2,112 articles
Lovage
Lovage (Levisticum officinale, Maggi plant, Liebstöckel) is a tall Apiaceae perennial herb native to Iran-Afghanistan, with a strong celery-parsley, umami flavor from ligustilide; once a Roman staple in Apicius, now largely replaced by celery and parsley.
Lucuma
Lucuma (Lucuma bifera, formerly Pouteria lucuma), the Andean "Gold of the Incas" fruit tree of Sapotaceae; sweet ovoid fruit from Peru, Chile and Ecuador, grown to 3,000 m, milled into flour for desserts and ice cream.
Ludwigia
Ludwigia is a genus of about 87 species of flowering plants in the evening-primrose family, mostly annual or perennial herbs of wet places with usually yellow flowers.
Luma
Luma A.Gray is a genus of two Myrtaceae tree species, L. apiculata (arrayán, Chilean myrtle) and L. chequen, native to Chile and western Argentina, grown ornamentally and for honey, fruit, and hard timber.
Lunaria
Lunaria (honesty, money plant, silver dollar) is a European Brassicaceae genus with three species, L. annua, L. rediviva, and L. telekiana, known for silvery disc-like seed pods and erucic and nervonic acid rich seed oil.
Lunaria annua
Lunaria annua, honesty or annual honesty (money plant, silver dollar plant), is a biennial Brassicaceae herb native to south-central and southern Europe, grown for pink spring flowers and papery coin-like silicles used in dried arrangements.
Lupinus
Lupinus, commonly known as lupins or lupines, is a genus of herbs and shrubs in the legume family, Fabaceae, first published by Linnaeus in 1753.
Lupinus albus
Lupinus albus (white lupin, white lupine; synonym Lupinus termis) is an annual Mediterranean Fabaceae legume domesticated 3,000–4,000 years ago, with 38–44% seed protein, cluster roots for phosphate uptake, and subspecies albus and graecus.
Lupinus angustifolius
Lupinus angustifolius, narrow-leafed or blue lupin, Australian Sweet Lupin: annual Mediterranean legume domesticated from 1929, first WA cultivar 1967, over 95% of WA lupin grain, protein-rich seed used for feed and food.
Lupinus luteus
Lupinus luteus (yellow lupin, European yellow lupine) is an annual Mediterranean legume grown on sandy acidic soils for forage, feed, and green manure; domesticated for low alkaloids in 20th-century Germany.
Lupinus mutabilis
Lupinus mutabilis (tarwi, chocho, Andean lupin) is an Andean domesticated lupin with the highest protein (44%) and oil (18%) content among cultivated lupins, comparable to soybean, requiring debittering to remove quinolizidine alkaloids.
Lychee
Lychee (Litchi chinensis, 荔枝, litchi) is the sole species of its genus in the soapberry family, a tropical tree native to southern China with over 2,000 years of cultivation; Asia grows over 95% of the roughly 2-million-tonne world crop, led by China and India.
Lycium
Lycium (goji, wolfberry) is a Solanaceae genus of 75–101 spiny shrub species with red, black, or yellow berries, cosmopolitan in arid regions, including the medicinal L. barbarum and salt-tolerant L. ruthenicum.
Lycopus
Lycopus (bugleweed, water-horehound), a Lamiaceae genus of wetland perennials native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere and Australia; about 14–19 species; L. virginicus used traditionally as an antithyroid herb.
Lycopus europaeus
Lycopus europaeus, gypsywort or European bugleweed, is a perennial Lamiaceae wetland herb native from the Azores and NW. Africa to Siberia and the W. Himalaya, introduced in North America and New Zealand, IUCN Least Concern, rich in rosmarinic acid.
Lysiloma
Lysiloma (false tamarind, tzalam, sabicu) is a genus of eight dry-forest legume trees native from Arizona and Florida to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, sister to Hesperalbizia.
Lysimachia
Lysimachia (loosestrife) is a genus of about 250-292 species of Primulaceae herbs, native from temperate to tropical-mountain regions, centered in China; former genera Anagallis, Glaux, and Trientalis are now merged into it.
Lysimachia arvensis
Lysimachia arvensis (scarlet pimpernel, formerly Anagallis arvensis) is a Mediterranean annual herb of Primulaceae with red or blue flowers, a widespread introduced weed, tetraploid and self-compatible, mildly toxic to livestock.
Lysimachia vulgaris
Lysimachia vulgaris, yellow or garden loosestrife, is a rhizomatous Primulaceae perennial native from Europe to Siberia and the W. Himalaya, invasive in North American wetlands and a Washington Class B noxious weed.
Lythraceae
Lythraceae, the loosestrife family (Myrtales), is a family of 28 genera and ca. 625 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees, including pomegranate (Punica), henna (Lawsonia), crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia), and water chestnut (Trapa).
Lythrum
Lythrum, the loosestrifes, is a genus of about 35-40 Lythraceae herbs of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, often heterostylous; its species L. salicaria (purple loosestrife) is a major North American wetland invader.
Macadamia
Macadamia is a genus of four subtropical rainforest trees in the Proteaceae family, native to eastern Australia and cultivated worldwide for its edible macadamia nut.
Macaranga
Macaranga (Thouars, 1806) is a genus of about 300 dioecious Euphorbiaceae trees and shrubs of the Old World tropics, sister to Mallotus, with 3-4-locellate anthers, hollow-twig ant-plant symbioses, and pioneer secondary-forest ecology.
Maclura
Maclura is a genus of about 13 spiny, dioecious trees, shrubs, and woody climbers in the mulberry family, Moraceae, native to Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas.
Maclura pomifera
Maclura pomifera, osage-orange or hedge-apple (bois-d'arc), a thorny dioecious Moraceae tree native to Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, famous as pre-barbed-wire prairie hedgerows, with decay-resistant wood, and invasive in parts of Australia.
Macroptilium
Macroptilium (Benth.) Urb., a genus of 23 accepted herbaceous legumes in Fabaceae native to tropical and subtropical America, close to Phaseolus; includes siratro (M. atropurpureum), burgundy bean, and llanos macro, used as forage, cover crops, and green manure.
Macroptilium atropurpureum
Macroptilium atropurpureum (siratro, purple bean, atro; synonym Phaseolus atropurpureus) is a Fabaceae forage legume native from Mexico to western South America, with dark purple flowers, trifoliate leaves, cultivars Siratro and Aztec, and drought-avoidance physiology.
Macrotyloma
Macrotyloma (Wight & Arn.) Verdc., a genus of 24 legume species in Fabaceae tribe Phaseoleae, subtribe Phaseolinae, native from Africa to Myanmar; includes horse gram (M. uniflorum) and Kersting's groundnut (M. geocarpum).
Madhuca
Madhuca (mahua, Indian butter tree) is a Sapotaceae tree genus of about 100-160 species from South and Southeast Asia; M. longifolia seeds yield mahua butter (50-61% lipid) and hard Madhuca timber.
Madhuca longifolia
Madhuca longifolia (mahua, Hindi महुआ), a Sapotaceae tree native to the Indian subcontinent and Myanmar; two varieties, oil-rich seeds (50-60%), flowers fermented into liquor, central to tribal livelihoods.