Other flowering plants

Mimosa

Mimosa is a pantropical legume genus of over 400 prickly, touch-sensitive plants, type species Mimosa pudica, the sensitive plant whose leaflets fold within seconds via pulvinar turgor loss and action potentials.

Mimosa pudica

Mimosa pudica, the sensitive plant or touch-me-not, is a Fabaceae herb native to Mexico and tropical America whose leaves fold when touched; it is a tropical invasive weed and medicinal plant.

Mimosa tenuiflora

Mimosa tenuiflora (Willd.) Poir., synonym Mimosa hostilis, jurema-preta or tepezcohuite, is a Fabaceae shrub or tree from Mexico to Brazil whose tannin-rich bark is used for wounds and burns; clinical trial results in venous ulcers conflict.

Mimulus

Mimulus (monkeyflowers), a Phrymaceae genus of roughly 160-200 species with radiations in western North America and Australia; a classic model system for adaptation, speciation, and pollinator-shift studies, later split into Erythranthe and Diplacus.

Mimusops

Mimusops, a Sapotaceae tree genus of 49 Old World tropical species including M. elengi and M. zeyheri; native Africa to Australia, introduced to Florida and Hawaii; distinct from Diospyros mimusops.

Mirabilis jalapa

Mirabilis jalapa, the four o'clock flower or marvel of Peru, is a Nyctaginaceae perennial native from Mexico to Nicaragua whose fragrant betalain-pigmented flowers open about 4 p.m.; roots and seeds are toxic.

Mistletoe

Mistletoe: hemiparasitic flowering plants of Santalales (c. 18 families, 2,200+ species), including Viscum album, attached to tree branches by a haustorium, bird-dispersed, a keystone resource for woodland biodiversity, and a toxic Christmas plant.

Mitragyna

Mitragyna Korth. (1839) is a Rubiaceae genus of African and Asian trees; its species M. speciosa is kratom, source of the opioid-receptor alkaloids mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine.

Mitragyna speciosa

Mitragyna speciosa (kratom, ketum) is a Southeast Asian Rubiaceae tree whose leaves contain mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, opioid-active alkaloids; traditionally chewed or brewed, now regulated, with concentrated 7-OH products targeted for US Schedule I.

Modiola caroliniana

Modiola caroliniana, Carolina bristlemallow or red-flowered mallow, a prostrate node-rooting Malvaceae herb native to South America, introduced worldwide as a weed, with red-orange flowers and a wheel-shaped bristly schizocarp fruit.

Mollugo

Mollugo (carpetweed genus) is a genus of annual herbs in Molluginaceae, Caryophyllales, published by Linnaeus in 1753; 13 accepted species native to the New World, Angola, Cape Provinces, India, and Sri Lanka, including the weedy green carpetweed Mollugo verticillata.

Momordica

Momordica, a genus of about 50 climbing Cucurbitaceae herbs native to the Old World tropics, includes bitter melon (M. charantia), gac, and spine gourd, valued as vegetables and for cucurbitane triterpenoid phytochemicals.

Monarda

Monarda (beebalm, bee balm, wild bergamot, horsemint) is a North American genus of about 25 aromatic mint-family (Lamiaceae) perennials, published by Linnaeus in 1753, grown ornamentally and known for Oswego tea and susceptibility to powdery mildew.

Monimiaceae

Monimiaceae Juss. (nom. cons., 1809) is a family of about 200 species of aromatic evergreen trees and shrubs in Laurales, centered in New Guinea and the southern hemisphere, with an extensive Cretaceous fossil record.

Monotropa

Monotropa (ghost pipe, Indian pipe, pinesap) is a genus of four accepted achlorophyllous mycoheterotrophic herbs in Ericaceae, native from the subarctic and temperate Northern Hemisphere to Colombia, feeding via monotropoid mycorrhizas with Russulaceae or Tricholoma fungi and pollinated mainly by Bombus bumblebees.

Monotropa uniflora

Monotropa uniflora, ghost pipe or Indian pipe (shui jing lan), is a white chlorophyll-free Ericaceae herb parasitizing Russulaceae mycorrhizal fungi linked to trees, native from Canada to Mexico and East Asia, with a ~46 kb reduced plastome.

Moraceae

Moraceae, the mulberry family, is a tropical Rosales family of trees, shrubs, and figs with milky latex and stipular scars, sister to Urticaceae, about 47 accepted genera and over 1,000 species.

Morinda

Morinda L. (noni genus, Indian mulberry, Morinda citrifolia) is a pantropical genus of Rubiaceae in tribe Morindeae with head inflorescences and syncarpous fruits; 39 accepted species, lectotype M. royoc, root bark used as morindin dye.

Morinda citrifolia

Morinda citrifolia (noni, Indian mulberry), a Rubiaceae shrub native to tropical Asia and northern Australia, used in Pacific traditional medicine; its juice is an EU-authorized novel food, with no approved drugs and limited human evidence.

Moringa (genus)

Moringa (murungai) is the sole genus of Moringaceae, 13 species of dry-tropical trees in Brassicales; M. oleifera, the drumstick tree, is grown for food, fodder, ben oil, and seed-based water coagulation.

Moringa oleifera

Moringa oleifera, the drumstick, horseradish, or ben oil tree, is a fast-growing Himalayan-native tree cultivated across the tropics for nutritious leaves, water-purifying seeds, ben oil, and traditional medicine; clinical evidence remains preliminary.

Moringaceae

Moringaceae, the horseradish tree family, is a conserved Brassicales family with one genus, Moringa Adans., of about 13 dry-tropical species native to Africa, Arabia, and India; Moringa oleifera is the widely cultivated drumstick tree.

Morning glory

Morning glory: common name for Convolvulaceae plants, especially Ipomoea vines with funnel-shaped flowers that wilt within hours. Includes sweet potato, hard-seeded dormancy, Mesoamerican ritual use, and many invasive weed species.

Morus alba

Morus alba, white mulberry (桑), a Moraceae tree native to central China, cultivated for millennia as the obligate feed of Bombyx mori silkworms; medicinal phytochemistry, forage value, and invasive hybridization with Morus rubra.

Morus nigra

Morus nigra, black mulberry (shah-toot), a deciduous Moraceae fruit tree native to western and southwestern Iran, cultivated since antiquity; decosaploid with 308 chromosomes and fruit 1–2.5 cm.

Mucuna

Mucuna is a pantropical genus of about 112 accepted liana species in Fabaceae, tribe Phaseoleae, first published in 1763. Known for irritant pod hairs, explosive mammal pollination, floating seeds, and the velvet bean Mucuna pruriens.

Mucuna pruriens

Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean, cowitch, kapikacchu), a tropical Fabaceae climbing legume with irritant pod hairs, whose seeds contain 4–6% levodopa and have been trialed as a Parkinson's disease treatment and nitrogen-fixing cover crop.

Mugwort

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), also felon herb or wild wormwood, an aromatic perennial Asteraceae herb of temperate Eurasia and North Africa, naturalized and invasive in North America, used in traditional medicine, moxibustion, and cooking, and a major cause of pollen allergy.

Muntingia calabura

Muntingia calabura (Jamaican cherry, capulín, kerukup siam) is the sole species of Muntingiaceae genus Muntingia, a 2–12 m Neotropical pioneer tree from Mexico to Bolivia with edible red berries, widely naturalized and studied for flavonoid-rich pharmacological activity.