3,306 articles
Carob
Carob (Ceratonia siliqua), Mediterranean evergreen legume; sweet pods ground as caffeine-free cocoa substitute, seeds yield locust bean gum; major producers Spain, Italy, Portugal.
Carpinus betulus
Carpinus betulus, the European hornbeam, a Betulaceae tree native from Europe to Iran; dense hard wood, coppiced for firewood, used as hedge and shade tree, tolerant of wet clay soils and shade.
Carthamus
Carthamus (from Arabic Qurtum) is a genus of spiny Asteraceae herbs from Europe to Central Asia; its only cultivated species, safflower (Carthamus tinctorius, 2n=24), was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent over 4000 years ago from wild progenitor C. palaestinus for dyes, oil, and medicine.
Carya
Carya (hickories), genus of Juglandaceae trees native from Assam to China and Indo-China and E. Canada to Mexico; disjunct EA-ENA distribution, origin ~66.64 Ma, includes pecan C. illinoinensis.
Caryocar
Caryocar (pequi trees) is a genus of 16 Neotropical tree species in Caryocaraceae, Malpighiales, native to Tropical America; C. brasiliense yields pequi fruit and oil rich in oleic acid.
Caryocar brasiliense
Caryocar brasiliense (pequi, pequizeiro) is a Caryocaraceae tree native to Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay, emblematic of the Cerrado. Its oily, carotenoid-rich fruit supports extractive food, cosmetic, and medicinal uses, protected since 1987 and by Brazil's 2025 national pequi policy.
Caryocar costaricense
Caryocar costaricense (ajo, ajillo, manú) is an endangered Central American timber tree of Caryocaraceae, the family's only Central American species, native to Costa Rica and adjacent Panama, with garlic-scented yellow flowers and CITES Appendix II listing.
Caryophyllaceae
Caryophyllaceae, the pink family (Caryophyllales), is a family of about 100 genera and 2,200–3,000 species of herbs including Silene, Dianthus, and Gypsophila, mainly temperate northern hemisphere.
Caryophyllales
Caryophyllales, the carnation order including Centrospermae, is a eudicot order of 34 APG families (Caryophyllaceae, Cactaceae, Amaranthaceae, Droseraceae) marked by betalain pigments, P-type sieve-tube plastids, perispermous seeds, and carnivorous lineages.
Caryopteris × clandonensis
Caryopteris × clandonensis (bluebeard, blue mist shrub) is a hybrid shrub from Clandon, Surrey, bred by Arthur Simmonds around 1930 from C. incana and C. mongholica, grown for late-summer blue flowers that attract pollinators.
Cascabela thevetia
Cascabela thevetia, yellow oleander (syn. Thevetia peruviana), is a toxic Apocynaceae shrub native from Mexico to South America, containing digoxin-like cardiac glycosides such as thevetin A and B, and a frequent agent of self-poisoning in India and Sri Lanka.
Casearia
Casearia (Jacq., 1760) is a pantropical genus of about 200-250 Salicaceae trees and shrubs, half Neotropical, with pellucid-dotted leaves, apetalous axillary flowers, and arillate seeds; South American origin, late Eocene diversification.
Cassava
Cassava (Manihot esculenta, yuca, manioc, tapioca) is a drought-tolerant Euphorbiaceae root crop from the Americas feeding ~800 million people; cyanogenic roots need processing; major diseases CMD and CBSD; used for starch and bioethanol.
Cassia fistula
Cassia fistula, the golden shower tree or amaltas, is a Fabaceae tree native to India and Sri Lanka with yellow pendulous blooms and long black pods used as a laxative; Thailand's national flower.
Cassiope
Cassiope is a genus of about 18 species of dwarf evergreen shrubs in the heath family, known as mountain heathers and native to cool Northern Hemisphere regions.
Castanea
Castanea (chestnut), genus of Fagaceae trees and shrubs with up to 14 species across Asia, Europe, and North America; includes sweet chestnut (C. sativa) and blight-devastated American chestnut (C. dentata).
Castanea mollissima
Castanea mollissima (板栗), Chinese chestnut, a Fagaceae tree native to China and Korea grown for edible nuts; blight-resistant donor species used in American chestnut restoration breeding, cultivated in China for at least 2,000 years.
Castanea pumila
Castanea pumila, chinquapin or Allegheny chinquapin, is a rhizomatous North American shrub or small tree in Fagaceae with one sweet nut per spiny bur, moderately resistant to chestnut blight.
Castanea sativa
Castanea sativa, sweet or European chestnut, is the only European Castanea species, a large deciduous nut and timber tree native from the Balkans to northern Iran, threatened by chestnut blight and ink disease.
Castanopsis
Castanopsis (chinquapin, chinkapin) is a genus of about 110-145 species of evergreen Fagaceae trees native to tropical and subtropical Asia, sister to Castanea, with spiny cupules enclosing edible nuts and valuable timber.
Casuarina
Casuarina is a genus of about 17 species of flowering trees and shrubs, native from tropical Asia to the western Pacific, known as she-oak or Australian pine.
Casuarina equisetifolia
Casuarina equisetifolia (she-oak, Australian pine, horsetail tree), a nitrogen-fixing Casuarinaceae tree native from India to the western Pacific; fast-growing coastal windbreak and fuelwood species, invasive and prohibited in Florida.
Casuarinaceae
Casuarinaceae R.Br. (she-oaks, beefwoods) is a Fagales family of four genera, Allocasuarina, Casuarina, Ceuthostoma, Gymnostoma, and about 90-97 species, native to Australia, Malesia, and the western Pacific, with jointed photosynthetic twigs, scale leaves, woody cones, and Frankia nitrogen-fixing root nodules.
Catalpa
Catalpa (catalpa, Indian bean tree) is a genus of about eight Bignoniaceae tree species native to China, eastern North America, and the Greater Antilles, grown for showy white flowers and long bean-like pods; southern catalpa C. bignonioides and hardier northern catalpa C. speciosa are the common ornamentals.
Catasetum
Catasetum (catasetum orchids) is a Neotropical orchid genus, tribe Cymbidieae, native from Mexico to Tropical America, with about 170-206 species of unisexual, sexually dimorphic flowers pollinated by euglossine bees via a catapult-like pollinarium ejection mechanism.
Catharanthus roseus
Catharanthus roseus (Madagascar periwinkle, formerly Vinca rosea), Apocynaceae ornamental native to Madagascar and sole natural source of anticancer alkaloids vinblastine and vincristine, made via strictosidine from tryptamine and secologanin.
Catkin
Catkin (ament): a slim, drooping spike of reduced, unisexual, petal-less flowers on trees such as willow, birch, oak, and hazel; wind-pollinated, a major spring allergen source, named from Dutch katteken (kitten) in 1578.
Catnip
Catnip (Nepeta cataria), a mint-family perennial herb, contains nepetalactone, which makes about 68% of domestic cats euphorically rub and roll and repels mosquitoes comparably to DEET.
Catopsis berteroniana
Catopsis berteroniana, the powdery strap airplant, is an epiphytic tank bromeliad from Florida to tropical America, protocarnivorous via waxy, UV-reflecting leaves that trap insects; endangered in Florida.
Cattleya
Cattleya (corsage orchid, queen of orchids) is a Neotropical orchid genus from Costa Rica to southern tropical America, with 136 accepted species, epiphytic pseudobulb growth, and a 2014 four-subgenera classification.