2,112 articles
Bacopa monnieri
Bacopa monnieri, called brahmi or water hyssop, is a creeping wetland herb used in Ayurvedic medicine as a memory enhancer and studied as a nootropic.
Baillonella toxisperma
Baillonella toxisperma (moabi, African pearwood, djave nut tree), sole species of its genus in Sapotaceae, a giant Vulnerable Central African rainforest tree valued for durable timber and seed oil, dispersed by forest elephants.
Balanites
Balanites (desert date genus, Agialid synonym) is a genus of nine spiny Zygophyllaceae trees and shrubs from Africa to Myanmar; type species Balanites aegyptiaca yields edible fruit, cooking oil, and steroidal saponins.
Balanites aegyptiaca
Balanites aegyptiaca (desert date, heglig, Ingudi), a Zygophyllaceae tree of African and Arabian drylands, up to about 10 m, with edible fruit, oil-rich kernels (19.8–49.4% oil), saponins, and IUCN Least Concern status.
Ballota
Ballota (horehound) is a Lamiaceae genus of about 30 perennial herbs and shrubs native to Macaronesia, Europe, the Mediterranean, and West Asia; type species Ballota nigra, black horehound; split from Pseudodictamnus in 2018.
Balm of Gilead
Balm of Gilead: biblical Hebrew tsori resin of Gilead, ancient Judean Commiphora balsam of Jericho and Ein Gedi, poplar-bud herbal salve, and the "There Is a Balm in Gilead" spiritual metaphor.
Balsaminaceae
Balsaminaceae, the touch-me-not or balsam family (Impatiens, Hydrocera), is an Ericales family of about 1,000 species of succulent herbs with spurred zygomorphic flowers and explosive seed capsules.
Banisteriopsis
Banisteriopsis (ayahuasca vine genus, Malpighiaceae), lianas and shrubs from Mexico to tropical South America; 65 accepted species including Banisteriopsis caapi, the principal component of Ayahuasca tea; Miocene origin about 22 million years ago.
Banisteriopsis caapi
Banisteriopsis caapi (ayahuasca, yagé, caapi) is an Amazonian Malpighiaceae liana containing the β-carboline alkaloids harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine, MAO inhibitors that make DMT orally active in ayahuasca brews.
Banksia
Banksia, genus of Australian Proteaceae shrubs and trees named for Joseph Banks in 1782; about 170 species, cone-like flower spikes, serotinous woody follicles, fire-adapted, many threatened by habitat loss and Phytophthora dieback.
Banyan
Banyan (Ficus benghalensis, Indian banyan, Bengal fig): national tree of India, a fig whose aerial roots become prop trunks, letting one tree cover acres; Great Banyan near Kolkata spans ~1.5 ha with 3,000+ pillar roots; sacred, wasp-pollinated, invasive in Florida and Hawaii (Chinese banyan).
Barbarea
Barbarea (winter-cress) is a genus of 29 Brassicaceae species, temperate Northern Hemisphere and SE Australia, unique in the family for triterpenoid saponins conferring insect resistance, notably against the diamondback moth.
Basella
Basella is a small genus of succulent twining vines in the Basellaceae family, best known for Basella alba, Malabar spinach, a leafy vegetable of tropical Asia.
Basella alba
Basella alba (Malabar spinach, Indian spinach, Ceylon spinach) is a succulent climbing vine of Basellaceae grown in the tropics for edible mucilaginous leaves; its fleshy purplish-black perianth encloses the fruit and yields a red food dye.
Bassia
Bassia (Bassia All., 1766; formerly Kochia) is a genus of about 20 C4 herbs in Amaranthaceae native to the Northern Hemisphere and southern Africa; its best-known species, B. scoparia (burningbush, summer cypress), is an ornamental and invasive weed.
Bassia scoparia
Bassia scoparia (kochia, summer cypress, burning bush; syn. Kochia scoparia) is a C4 annual Amaranthaceae native to Eurasia, an ornamental and forage plant that is a major tumbleweed weed of the North American Great Plains with resistance to five herbicide sites of action.
Bauhinia
Bauhinia (Plum) is a genus of pantropical trees and shrubs belonging to the Fabaceae family. Taxonomic debate exists over its circumscription, with counts ranging from 150 to 380 species.
Bay leaf
Bay leaf, from the Mediterranean bay laurel (Laurus nobilis), is used whole to flavor soups, stews, and braises, then removed before serving because it stays rigid.
Beech
Beech (Fagus), genus of ~15 Northern Hemisphere deciduous trees in Fagaceae; smooth grey bark, three-angled nuts in spiny cupules, masting every 5–8 years, hard 710 kg/m3 timber, threatened by bark and leaf disease and warming.
Begonia
Begonia is a mega-diverse genus of Begoniaceae with roughly 1,400–2,167 species of succulent herbs across tropical Africa, America, Asia, and Oceania, known for asymmetric leaves, monoecious flowers, three-winged capsules, and thousands of ornamental hybrids.
Begoniaceae
Begoniaceae (begonia family), C.Agardh 1824, a Cucurbitales family with two genera, Begonia (1,400-2,200+ species, pantropical) and monotypic Hawaiian Hillebrandia; asymmetric leaves, inferior ovary, three-winged capsules, sister to Datiscaceae.
Bellis
Bellis (daisies) is an accepted Asteraceae genus published by Linnaeus in 1753, native from Macaronesia, North Africa, and Europe to Central Asia and Iran, with 15 accepted species including the common daisy Bellis perennis.
Bellis perennis
Bellis perennis (English daisy, lawn daisy, common daisy), Linnaeus 1753, a perennial Asteraceae herb native from Madeira and Europe to Central Asia, a rosette lawn weed with white-rayed, yellow-centered flower heads, 2n=18, and medicinal and food uses.
Bellium minutum
Bellium minutum (little-Mary, Zwergmaßliebchen) is a small annual daisy in Asteraceae, tribe Astereae, native to Sicily, the East Aegean Islands, NW Türkiye, and Cyprus, first published in 1771 and grown as an ornamental mat-forming groundcover.
Berberidaceae
Berberidaceae, the barberry family (Berberis, Mahonia), is a Ranunculales family of 13–19 genera and about 769 species of shrubs and herbs with yellow wood, berberine alkaloids, and temperate to tropical-mountain distribution.
Berberis
Berberis (barberry, zeresh) is a genus of about 600 spiny Berberidaceae shrubs native to temperate and tropical mountains, source of the alkaloid berberine; Japanese barberry B. thunbergii is invasive in North America.
Berberis vulgaris
Berberis vulgaris, common or European barberry, is a spiny Berberidaceae shrub native to Europe to W. and N. Iran, source of berberine, studied for lipid and glycemic effects, and alternate host of wheat stem rust.
Bergenia
Bergenia (elephant's ears, pigsqueak) is a Saxifragaceae genus of evergreen rhizomatous perennials native to temperate Asia, with 10 accepted species per Kew, red winter foliage, spring pink flowers, and rhizomes used in Ayurveda as Pashanabheda.
Berry (botany)
Berry (botany): a simple fleshy fruit from a single flower's ovary with an entirely fleshy pericarp, e.g. grape, tomato, banana; includes hesperidium and pepo; excludes strawberries, raspberries, and drupes.
Bersama
Bersama Fresen. (1837), a genus of African evergreen trees and shrubs in Francoaceae (formerly Melianthaceae), type species B. abyssinica; 7 accepted species per Kew, widely used in traditional medicine.