe, Central Asia, Iran, and NW Africa, including Betonica officinalis; molecular, cytological, and phytochemical evidence supports separating it from Stachys in tribe Betoniceae.
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.
Bidens
Bidens (beggar-ticks, bur-marigold) is a cosmopolitan Asteraceae genus of roughly 200–280 species with centers of diversity in Africa and the Americas, barbed awned achenes, notable Pacific island adaptive radiations, and the medicinal weed Bidens pilosa.
Bidens pilosa
Bidens pilosa (Spanish needles, cobbler's pegs, xian feng cao) is an Asteraceae herb native to tropical America, used in traditional medicine for over 40 ailments, chemically rich in polyacetylenes and flavonoids, and a noxious weed in 40+ countries.
Biennial plant
Biennial plant: a flowering plant completing its life cycle in two seasons, overwintering as a rosette, then flowering, seeding, and dying; examples include carrots, beets, cabbage, parsley, and evening primrose, often vernalization-dependent.
Bifora
Bifora (bishop, Hohlsame) is a genus of two annual Apiaceae species, B. radians and B. testiculata, native from the Mediterranean to Central Asia; B. testiculata is a declared crop weed in Australia, B. radians a Turkish spice plant.
Bignonia
Bignonia (紫葳屬), bignonias, a conserved Linnaean genus of woody lianas in Bignoniaceae, tribe Bignonieae, native from central and eastern USA to Argentina, with 31 accepted species and Bignonia capreolata, the crossvine, as type.
Bignoniaceae
Bignoniaceae, the trumpet creeper or bignonia family (Juss., 1789, nom. cons.), is a pantropical Lamiales family of woody trees, shrubs, and lianas with zygomorphic flowers, centered in northern South America, with about 79-110 genera and 790-901 species.
Bilberry
Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), also whortleberry or European blueberry, is a low Ericaceae subshrub of temperate Eurasia with dark blue-black anthocyanin-rich berries, EU-approved traditional uses for mild diarrhoea, and unproven night-vision claims.
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
Bistorta (bistorts) is a genus of about 44-50 perennial rhizomatous herbs in Polygonaceae, native from subarctic and temperate Eurasia and North America to northeast Mexico; includes European bistort (Bistorta officinalis, syn. Polygonum bistorta).
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.
Blitum capitatum
Blitum capitatum, known as strawberry blite or strawberry spinach, is an annual flowering plant in the amaranth family with dense clusters of bright red, edible fruits.
Blumea
Blumea DC. is a genus of about 100 Asteraceae (daisy) species, herbs and shrubs native to the tropical and subtropical Old World, mainly tropical Asia; disciform heads, tailed anthers; many species used in traditional medicine.
Boehmeria
Boehmeria (ramie genus, China grass) is a genus of about 51-65 Urticaceae shrubs and trees without stinging hairs, pantropical in distribution, including the fiber crop Boehmeria nivea and shown by phylogenomics to be non-monophyletic.
Boerhavia
Boerhavia (spiderling) is a pantropical genus of Nyctaginaceae herbs named for Herman Boerhaave, published by Linnaeus in 1753, with about 59 accepted species including the medicinal B. diffusa (punarnava).
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.
Bombax ceiba
Bombax ceiba, the red silk-cotton tree or Indian kapok (Salmalia malabarica), is a large Malvaceae tree native from tropical Asia to northern Australia, grown for kapok floss, matchwood, medicine, and crimson dry-season flowers; IUCN Least Concern.
Bontia daphnoides
Bontia daphnoides (white alling, wild olive, sea olive) is the sole species of the genus Bontia, a coastal Caribbean and northern South American shrub or small tree in Scrophulariaceae, used as a hedge, windbreak, and medicine, introduced to Florida and Hawaii.