3,306 articles
Bidens
Bidens (beggar-ticks, bur-marigold) is a cosmopolitan Asteraceae genus of roughly 200–280 species with centers of diversity in Africa and the Americas, barbed awned achenes, notable Pacific island adaptive radiations, and the medicinal weed Bidens pilosa.
Bidens pilosa
Bidens pilosa (Spanish needles, cobbler's pegs, xian feng cao) is an Asteraceae herb native to tropical America, used in traditional medicine for over 40 ailments, chemically rich in polyacetylenes and flavonoids, and a noxious weed in 40+ countries.
Biennial plant
Biennial plant: a flowering plant completing its life cycle in two seasons, overwintering as a rosette, then flowering, seeding, and dying; examples include carrots, beets, cabbage, parsley, and evening primrose, often vernalization-dependent.
Bifora
Bifora (bishop, Hohlsame) is a genus of two annual Apiaceae species, B. radians and B. testiculata, native from the Mediterranean to Central Asia; B. testiculata is a declared crop weed in Australia, B. radians a Turkish spice plant.
Bignonia
Bignonia (紫葳屬), bignonias, a conserved Linnaean genus of woody lianas in Bignoniaceae, tribe Bignonieae, native from central and eastern USA to Argentina, with 31 accepted species and Bignonia capreolata, the crossvine, as type.
Bignoniaceae
Bignoniaceae, the trumpet creeper or bignonia family (Juss., 1789, nom. cons.), is a pantropical Lamiales family of woody trees, shrubs, and lianas with zygomorphic flowers, centered in northern South America, with about 79-110 genera and 790-901 species.
Bilberry
Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), also whortleberry or European blueberry, is a low Ericaceae subshrub of temperate Eurasia with dark blue-black anthocyanin-rich berries, EU-approved traditional uses for mild diarrhoea, and unproven night-vision claims.
Birch
Birch (Betula L.) is a genus of about 60 to 66 deciduous trees and shrubs in Betulaceae, native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with peeling bark, monoecious catkins, winged wind-dispersed seeds, and major timber species such as silver, downy, paper, and river birch.
Bistorta
Bistorta (bistorts) is a genus of about 44-50 perennial rhizomatous herbs in Polygonaceae, native from subarctic and temperate Eurasia and North America to northeast Mexico; includes European bistort (Bistorta officinalis, syn. Polygonum bistorta).
Bistorta officinalis
Bistorta officinalis (bistort, common bistort, European bistort; formerly Polygonum bistorta) is a Polygonaceae perennial of temperate Eurasia and Morocco with a contorted tannin-rich rhizome, pink flower spikes, medicinal and food uses, and garden cultivars.
Bixa
Bixa is a Neotropical plant genus of Bixaceae (Malvales), native Mexico to southern tropical America, with six accepted species; Bixa orellana, the annatto or lipstick tree, yields the apocarotenoid pigment bixin used as food coloring E160b.
Bixa orellana
Bixa orellana, known as annatto, achiote, or the lipstick tree, is a tropical American shrub whose seed coats yield annatto, an orange-red natural food colorant.
Bletilla striata
Bletilla striata (Bai-Ji, Chinese ground orchid, urn orchid) is a hardy terrestrial orchid native to China, Korea, and Japan, used in traditional Chinese medicine for hemostasis and grown as an ornamental.
Blighia sapida
Blighia sapida (ackee, akee), Sapindaceae tree native to West and West Central Africa, national fruit of Jamaica; red capsules with edible yellow aril, toxic unripe due to hypoglycin A causing Jamaican vomiting sickness.
Blitum capitatum
Blitum capitatum, known as strawberry blite or strawberry spinach, is an annual flowering plant in the amaranth family with dense clusters of bright red, edible fruits.
Blue agave
Blue agave (Agave tequilana Weber var. azul, agave azul) is a CAM succulent from Jalisco, Mexico, the only agave legally allowed for tequila, clonally propagated, maturing in about seven years, with severely reduced genetic diversity.
Blue corn
Blue corn, blue maize, varieties of Zea mays with blue kernels from anthocyanins in the aleurone layer; grown by Hopi and Mexican landrace farmers, nixtamalized into tortillas, higher protein and antioxidants than white or yellow corn.
Blue spruce
Blue spruce (Picea pungens), also called Colorado blue spruce or silver spruce, is a slow-growing Rocky Mountain conifer native to Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, grown widely as an ornamental and Colorado's state tree.
Blumea
Blumea DC. is a genus of about 100 Asteraceae (daisy) species, herbs and shrubs native to the tropical and subtropical Old World, mainly tropical Asia; disciform heads, tailed anthers; many species used in traditional medicine.
Boehmeria
Boehmeria (ramie genus, China grass) is a genus of about 51-65 Urticaceae shrubs and trees without stinging hairs, pantropical in distribution, including the fiber crop Boehmeria nivea and shown by phylogenomics to be non-monophyletic.
Boerhavia
Boerhavia (spiderling) is a pantropical genus of Nyctaginaceae herbs named for Herman Boerhaave, published by Linnaeus in 1753, with about 59 accepted species including the medicinal B. diffusa (punarnava).
Boesenbergia
Boesenbergia Kuntze (1891), a Zingiberaceae ginger genus of tropical and subtropical Asia with about 83–117 accepted species; best known for B. rotunda, fingerroot, a spice and traditional medicine rich in flavonoids such as panduratin and pinostrobin.
Bogoria
Bogoria is a genus of small monopodial epiphytic orchids in the family Orchidaceae, native from Malesia to New Guinea and Fiji and first published in 1905.
Boiled peanuts
Boiled peanuts, also called goober peas or pindars, are raw in-shell peanuts simmered in salted water until soft, a Southern US snack and South Carolina's official state snack since 2006, with West African origins.
Bok choy (小白菜)
Bok choy (小白菜, pak choi), Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis, is a non-heading Chinese cabbage with dark leaves and thick white stalks; cool-season crop harvested 40–50 days after sowing, 13 kcal per 100 g raw.
Bombax
Bombax (red silk cotton trees) is a genus of about eight Malvaceae trees native from tropical Africa to northern Australia; type species Bombax ceiba, source of kapok-like fibre, low-grade timber, and traditional medicine.
Bombax ceiba
Bombax ceiba, the red silk-cotton tree or Indian kapok (Salmalia malabarica), is a large Malvaceae tree native from tropical Asia to northern Australia, grown for kapok floss, matchwood, medicine, and crimson dry-season flowers; IUCN Least Concern.
Bontia daphnoides
Bontia daphnoides (white alling, wild olive, sea olive) is the sole species of the genus Bontia, a coastal Caribbean and northern South American shrub or small tree in Scrophulariaceae, used as a hedge, windbreak, and medicine, introduced to Florida and Hawaii.
Borage
Borage (Borago officinalis, starflower) is a Mediterranean annual herb with edible blue star flowers and cucumber-flavored leaves; its seed oil is the richest plant source of GLA, though oral borage oil shows no benefit for eczema.
Boraginaceae
Boraginaceae, the borage or forget-me-not family (Boraginales), comprises roughly 90 genera and 1,600–1,700 species sensu stricto, with rough-haired alternate leaves, scorpioid cymes, gynobasic styles, and four-nutlet fruits; APG IV treats it as the sole family of its order.