Seed plants

Cephalotaxus fortunei

Cephalotaxus fortunei, Chinese plum yew (三尖杉), a dioecious conifer of Taxaceae from central-southern China and N Myanmar; source of antitumor Cephalotaxus alkaloids, IUCN Least Concern, introduced by Robert Fortune ca. 1849.

Cephalotaxus harringtonii

Cephalotaxus harringtonii (Japanese plum yew, Inugaya; often spelled C. harringtonia) is an East Asian evergreen conifer shrub, shade- and heat-tolerant, deer resistant, dioecious, with plum-like seeds and cephalotaxine alkaloids used in tumor therapy research.

Cephalotus

Cephalotus, the Australian or Albany pitcher plant (Cephalotus follicularis), is the sole species of Cephalotaceae, a carnivorous pitfall-trap plant endemic to southwest Western Australia, IUCN Vulnerable, with a 2017 genome revealing convergent co-option of digestive enzymes.

Cerastium

Cerastium (mouse-ear chickweed, chickweed) is a cosmopolitan genus of Caryophyllaceae herbs published by Linnaeus in 1753, type C. arvense, with about 100-218 species, white notched petals, and capsules opening by apical teeth.

Ceratonia

Ceratonia is a small Fabaceae genus of two evergreen species, carob (Ceratonia siliqua) and C. oreothauma, native from the Mediterranean to Arabia and Somalia, grown for pods and locust bean gum.

Ceratophyllum

Ceratophyllum (hornwort, coontail), sole genus of Ceratophyllaceae, rootless submerged freshwater angiosperms with whorled forked leaves; about six species, sister group to eudicots, Early Cretaceous divergence.

Ceratophyllum demersum

Ceratophyllum demersum, coontail or common hornwort, is a cosmopolitan rootless submerged aquatic plant of Ceratophyllaceae, sold as an aquarium oxygenator, used in phytoremediation, and invasive in New Zealand.

Ceratozamia

Ceratozamia is a genus of dioecious cycads (Zamiaceae) native from Mexico to Honduras, with horned sporophylls, about 36–43 species, montane karst habitats, and an Oligocene origin.

Ceratozamia hildae

Ceratozamia hildae, the bamboo cycad (cícada bambú, chamalillo), is an endangered Mexican cycad of the Sierra Gorda, Querétaro and San Luis Potosí, distinguished by bow-tie clusters of papery leaflets; CITES Appendix I, IUCN Endangered.

Ceratozamia mixeorum

Ceratozamia mixeorum (Chemnick, T.J.Greg. & Salas-Mor., 1997) is an endangered cycad endemic to the Sierra Mixe, Oaxaca, Mexico, growing in oak-Liquidambar cloud forest at 1450–1900 m; phylogenies place it with C. matudae.

Cerbera

Cerbera is a genus of six species of toxic evergreen trees and shrubs in Apocynaceae, native from Tanzania and the Indian Ocean to the Pacific; best known are the sea mango (Cerbera manghas) and the suicide tree (Cerbera odollam), whose cerberin-rich seeds cause digoxin-like cardiac poisoning.

Cerbera manghas

Cerbera manghas, the sea mango or pink-eyed cerbera (海杧果), is a poisonous Apocynaceae coastal tree from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific; its seeds contain the cardiac glycoside cerberin, lethal at half a seed.

Cerbera odollam

Cerbera odollam, the suicide tree or pong-pong (Apocynaceae), is a coastal Asian-Pacific tree whose cerberin-rich seeds cause digoxin-like cardiac poisoning, driving many suicides and homicides, especially in Kerala, India.

Cercidiphyllum

Cercidiphyllum, the katsura tree genus (katsura, 桂), is the sole genus of Cercidiphyllaceae with two East Asian species, C. japonicum and C. magnificum, dioecious Tertiary relict trees with heart-shaped leaves and a rich Cretaceous fossil record.

Cercis

Cercis, the redbud genus (Judas tree, Cercis siliquastrum), is a group of about 10 diploid small trees in Fabaceae native to warm-temperate North America and Eurasia, notable as a polyploidy-free genomic relic of the ancestral legume.

Cereal

Cereal: Poaceae grasses grown for edible starchy grain (wheat, maize, rice, barley, oats, rye, sorghum, millets), distinct from pseudocereals like buckwheat and quinoa; supply ~45% of global calories.

Cereal germ

Cereal germ is the vitamin-rich embryo of a grain kernel, separated during milling. Wheat germ holds 25% protein, 8-13% lipids, and vitamin E, but oxidizes rapidly without stabilization.

Cereus

Cereus (candle cactus genus, Cactaceae), 30 accepted columnar South American and Caribbean cacti with nocturnal flowers and slit-dehiscent fruits; includes C. jamacaru, C. repandus, C. hildmannianus; distinct from Bacillus cereus bacteria.

Cereus hexagonus

Cereus hexagonus, the lady of the night cactus (also blue cereus, reina de la noche), is a treelike columnar Cactaceae from northern South America and northern Brazil, the type of genus Cereus, with six-angled branches, fragrant white night flowers, and edible red fruit.

Ceropegia

Ceropegia (Ceropegia L., Apocynaceae) is an Old World genus of about 380 perennial herbs with tuberous roots and flask-shaped trap flowers that temporarily imprison fly pollinators via brood-site deception; Brachystelma and stapeliads are now included.

Cestrum

Cestrum (jessamines), a Solanaceae genus of about 233 accepted shrub species native from Mexico to tropical America; tubular night-fragrant flowers, bird-dispersed berries, many species toxic to livestock yet grown as ornamentals.

Cestrum nocturnum

Cestrum nocturnum, lady-of-the-night or night-blooming jasmine (रातकि रानी), a Solanaceae shrub native from Mexico to Venezuela with strongly night-scented flowers; all parts are poisonous to humans and livestock, and it is invasive in parts of Australia and India.

Chaenomeles

Chaenomeles (flowering quince, Japanese quince) is an Asian genus of four spiny Rosaceae shrubs, grown for early spring flowers and aromatic fruit used in jams and traditional Chinese medicine.

Chaerophyllum

Chaerophyllum is a genus of annual, biennial, and perennial herbs in the carrot family, commonly known as chervils, named by Linnaeus in 1753 with about 70 accepted species.

Chamaecrista

Chamaecrista (L.) Moench, a genus of about 350–379 legume species (Fabaceae, Cassiinae) of herbs and shrubs native to the tropics and subtropics; nodulating, buzz-pollinated, extrafloral-nectary-bearing plants distinct from Cassia and Senna.

Chamaecyparis eureka

Chamaecyparis eureka is an extinct Eocene cypress (Cupressaceae) described by Kotyk, Basinger, and McIver in 2003 from Axel Heiberg Island, Canadian Arctic; known from foliage and seed cones, most similar to Chamaecyparis pisifera, once the genus's oldest fossil.

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, Port-Orford-cedar or Lawson cypress, a Cupressaceae conifer native to SW Oregon and NW California, valued for aromatic timber and ornamental cultivars, threatened by Phytophthora lateralis root rot and rated Near Threatened.

Chamaecyparis obtusa

Chamaecyparis obtusa (ヒノキ, hinoki cypress), Japanese-Taiwanese evergreen cypress; sacred timber tree used since the Nara era, Japan's second-largest plantation species, IUCN Near Threatened, with many dwarf cultivars.

Chamaedorea

Chamaedorea, the largest neotropical palm genus with about 108 accepted species from Mexico to South America, comprises small dioecious rainforest understory palms; C. elegans is the parlour palm houseplant and xate leaves are a major Guatemalan forest product.