2,112 articles
Lamium galeobdolon
Lamium galeobdolon (yellow archangel; syn. Lamiastrum galeobdolon, Galeobdolon luteum) is a stoloniferous perennial mint native to Europe to W. Siberia and Iran, with yellow hooded flowers, used as ground cover; its variegated subspecies argentatum is invasive.
Lamium purpureum
Lamium purpureum, purple or red dead-nettle, is a mint-family winter annual weed native from Macaronesia and Europe to West Siberia, introduced in North America and Japan; square stems, purple-tinged petioled upper leaves, and pinkish-purple flowers distinguish it from henbit.
Landolphia
Landolphia is a genus of about 60 climbing plants in the dogbane family, native to Africa and Madagascar, known for rubber latex and edible fruits.
Lansium
Lansium is a genus of three Meliaceae tree species native to Peninsular Thailand and Malesia; its cultivated species Lansium domesticum (langsat, duku, longkong) is a major Southeast Asian fruit tree, distinct from Clausena lansium (wampee).
Lansium domesticum
Lansium domesticum, langsat or duku (lansones, longkong), a Meliaceae fruit tree native from Peninsular Thailand to Borneo, grown in Southeast Asia for sweet segmented fruit; two varieties, var. pubescens and var. domesticum.
Lantana camara
Lantana camara, also known as West Indian lantana, is a flowering shrub native to tropical America and one of the world's most widely distributed invasive weeds.
Larrea
Larrea (creosote bush genus, jarillas) is a genus of five resinous Zygophyllaceae desert shrubs of North and South America, including Larrea tridentata, known for NDGA-rich leaf resin, polyploid races, and traditional medicinal use.
Larrea divaricata
Larrea divaricata (jarilla, jarilla hembra) is a South American Zygophyllaceae shrub of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru, used in traditional medicine, containing NDGA, and studied for anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antitumor extract activity.
Larrea tridentata
Larrea tridentata, creosote bush (gobernadora, hediondilla), is the dominant evergreen resinous shrub of the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts, with clonal rings up to about 11,700 years old and NDGA-rich leaves used medicinally despite liver toxicity concerns.
Latex
Plant latex: sticky milky emulsion from laticifers in about 10% of flowering plants, a defense against herbivores; source of natural rubber from Hevea brasiliensis.
Lathyrus
Lathyrus (sweet pea, vetchling, grass pea) is a genus of about 160-183 climbing legume species in Fabaceae, tribe Fabeae, centered on the Mediterranean; grass pea L. sativus contains the neurotoxin β-ODAP causing lathyrism.
Lathyrus sativus
Lathyrus sativus, grass pea or chickling pea, a Balkan-domesticated annual legume grown for food and fodder; tolerant of drought and flooding but its neurotoxin beta-ODAP causes lathyrism when eaten as a dietary staple.
Lauraceae
Lauraceae, the laurel family (laurels), is a magnoliid family in Laurales with 45–58 genera and 2,000–3,500 tropical and subtropical woody species, source of cinnamon, camphor, avocado, and aromatic essential oils.
Laurales
Laurales: magnoliid order of flowering plants, sister to Magnoliales, with seven families including Lauraceae (laurel, cinnamon, avocado, camphor), Calycanthaceae, Monimiaceae, Hernandiaceae, and a Cretaceous fossil record.
Laurelia
Laurelia (pukatea, Chilean laurel) is a genus of two evergreen tree species in Atherospermataceae, order Laurales, native to New Zealand and Chile; L. novae-zelandiae is endemic to New Zealand, L. sempervirens is Near Threatened in Chile.
Laurus
Laurus is a small genus of evergreen trees and shrubs in the laurel family, native to the Mediterranean Basin and Macaronesia; its type species, Laurus nobilis, is the bay laurel of cooking.
Laurus nobilis
Laurus nobilis (bay laurel, sweet bay) is a Mediterranean evergreen Lauraceae tree, source of culinary bay leaves; dioecious, up to 18 m, IUCN Least Concern, leaf essential oil dominated by 1,8-cineole.
Lavandula
Lavandula (lavenders), a genus of about 41 aromatic Lamiaceae species native from Macaronesia to India, cultivated for essential oil rich in linalool and linalyl acetate; key species are L. angustifolia and the hybrid lavandin L. × intermedia.
Lavandula angustifolia
Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender, true lavender, synonym L. officinalis) is a Lamiaceae subshrub native to NE Spain to Italy, grown for linalool- and linalyl acetate-rich essential oil and hardiness.
Lavandula x intermedia
Lavandula x intermedia (lavandin, Dutch or bastard lavender) is a sterile hybrid of true lavender and spike lavender, native to SE France and NE Spain, the most cultivated lavender, yielding about 120 kg oil/ha with camphor notes.
Lawsonia inermis
Lawsonia inermis, henna (also mehndi, Egyptian privet), the sole Lythraceae species of its genus; a 2–6 m shrub whose leaves yield the dye lawsone, used for millennia as hair and skin colorant and in traditional medicine.
Lecythidaceae
Lecythidaceae, the Brazil nut family, is a pantropical tree family in Ericales with about 25-30 genera and 280-300 species, centered in South American rain forests; includes Bertholletia excelsa and Couroupita.
Leea
Leea D.Royen is a genus of Old World tropical shrubs and small trees in Vitales, historically the monogeneric family Leeaceae, now placed in Vitaceae; about 34-70 species, tendrils absent, used in traditional medicine.
Legume
Legume: seeds and fruits of Fabaceae plants (beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils, soybean); dry-seed types are pulses. Fix nitrogen via rhizobia nodules, boost following-crop yields ~20%, cover ~180 Mha globally.
Leguminous flora
Leguminous flora, the Fabaceae or Leguminosae (豆科), the third largest flowering plant family with about 22,520 species in 796 genera, defined by pod fruits and root-nodule nitrogen fixation with Rhizobium bacteria.
Lemon balm
Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis, sweet balm, toronjil) is a lemon-scented Lamiaceae perennial herb native from the Mediterranean to Central Asia, grown as a culinary and medicinal herb; rich in rosmarinic acid and citronellal, studied for anxiety and sleep.
Lentibulariaceae
Lentibulariaceae, the bladderwort family (Lentibulariaceae Rich., 1808), is the largest carnivorous plant family in Lamiales, with three genera: Pinguicula (flypaper traps), Genlisea (eel traps), and Utricularia (suction bladders).
Lentil
Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.), an annual self-pollinating pulse legume domesticated about 8,500 years ago in the Near East; grown in 53 countries for protein-rich seeds, led by Canada and India.
Leontopodium
Leontopodium (edelweiss) is an Asteraceae genus of roughly 30–57 perennial species, mostly Asian with two European alpines, L. alpinum and L. nivale, studied for phylogeny, lignans like leoligin, and alpine conservation.
Leontopodium nivale
Leontopodium nivale, the edelweiss (also Leontopodium alpinum), is a European mountain daisy with white felted bracts, split into widespread subsp. alpinum and the Apennines–Pirin endemic subsp. nivale.