3,306 articles
Baccharis
Baccharis L. (Baccharidinae, Asteraceae) is a New World genus of about 400-500 dioecious shrub species from the United States to Argentina, used in folk medicine and including the invasive B. halimifolia.
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.
Bactris
Bactris, also called the peach palm genus (pejibaye, Bactris gasipaes), is a genus of about 79 spiny Neotropical palms in Arecaceae, native from Mexico to tropical America, known for the domesticated peach palm grown for fruit and palm heart.
Bactris gasipaes
Bactris gasipaes, the peach palm (pupunha, pejibaye, chontaduro), is the only domesticated Neotropical palm, grown in tropical Latin America for starchy fruit and heart-of-palm; raw fruit needs cooking to destroy calcium oxalate crystals.
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.
Balsam woolly adelgid
The balsam woolly adelgid (Adelges piceae) is a tiny, flightless European insect introduced to North America around 1900 that has killed large numbers of balsam, Fraser, and subalpine firs.
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.
Bamboo
Bamboo (Bambusoideae): woody grasses of Poaceae with hollow culms, 1885 species in 144 genera, native to all continents except Europe and Antarctica, growing up to 60 cm per day and flowering synchronously on 50-year cycles.
Bamboo blossom
Bamboo blossom: flowering in Bambusoideae grasses, also called gregarious flowering or masting. Species flower once after 3–150-year cycles, often synchronously, then die; events trigger rodent outbreaks and famine in northeast India.
Bamboo construction
Bamboo construction uses whole round culms or engineered bamboo as structural material. Key facts: ISO 22156:2021 limits round-bamboo buildings to two storeys and 7 m; joints are the main difficulty; bamboo floors emit 12 vs 160 kg CO2-eq/m2 for concrete; Hong Kong bamboo scaffolding tradition.
Bamboo in East Asian culture
Bamboo in East Asian culture is a system of moral and literary symbols in which bamboo's hollow stem, straight growth, and winter survival stand for integrity, humility, and endurance.
Bamboo mosaic virus
Bamboo mosaic virus (BaMV, 竹嵌紋病毒), a Potexvirus (Alphaflexiviridae) with a 6,366-nt positive-sense RNA genome, infects bamboo causing mosaic disease and bamboo-nail shoot lesions, and serves as a plant expression vector for pharmaceuticals and bamboo gene studies.
Bamboo shoot
Bamboo shoot, takenoko, the young culm of bamboo eaten as a vegetable across Asia; nutritious but containing taxiphyllin cyanogenic glycosides, so shoots must be boiled, fermented, or canned before eating.
Bambooworking
Bambooworking is the craft of splitting and weaving bamboo into baskets, mats, and furniture, often alongside rattan (wicker). Known through Chinese, Japanese (Beppu, Living National Treasures), and Southeast Asian traditions, now extending to composites and architecture.
Bambusa
Bambusa Schreb. is a genus of clumping woody bamboos (Poaceae, Bambusoideae, Bambusinae) native from tropical and subtropical Asia to northern Australia, with roughly 70-153 accepted species, hollow jointed culms, six stamens, and widely cultivated species such as B. vulgaris and B. bambos.
Bambusa vulgaris
Bambusa vulgaris (common or yellow bamboo), a clumping tropical bamboo native from Assam to Indo-China, culms to about 13 m, hollow, green, or yellow; widely naturalized, used in construction, composites, and food, with compressive strength up to about 64 MPa dry.
Banana
Banana, the seedless fruit of genus Musa (Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana), domesticated about 7,000 years ago in Southeast Asia; Cavendish is roughly half of global production and faces the TR4 fungus.
Bánh chưng, bánh giầy
Bánh chưng and bánh giầy are Vietnamese sticky-rice cakes of Tết: a square boiled cake with mung bean and pork, and a round pounded-rice cake.
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.
Bansuri (बाँसुरी)
Bansuri (बाँसुरी), North Indian keyless side-blown bamboo flute with six or seven holes, 30–100 cm long; adapted for Hindustani classical music by Pannalal Ghosh and associated with Krishna.
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.
Bark beetle
Bark beetles (Scolytinae) are phloem-feeding beetles of conifers; species like Dendroctonus ponderosae and Ips typographus mass-attack trees using aggregation pheromones and fungal symbionts, causing major outbreaks shaped by drought and warming.
Barley
Barley (Hordeum vulgare), a cool-season cereal domesticated in the Fertile Crescent about 10,000 years ago; fourth-largest world grain, used mainly for livestock feed and malting for beer.