3,306 articles
Wild rice
Wild rice is the grain of aquatic grasses in the genus Zizania, native to North America and East Asia; the Great Lakes' northern wild rice, called manoomin by the Ojibwe, is the most widely eaten species.
Williamsonia (plant)
Williamsonia, an extinct Bennettitales seed-plant genus named by Carruthers in 1870, with slender branching trunks, Ptilophyllum foliage, and flower-like ovulate structures; species include W. gigas and W. sanjuanensis.
Willow
Willow (Salix, Salicaceae): about 450 dioecious, catkin-bearing tree and shrub species of northern temperate riparian zones, polyploid (2n=38-224), chemically rich in salicinoids, invasive in the Southern Hemisphere, and widely used for bioenergy, restoration, and phytoremediation.
Willow (disambiguation)
Willow (disambiguation): the genus Salix (350-450 willow species), named species such as weeping, white, black, and crack willow, willow bark medicine and aspirin, shrub willow bioenergy, Willowpedia, and the UK National Willow Collection.
Wilmar International
Wilmar International (SGX:F34), founded 1991 in Singapore by Kuok Khoon Hong and Martua Sitorus, is Asia's leading agribusiness group: over 1,000 plants in 36 countries, ~279,000 ha oil palm, FY2025 revenue US$70.42 billion, world's largest palm biodiesel and oleochemicals producer.
Winter wheat
Winter wheat is autumn-sown wheat requiring vernalization (0-7 degrees C for 30-60 days) to flower; it makes up nearly 70 percent of U.S. wheat production, mainly as Hard Red Winter and Soft Red Winter classes.
Winteraceae
Winteraceae R.Br. ex Lindl., the winter's bark family, is a magnoliid family in Canellales with five genera and c. 90 species of vesselless, peppery-aromatic trees and shrubs, from Mexico and Papuasia to southern South America; best-known genus Drimys.
Wintergreen
Gaultheria procumbens (American wintergreen, eastern teaberry, checkerberry) is a low evergreen Ericaceae shrub of northeastern North America; its gaultherin-rich extracts are anti-inflammatory, and its wintergreen oil is 96.9–100% methyl salicylate.
Wisteria
Wisteria, also called wistaria, is a genus of about five to seven deciduous twining vine species in Fabaceae, including Chinese Wisteria sinensis, Japanese W. floribunda, and native American W. frutescens, known for long fragrant flower racemes and the invasiveness of the Asian species in the US.
Witch-hazel
Witch-hazel (Hamamelis) is a genus of five winter- or fall-blooming shrubs in Hamamelidaceae, native to eastern North America, China, and Japan, with straplike fragrant flowers and explosive seed pods; garden hybrids are H. x intermedia.
Withania
Withania (ashwagandha genus), Solanaceae shrub genus of about 23-26 species; W. somnifera and W. coagulans are medicinal, withanolide-rich, used over 3000 years in Ayurveda.
Withania somnifera (अश्वगन्धा)
Withania somnifera (ashwagandha, Indian ginseng, winter cherry) is a Solanaceae shrub used in Ayurveda; withanolide-containing root extracts show trial evidence for stress, insomnia, and anxiety, with rare liver injury reported.
Wollemia
Wollemia, commonly the Wollemi pine, is a genus of conifer in the Araucariaceae family, unknown to science until 1994 and now critically endangered in the wild in New South Wales, Australia.
Wood
Wood (secondary xylem) is the structural tissue trees form via the vascular cambium; used as fuel, timber, and paper feedstock. Key facts: Kalambo Falls 476,000-year-old structure, 3,905 million m³ roundwood in 2024, orthotropic mechanics.
World Bamboo Organization
World Bamboo Organization (WBO), U.S. 501(c)(6) trade association formed 2005, successor to the International Bamboo Association (1992); runs World Bamboo Congresses, World Bamboo Day (Sept 18), led by Michel Abadie.
Xanthium
Xanthium (cocklebur) is a genus of annual Asteraceae herbs with spiny two-seeded burs dispersed by animal fur and water; taxonomically contested, toxic to livestock via carboxyatractyloside, and used in Chinese medicine as Cang-Er-Zi.
Xanthium strumarium
Xanthium strumarium (cocklebur, Cang-Er-Zi), Asteraceae annual herb; fruits are a Chinese Pharmacopoeia medicine for rhinitis, while seeds and seedlings contain toxic carboxyatractyloside.
Xanthosoma
Xanthosoma (cocoyam, tannia, malanga, new cocoyam) is a genus of Araceae herbs native from Mexico to tropical America, first published 1832; X. sagittifolium is a starchy root crop distinguished from taro by non-peltate leaves.
Xanthosoma sagittifolium
Xanthosoma sagittifolium, known as cocoyam, tannia, yautia, or malanga, is a tuberous herb of the arum family native to tropical America and widely grown across the tropics for its edible, starchy tuber.
Xeranthemum annuum
Xeranthemum annuum (annual everlasting, immortelle) is an Asteraceae annual native from Central and SE Europe to Central Asia and Iran, with papery pink or white flower heads used in dried arrangements and studied for antioxidant polyphenols.
Xipe Totec
Xipe Totec, "Our Lord the Flayed One," ancient Mesoamerican god of spring, war, and goldsmiths, honored in the Tlacaxipehualiztli festival through captive sacrifice, flaying, and 20-day ritual wearing of victims' skins.
Xylopia
Xylopia (Guinea pepper genus) is a pantropical genus of about 160–197 Annonaceae trees and shrubs, second largest in its family, of African origin, with dehiscent multi-carpellate fruits, beetle or thrips pollination, bird and monkey seed dispersal, and the spice species Xylopia aethiopica.
Xyridaceae
Xyridaceae, the yellow-eyed-grass family, is a family of flowering plants in the monocot order Poales, with five genera and about 400 species, mostly in South America.
Yam (vegetable)
Yam (Dioscorea spp., Dioscoreaceae) is a tropical monocot vine grown for starchy tubers, domesticated independently in Asia, Africa, and the Americas; West Africa's yam belt produces 97% of African output, led by Nigeria, and US "yam" labels usually mean sweet potato.
Yangzhou fried rice
Yangzhou fried rice (扬州炒饭, Yeung Chow fried rice) is a Huaiyang egg fried rice from Yangzhou, Jiangsu, with ham, shrimp, and peas, no soy sauce, codified by a 2002 eight-ingredient standard and Jiangsu intangible heritage listing.
Yermo xanthocephalus
Yermo xanthocephalus (desert yellowhead) is a monotypic, federally threatened perennial aster endemic to two BLM populations in Fremont County, Wyoming; discovered in 1990, described by Robert Dorn in 1991, with extremely low seed viability.
Yew toxicity
Yew toxicity is poisoning by taxine alkaloids found in all parts of yew trees except the red aril, often causing sudden death in livestock within hours.
Yucca
Yucca is a genus of more than 25 woody Asparagaceae plants native to North and Central America and Bermuda, known for spine-tipped leaves and obligate pollination by yucca moths (Tegeticula, Parategeticula), a mutualism at least 40 million years old.
Yucca brevifolia
Yucca brevifolia, the western Joshua tree, is a tree-like Mojave Desert yucca pollinated only by Tegeticula moths; sister species Y. jaegeriana, fire-vulnerable, habitat projected to decline up to 90% by 2070–2099.
Yucca elata
Yucca elata, soaptree yucca (palmilla, izote forrajero), a treelike Asparagaceae yucca of the Chihuahuan Desert from Arizona to west Texas and northern Mexico, pollinated obligately by yucca moths and rated Least Concern.