Other flowering plants

Achyranthes

Achyranthes (chaff flower, niuxi 牛膝) is a pantropical Amaranthaceae genus of about 33 species with spiny, deflexed fruiting spikes; A. bidentata and A. aspera are widely used medicinal herbs rich in saponins and polysaccharides.

Achyranthes aspera

Achyranthes aspera (devil's horsewhip, apamarga, 土牛膝), Amaranthaceae, a pantropical amaranth weed with clinging spiny fruits, widely used in traditional medicine, studied for anti-inflammatory, anti-fertility and cardiovascular effects.

Acmella

Acmella (Rich. ex Pers., 1807) is an Asteraceae genus of about 30–36 herb species in the tropics and subtropics, separated from Spilanthes by Jansen; its best-known species, A. oleracea, is the toothache plant containing spilanthol.

Acmella oleracea

Acmella oleracea (jambu, toothache plant, electric daisy; basionym Spilanthes oleracea) is an Asteraceae cultigen from southeastern Brazil whose pungent N-alkylamide spilanthol underpins culinary, medicinal, cosmetic, and insecticidal uses.

Aconitum

Aconitum (monkshood, wolfsbane, aconite), Ranunculaceae genus of 345 accepted species native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere; roots contain toxic diterpenoid alkaloids such as aconitine used medicinally after processing.

Aconitum napellus

Aconitum napellus (monkshood, wolfsbane) is a toxic Ranunculaceae perennial native to western and central Europe, containing aconitine and other diterpenoid alkaloids that cause potentially lethal cardiotoxicity and neurotoxicity.

Acorn

Acorn: the nut fruit of oaks (Quercus), one seed in a cupule; white oaks ripen in one year, red oaks in two; tannin-rich but leachable, ~4,994 kcal/kg, staple food and wildlife mast.

Actaea (plant)

Actaea (baneberry, bugbane, cohosh) is a Ranunculaceae genus of 32 accepted species native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere; it absorbed Cimicifuga and Souliea in the 1998 Compton reclassification and includes black cohosh, used in herbal medicine.

Actaea racemosa

Actaea racemosa (black cohosh, Cimicifuga racemosa), a North American buttercup-family perennial whose rhizome is a popular menopause supplement; evidence for hot flashes is mixed, with rare liver injury reports and wild-harvesting concerns.

Actinidia

Actinidia (kiwifruit genus) is a genus of Asian climbing plants in Actinidiaceae, established by Lindley in 1836, with about 56 accepted species native from the Himalaya to the Russian Far East and Malesia, including the kiwifruit species A. chinensis and A. deliciosa.

Actinidia deliciosa

Actinidia deliciosa, also called Actinidia chinensis var. deliciosa or Chinese gooseberry, is the green-fleshed fuzzy kiwifruit vine native to China, commercialized in New Zealand from 1904 seeds and renamed kiwifruit in 1959.

Actinidiaceae

Actinidiaceae, the Chinese gooseberry family, is an Ericales family of three genera, Actinidia, Saurauia, and Clematoclethra, with about 350-400 species of Asian and American trees, shrubs, and lianas, including the kiwifruit.

Adansonia

Adansonia (baobab) is a genus of eight massive Malvaceae trees: A. digitata in Africa, A. gregorii in Australia, six endemic to Madagascar; genomic studies trace the origin to Madagascar about 41 million years ago.

Adansonia digitata

Adansonia digitata, the African baobab or upside-down tree, is a massive long-lived Malvaceae tree of dry Africa and Arabia; fruit pulp rich in vitamin C, over 300 traditional uses, IUCN Least Concern, Madagascar-origin genus.

Adenium obesum

Adenium obesum, the desert rose (basionym Nerium obesum), is a semisucculent Apocynaceae shrub from West Tropical Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and Tanzania, with a swollen caudex, poisonous sap, IUCN Least Concern status, and widespread ornamental cultivation.

Adenophora

Adenophora Fisch. (ladybells) is a Campanulaceae genus of perennial herbs native from temperate Eurasia to Indo-China, defined by a nectar disk between stamens and pistils; about 68 species, revised phylogenomically in 2025. Distinct from Ageratina adenophora.

Adina

Adina Salisb. (水團花屬) is a genus of 12 accepted species of shrubs and small trees in Rubiaceae, tribe Naucleeae, native to tropical and subtropical Asia, with dense spherical flower heads; includes haldu (A. cordifolia) and Chinese buttonbush (A. pilulifera).

Adonis vernalis

Adonis vernalis (spring pheasant's eye, false hellebore) is a poisonous Eurasian Ranunculaceae perennial containing cardenolide cardiac glycosides, used as a cardiotonic since 1879 and now CITES-listed and endangered in parts of Europe.

Aegle

Aegle is a monotypic genus of Rutaceae (Sapindales) whose single species, Aegle marmelos (bael, Bengal quince), is a spiny South Asian tree with hard-shelled aromatic fruit, sacred in Hinduism and used in Ayurveda.

Aegle marmelos

Aegle marmelos (bael, bilva, Bengal quince) is a spiny Rutaceae tree native to the Indian Subcontinent, sacred in Hinduism and used in Ayurveda; fruit 5–15 cm, bioactives include marmelosin and aegeline.

Aegopodium

Aegopodium (羊角芹属), goutweed or ground elder genus, Apiaceae herbs native to temperate Eurasia and the Himalaya; 12 accepted species; A. podagraria is an invasive rhizomatous garden weed in North America.

Aegopodium podagraria

Aegopodium podagraria, goutweed or ground elder (bishop's weed), is a rhizomatous Apiaceae perennial native to temperate Eurasia, a medieval potherb and gout remedy, now an invasive ornamental spreading by rhizomes up to 70 cm yearly.

Aeschynomene

Aeschynomene L. (joint vetch) is a pantropical legume genus of about 150-190 species, many aquatic, famous for stem nodulation by photosynthetic Bradyrhizobium lacking nodABC genes; A. evenia is its Nod-independent model legume.

Aesculus

Aesculus (horse-chestnuts, buckeyes) is a genus of about 12 tree and shrub species in Sapindaceae, native from SE Europe to Japan and North America, containing the toxin aesculin and including the widely planted European horse-chestnut.

Aesculus glabra

Aesculus glabra, Ohio buckeye (fetid or stinking buckeye), a Sapindaceae tree of the east-central US with five-leaflet palmate leaves, spiny capsules, toxic aesculin/aescin seeds, soft light wood, and status as Ohio's state tree.

Aesculus hippocastanum

Aesculus hippocastanum, horse chestnut or conker tree, is a large Balkan-native deciduous tree, IUCN Vulnerable with 5,000-9,000 mature trees, threatened by the leaf miner Cameraria ohridella and used medicinally via escin seed extract.

Afzelia

Afzelia (doussié, chanfuta, tindalo) is a genus of 12 accepted Fabaceae hardwood tree species native to tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia, prized for dense, teak-like durable timber; several species are Vulnerable and CITES-regulated.

Agarwood

Agarwood (oud, aloeswood, gaharu) is fragrant resinous heartwood from Aquilaria and Gyrinops trees formed after fungal infection; CITES Appendix II listed, traded as incense, oil, and perfume worth up to $120,000/kg.

Ageratina

Ageratina, a genus of about 316 species of Asteraceae herbs and shrubs in tribe Eupatorieae, established by Spach in 1841, formerly in Eupatorium; includes invasive crofton weed (A. adenophora) and toxic white snakeroot (A. altissima).