2,112 articles
Saxifragaceae
Saxifragaceae, the saxifrage family (Juss., 1789), is a family of perennial herbs in the eudicot order Saxifragales, with about 640 species in roughly 33-40 genera, highest diversity in western North America, and type genus Saxifraga.
Saxifragales
Saxifragales is an order of eudicot flowering plants, sister to rosids in the superrosids, with about 2,400 species in 15 families including Saxifragaceae, Crassulaceae, Paeoniaceae, and Hamamelidaceae; origin dated to ~107 Ma.
Scabiosa
Scabiosa (scabious, pincushion flower) is a Caprifoliaceae genus of about 67-100 species native to Eurasia, Macaronesia, North Africa, and southern Africa, sister to Sixalix, with pincushion flower heads and iridoid-rich chemistry.
Scaevola
Scaevola, also called fan flower or naupaka, is a genus of about 100-130 Goodeniaceae shrubs with half-shaped fan flowers and drupes; Australian in origin, Pacific-radiated, with S. taccada invasive in Florida.
Schinus
Schinus is a genus of about 40 species of evergreen trees and shrubs in the cashew family, native to South America and best known as the source of pink peppercorns.
Schinus molle
Schinus molle (Peruvian peppertree, pirul, peppercorn tree), Anacardiaceae tree native to Peru to N. Chile and S. Brazil to NE. Argentina; drooping evergreen to 15 m, pink drupes sold as pink pepper, invasive in Australia, Hawaii, South Africa.
Schisandra chinensis
Schisandra chinensis, known as wuweizi, is a climbing medicinal plant of northeastern Asia whose fruit has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over 2,000 years.
Schizolobium parahyba
Schizolobium parahyba (guapuruvu, paricá, Brazilian firetree) is a fast-growing Fabaceae pioneer tree from S. Mexico to S. Tropical America, with very light wood, golden flowers, and invasive behavior outside its native forest.
Schlumbergera
Schlumbergera, the holiday or Christmas cactus genus (formerly Zygocactus), is a group of seven epiphytic cactus species native to southeastern Brazil, named by Lemaire in 1858 for Frédéric Schlumberger; its hybrids bloom in winter after 12–14 hour nights.
Scleranthus
Scleranthus, or knawel, is a genus of about 12 petal-less herbs in Caryophyllaceae, native from Europe to Siberia and Iran and in Australasia, with hard indehiscent fruits and type species S. annuus.
Sclerocarya birrea
Sclerocarya birrea, or marula, a dioecious Anacardiaceae savanna tree of sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar, up to 18 m, with vitamin C-rich yellow fruit used for food, beer, Amarula liqueur, medicine, and seed oil.
Scolymus
Scolymus (goldenthistle) is a genus of three spiny Asteraceae herbs native from Macaronesia and Europe to Iran and NE. Tropical Africa; S. hispanicus is the edible Spanish salsify, distinct from Cynara scolymus, the globe artichoke.
Scoparia
Scoparia: two accepted genera share the name, Scoparia L. (Plantaginaceae, 20 tropical American plant species incl. medicinal S. dulcis) and Scoparia Haworth, 1811 (crambid moths, 26 Chinese species); scoparia also a broom-like species epithet.
Scrophularia
Scrophularia (figworts) is a genus of about 250-292 species in Scrophulariaceae, native to temperate Eurasia, Macaronesia, Africa, and North America; S. ningpoensis (Xuanshen) is a major traditional Chinese medicine root rich in iridoids.
Scrophulariaceae
Scrophulariaceae, the figwort family (Lamiales), once the order's largest family with over 5,000 species, was found polyphyletic in 1995; its genera now span seven families, leaving 59 genera and about 1,880 species.
Scutellaria
Scutellaria (skullcaps), a cosmopolitan Lamiaceae genus of roughly 360-485 species, defined by the scutellum calyx appendage; medicinal species S. baicalensis, S. barbata, S. lateriflora yield flavonoids baicalein, baicalin, wogonin.
Scutellaria baicalensis
Scutellaria baicalensis (Huangqin, Chinese or Baikal skullcap), a Lamiaceae perennial herb of Siberia to Vietnam; its dried root, rich in baicalin and baicalein, is a major traditional Chinese medicine with limited human clinical evidence.
Sedum
Sedum (stonecrop) is the largest genus of Crassulaceae, about 499 accepted succulent species native from temperate to tropical mountain regions; non-monophyletic, with Hylotelephium, Phedimus, and Petrosedum segregated, and many species using CAM photosynthesis on green roofs.
Sedum acre
Sedum acre (biting stonecrop, goldmoss stonecrop) is a mat-forming succulent Crassulaceae herb native from Greenland and Europe to the Caucasus, type species of Sedum, used on green roofs and naturalized widely.
Seed
Seed: the plant reproductive unit containing embryo, nutritive tissue, and protective coat; gymnosperm and angiosperm seeds, double fertilization, dormancy, Devonian origin, and seed banks like Svalbard and Kew's Millennium Seed Bank.
Seedless fruit
Seedless fruit develops without mature seeds via parthenocarpy (fruit set without fertilization) or stenospermocarpy (seed abortion after fertilization), as in seedless grapes, bananas, citrus, and watermelon, controlled by auxin, gibberellin, and cytokinin.
Self-pollination
Self-pollination (autogamy, geitonogamy, cleistogamy) is pollen transfer within a flower or between flowers of the same plant, enabling self-fertilization; the most common evolutionary transition in flowering plants, favored by reproductive assurance and transmission advantage but limited by inbreeding depression.
Sempervivum
Sempervivum, houseleeks or hen-and-chicks, is a Crassulaceae succulent genus of 51 accepted species native from Europe to Iran and Morocco, grown for evergreen rosettes that die after flowering and spread by stolons.
Senecio
Senecio (groundsels, ragworts) is a huge, cosmopolitan genus of Asteraceae, tribe Senecioneae, with about 1,250-1,500 accepted species, established by Linnaeus in 1753, many species containing hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids.
Senecio retrorsus
Senecio retrorsus DC., also called Grass Stagger's Weed or Dunsiektebossie, is a pyrrolizidine-alkaloid-containing ragwort in Asteraceae native from Zimbabwe to South Africa, poisonous to livestock and assessed Least Concern by SANBI.
Senecio vulgaris
Senecio vulgaris, common groundsel or old-man-in-the-spring, is a petal-less-flowered annual Asteraceae weed native from Macaronesia to China, toxic from pyrrolizidine alkaloids, and the first weed found resistant to triazine herbicides.
Senegalia senegal
Senegalia senegal (gum arabic tree, formerly Acacia senegal) is a nitrogen-fixing Sahelian acacia supplying about 90% of traded gum arabic, formed schizogenously in inner secondary phloem and harvested after dry-season tapping.
Senna (plant)
Senna (plant genus, formerly in Cassia; senna, Senna alexandrina): a Fabaceae, Caesalpinioideae genus of about 300–350 pantropical species with yellow flowers, apical-pore anthers, and laxative drug uses.
Senna alexandrina
Senna alexandrina (Cassia senna, Cassia angustifolia; Alexandrian, Indian, or Tinnevelly senna) is a Fabaceae shrub whose sennoside-rich leaves and pods are stimulant laxatives for constipation, with grade A evidence and EU herbal monographs.
Sepal
Sepal: a modified leaf of the calyx, the outermost whorl of a flower, enclosing the bud; usually photosynthetic. Etymology 1821 (Necker 1790). Specified by A-class genes in the ABC model; tepals when undifferentiated from petals.