2,112 articles
Cotoneaster
Cotoneaster, a Rosaceae genus of berry-bearing shrubs native to temperate Eurasia and North Africa, with 270 to 400 species, apomictic polyploid taxonomy, and several invasive ornamental species.
Cotton
Cotton (Gossypium spp.), also called upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) or Pima (G. barbadense), is the world's dominant natural textile fiber, a nearly pure cellulose single-celled seed trichome; domesticated millennia ago and grown mainly in China, India, Brazil, and the United States.
Cotula
Cotula (button daisies, brassbuttons) is a genus of about 51 Asteraceae herbs in tribe Anthemideae, native from Africa to Australasia, with small disciform button-like flower heads; distinct from Anthemis cotula, stinking chamomile.
Cotula coronopifolia
Cotula coronopifolia (brass buttons, buttonweed) is a southern African Asteraceae wetland herb, invasive in Europe, North America, and Australasia; it is halotolerant, spreads via waterbird gut passage, and was first recorded wild in Britain in 1869.
Couma
Couma is a genus of five species of latex-yielding trees in the dogbane family, native to Central and South America and harvested in the Amazon for its sweet latex, sorva.
Couroupita guianensis
Couroupita guianensis, the cannonball tree, is a Lecythidaceae tree native from Panama to tropical South America, grown widely as an ornamental. Cauliflorous fragrant flowers, 20 cm cannonball-like fruits with up to 300 seeds, IUCN Least Concern.
Cowpea
Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata, black-eyed pea) is an African legume domesticated in West Africa 5,000-6,000 years ago, grown on about 12 million hectares for seed protein, fodder, and soil-improving nitrogen fixation.
Crambe
Crambe L. is a Brassicaceae genus of about 30-37 herb species from Europe, Macaronesia, and Asia, whose type species is sea kale; C. abyssinica is an industrial oilseed crop rich in erucic acid.
Cranberry
Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon, American or large cranberry) is a North American bog-grown Ericaceae fruit crop first cultivated around 1810 in Massachusetts, used in sauces and supplements, and shown to modestly reduce recurrent UTI risk in women.
Crassula
Crassula is a cosmopolitan genus of about 200-220 succulent Crassulaceae species, mostly southern African, with opposite leaves, single-whorl stamens, origin in the Greater Cape Floristic Region about 46 Mya, and the jade plant C. ovata.
Crassula muscosa
Crassula muscosa (watch chain, rattail crassula, princess pine) is a South African and Namibian Crassulaceae succulent subshrub with four-ranked scale-like leaves on wiry stems, described by Linnaeus in 1760, Least Concern, widely cultivated.
Crassula ovata
Crassula ovata, the jade plant (also money plant, lucky plant; Japanese kanenonaruki カネノナルキ), is a succulent Crassulaceae shrub native from SE Mozambique to South Africa's Cape, widely grown as a houseplant; synonym Crassula argentea, Least Concern.
Crassulaceae
Crassulaceae, the stonecrop family, is a Saxifragales family of about 1,400-1,500 succulent species in three subfamilies, including Sedum, Echeveria, Kalanchoe, and Sempervivum, and gave its name to CAM photosynthesis.
Crataegus
Crataegus (hawthorn) is a Rosaceae genus of thorny shrubs and small trees of temperate Eurasia and North America, with roughly 150–260 species, complicated by hybridization, polyploidy, and apomixis.
Crataegus monogyna
Crataegus monogyna, common or single-seed hawthorn (aubepine), a thorny Rosaceae tree native from Europe to Iraq and North Africa, widely naturalized and invasive in North America and Australia, used medicinally.
Crepis
Crepis (hawksbeards) is a genus of about 200 Asteraceae herbs of the Northern Hemisphere and tropical African mountains, type species C. biennis, shown by molecular data to be polyphyletic as circumscribed by Babcock's 1947 monograph.
Crescentia cujete
Crescentia cujete, the calabash tree (calabazo, totumo, cuieira), is a bat-pollinated Bignoniaceae tree native from Mexico to Venezuela and the Caribbean, bearing 15–30 cm hard-shelled fruits used as bowls, containers, and musical instruments; IUCN least concern.
Crithmum maritimum
Crithmum maritimum, known as rock samphire or sea fennel, is a perennial coastal plant in the carrot family, native from western Europe to the Mediterranean and valued as an edible halophyte.
Crotalaria
Crotalaria (rattlebox) is a genus of about 717 accepted legume species (Fabaceae, tribe Crotalarieae) native from the tropics and subtropics to central and eastern USA, centered in Africa and Madagascar, containing toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids and including the crop sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea).
Crotalaria juncea
Crotalaria juncea (sunn hemp, Indian hemp) is a tropical Fabaceae annual legume from Afghanistan to Indo-China, grown for bast fiber, green manure, and weed- and nematode-suppressing cover crops, fixing 50–60 kg N/ha in 60–90 days.
Croton (plant)
Croton (plant): large Euphorbiaceae genus published by Linnaeus in 1753, about 1,100–1,300 species, mostly Neotropical; diterpenoid-rich, medicinal, and often confused with the ornamental Codiaeum variegatum.
Croton lechleri
Croton lechleri (sangre de grado, dragon's blood) is a South American Euphorbiaceae tree whose red latex yields crofelemer (Mytesi), an FDA-approved antidiarrheal for HIV/AIDS patients.
Cryptocarya
Cryptocarya R.Br. (synonym Ravensara) is a pantropical genus of about 250-364 evergreen laurel trees and shrubs in Lauraceae, recognized by fruit fully enclosed in the accrescent floral tube, rich in alkaloids and alpha-pyrones.
Cucumis
Cucumis, a Cucurbitaceae genus described by Linnaeus in 1753, includes cucumber (C. sativus) and melon (C. melo); molecular phylogenetics recircumscribed it to include five former genera, extending its range to Australia.
Cucumis metuliferus
Cucumis metuliferus, the kiwano or African horned melon, is a spiny annual Cucurbitaceae vine from Africa whose orange-red horned fruit is eaten and whose nematode and virus resistance makes it a melon rootstock.
Cucurbita maxima
Cucurbita maxima (winter squash; Hubbard squash, buttercup squash, giant pumpkin) is a domesticated Cucurbitaceae species of exclusively South American origin, with wild progenitor C. andreana, spread worldwide in the 19th century.
Cucurbitaceae
Cucurbitaceae, the gourd family, is a plant family of about 95 genera and 1,000 species of tendril-bearing vines in Cucurbitales, supplying cucumber, melon, watermelon, squash, and pumpkin; Asian Late Cretaceous origin, crops domesticated from c. 11,000 years ago.
Cucurbitales
Cucurbitales, the gourd and begonia order of flowering plants, a fabid rosid order of seven or eight families including Cucurbitaceae and Begoniaceae, sister to Fagales, with mostly unisexual flowers and major crops like squash, cucumber, and watermelon.
Culantro
Eryngium foetidum, culantro, recao, chadon beni, sawtooth or Mexican coriander: a spiny-leaved biennial Apiaceae herb native to tropical America, coriander-flavored via eryngial ((E)-2-dodecenal), used as a culinary and medicinal herb across the tropics.
Cullen
Cullen Medik. is a genus of about 32-35 legume species (Fabaceae, tribe Psoraleeae), segregate of Psoralea, native from the Old World tropics to Australia, containing furanocoumarins and evaluated as dryland pasture.