edgepedia

Seed plants

3,306 articles

Daisy

Daisy (Bellis perennis), the English or lawn daisy of the daisy family Asteraceae, is a perennial European herb whose white-and-yellow "flower" is actually a capitulum of many ray and disc florets.

Dalbergia

Dalbergia (rosewoods) is a pantropical legume genus of trees, shrubs, and lianas in Fabaceae, tribe Dalbergieae, with 275 accepted species; source of rosewood timber, CITES Appendix II since 2017.

Dalbergia granadillo

Dalbergia granadillo (zangalicua, cocobolo mexicano, granadillo) is a Mexican rosewood tree of Fabaceae, CITES Appendix II, IUCN Critically Endangered, with over 80% decline over three generations from illegal logging for guitars and Hongmu furniture.

Dalbergia sissoo

Dalbergia sissoo (shisham, Indian rosewood) is a nitrogen-fixing Fabaceae timber tree native from the Arabian Peninsula to Myanmar, widely planted in South Asia, IUCN Least Concern, CITES Appendix II via the genus, affected by die-back disease.

Dalda

Dalda is a vanaspati (hydrogenated vegetable oil) brand introduced in India in 1937, named by adding 'L' from Lever to Dada & Co; now Dalda Foods in Pakistan (acquired from Unilever 2004) and a Bunge India trademark.

Dalea

Dalea L., the prairie clovers, is a New World legume genus (Fabaceae, Amorpheae) of about 175–193 xerophytic herb and shrub species, most diverse in Mexico, used for forage, restoration, medicine, and nitrogen fixation.

Dango (団子)

Dango (団子) is a Japanese boiled rice-flour dumpling, usually served three to five per skewer as a wagashi snack. Varieties include mitarashi, hanami, and tsukimi dango; distinct from pounded mochi.

Danthonia

Danthonia (oatgrass) is a genus of 27 accepted perennial grasses in Poaceae, subfamily Danthonioideae, native from Macaronesia and Europe to temperate and subtropical America, with hairy ligules, three-awned lemmas, and sheath cleistogenes.

Daphne mezereum

Daphne mezereum (mezereon, February daphne) is a toxic, pink-flowered deciduous shrub of Thymelaeaceae native from Europe to SW Siberia and N Iran, containing mezerein and daphnetoxin.

Dasiphora fruticosa

Dasiphora fruticosa (shrubby cinquefoil, formerly Potentilla fruticosa, Chinese jin lu mei 金露梅) is a circumboreal Rosaceae shrub with yellow flowers, host of Clayton's copper butterfly, secure globally (G5) but endangered in Pennsylvania.

Date palm

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera), the iconic fruit palm of North Africa and the Middle East, cultivated since 4000 BC; dioecious, over 5,000 cultivars, two gene pools, dates over 3,000 calories/kg.

Datura

Datura (thorn-apple, jimsonweed; Sanskrit dhattūra) is a genus of 14 toxic Solanaceae herbs native from the SW and S-central USA to Mexico, naturalized worldwide, containing atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine; distinct from the pendulous-flowered Brugmansia.

Datura metel

Datura metel, also known as devil's trumpet or thorn's apple, is a nightshade herb with large trumpet-shaped flowers, native to Mexico and cultivated worldwide as a narcotic and medicine.

Datura stramonium

Datura stramonium (jimson weed, thorn apple), Solanaceae annual herb native to Mexico, now a pantropical weed; all parts contain tropane alkaloids atropine, hyoscyamine, scopolamine; seeds contaminate grain and cause anticholinergic poisoning.

Daucus

Daucus is a genus of 45 Apiaceae herb species including cultivated carrot (D. carota subsp. sativus) and wild carrot, Queen Anne's lace; domesticated in medieval Central Asia, orange roots selected in Renaissance Europe.

Daucus carota

Daucus carota, wild carrot or Queen Anne's lace, is an Apiaceae biennial native to Europe, southwest Asia, and North Africa and progenitor of cultivated carrot (subsp. sativus), domesticated once in Central Asia with orange carrots later selected in the Netherlands.

Daylily

Daylily (Hemerocallis, Asphodelaceae): perennial genus of 16 species native from SE. Alps and Siberia to temperate East Asia; each flower lasts one day; basis of tens of thousands of garden cultivars.

Death by coconut

Death by coconut: fatalities from coconuts falling from 24–35 m palms, weighing 1–4 kg. The famous 150-deaths-per-year claim is an urban legend from a 2002 quote; documented injuries are real but deaths rare.

Deceptor spp.

Deceptor Seidenf. is a monotypic orchid genus (Orchidaceae, Aeridinae) endemic to Vietnam, published by Seidenfaden in 1992; its sole species, Deceptor bidoupensis, is an endangered epiphyte from the Bidoup massif.

Deciduous

Deciduous: plants or plant parts shed at a particular season, especially trees losing all leaves annually before winter or the dry season, contrasted with evergreen; involves abscission zones, photoperiod and temperature cues, and drought or freezing avoidance.

Dehydroabietic acid

Dehydroabietic acid (DHAA) is a tricyclic abietane-type diterpene resin acid and major, oxidation-resistant component of rosin, formed as abietic acid aromatizes during aging and during industrial rosin processing.

Delonix

Delonix is a genus of 12 species of unarmed trees in the legume family, native to northeastern Africa, western India, and Madagascar, best known for the flamboyant.

Delonix regia

Delonix regia, royal poinciana or flamboyant (gulmohar), a Fabaceae tree native to N & W Madagascar, grown tropics-wide for scarlet flowers; umbrella crown, 40-70 cm pods, Caution status in South Florida.

Delphinium

Delphinium (larkspur) is a Ranunculaceae genus of 539 accepted annual and perennial herbs with spurred, zygomorphic flowers, native to temperate Old World and North America, toxic via norditerpenoid alkaloids, and a major ornamental cut flower.

Dendrobieae

Dendrobieae, an orchid tribe in Epidendroideae, contains Dendrobium (800–1500 species) and Bulbophyllum; molecular phylogenetics supports a broad Dendrobium with Asian and Australasian clades.

Dendrobium

Dendrobium (石斛属-related orchid genus) is a large, conserved orchid genus native from tropical and subtropical Asia to the Pacific and New Zealand, with roughly 1,100–1,500 species, major cut-flower horticulture, and medicinal species such as D. nobile used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Dendrobium bigibbum

Dendrobium bigibbum, the Cooktown orchid, is an epiphytic orchid native to the Tanimbar Islands, New Guinea, and Cape York, Queensland; floral emblem of Queensland since 1959, listed Vulnerable, with four accepted varieties.

Dendrobium nobile

Dendrobium nobile (Shihu, 石斛) is an epiphytic Himalayan orchid, a popular ornamental and a major Traditional Chinese Medicine source; its stem yields dendrobine and other alkaloids, and it is CITES Appendix II listed.

Dendrobium officinale

Dendrobium officinale (Tiepi Shihu, 鐵皮石斛) is a critically endangered Chinese epiphytic orchid whose dried stem is a traditional Chinese medicine and food, rich in polysaccharides, with a 12 g daily Pharmacopoeia limit.

Dendrobium speciosum

Dendrobium speciosum, the rock orchid or rock lily, is a large Australian lithophytic or epiphytic orchid described by James Edward Smith in 1804, native to NSW, Queensland, and Victoria, with cream racemes of up to 120 flowers and 5 to 9 recognized varieties.