Seed plants

Dimocarpus

Dimocarpus (龙眼属) is a Sapindaceae genus of Asian and Australian trees, source of the longan fruit (dragon-eye); six to nine species, type D. longan, lectotype D. lichi, distinguished by translucent aril and warty fruit.

Dioon

Dioon is a genus of 18 accepted cycad species in Zamiaceae, native from Mexico to Honduras. Originating about 56 Ma in eastern Mexico, it includes the slow-growing, ethnobotanically important chamal (Dioon edule).

Dioon edule

Dioon edule, chestnut dioon or chamal, a slow-growing Mexican cycad (Zamiaceae) from the Sierra Madre Oriental; dioecious, beetle-pollinated, over 2500 years lifespan, IUCN Near Threatened, CITES Appendix II, cold-hardy to about -12 °C.

Dioon holmgrenii

Dioon holmgrenii, Palmera de Sol, an endangered Mexican cycad (Zamiaceae) described in 1981, endemic to Pacific-slope pine-oak forest of Oaxaca at 580–850 m, with six genetically isolated populations.

Dioscorea

Dioscorea (yams), genus of c. 630 species of twining climbers in Dioscoreaceae; source of staple tuber crops (D. rotundata, D. alata, D. polystachya) and diosgenin; cosmopolitan, dioecious, x=10 Old World, x=9 New World.

Dioscorea rotundata

Dioscorea rotundata, white Guinea yam or white yam, is a West African domesticated yam of hybrid origin (D. praehensilis x D. abyssinica) from the Niger River basin, the main yam of the yam belt, grown for starchy tubers used in pounded yam.

Dioscoreaceae

Dioscoreaceae, the yam family (R.Br., 1810), is a pantropical monocot family in Dioscoreales with about 650 species in four genera, dominated by Dioscorea (over 600 species), the source of edible yams and steroidal saponins.

Dioscoreales

Dioscoreales, an order of monocot flowering plants with the families Dioscoreaceae, Nartheciaceae, and Burmanniaceae; its genus Dioscorea (634 species) contains the yams, a tropical staple crop grown mainly in West Africa.

Diospyros

Diospyros (persimmon, ebony) is a genus of about 700-800 Ebenaceae trees and shrubs, pantropical in range, known for D. kaki fruit, ebony timber, and naphthoquinone chemistry.

Diospyros melanoxylon

Diospyros melanoxylon (tendu, kendu, Coromandel ebony), an Ebenaceae tree native to India and Sri Lanka, whose leaves wrap bidis, supporting over 12 million livelihoods, and which yields triterpenes with reported antidiabetic activity.

Diospyros virginiana

Diospyros virginiana, American or common persimmon (possumwood, simmon), a slow-growing dioecious Ebenaceae tree of the eastern and central United States with frost-sweetened orange fruit, hard ebony-like wood, and use as rootstock for Diospyros kaki.

Diplotaxis

Diplotaxis is a genus of 39 Brassicaceae species native from Europe and the Mediterranean to the Himalaya, including wild rocket (D. tenuifolia) and wall rocket (D. erucoides), salad greens rich in glucosinolates and quercetin flavonols.

Dipsacales

Dipsacales, also called the honeysuckle order, is an order of campanulid flowering plants with about 1,100 species in two families, Caprifoliaceae and Viburnaceae (Adoxaceae), including Lonicera, Viburnum, and Scabiosa.

Dipsacus

Dipsacus (teasels) is a genus of 21 accepted spiny Caprifoliaceae herbs native to Europe, North Africa, and temperate Asia, known for wool-napping flower heads, the Chinese medicine Dipsaci radix from D. asper, and invasive weedy species.

Dipterocarpaceae

Dipterocarpaceae (dipterocarps), a pantropical family of 17 genera and roughly 500-700 resinous tree species centered in Southeast Asian lowland rain forests, with winged 2-5-winged nuts, mast fruiting, ectomycorrhizas, and 75% of species threatened.

Dipterocarpus

Dipterocarpus (keruing, gurjun) is a genus of about 65-70 large resinous Dipterocarpaceae trees native from SW India to western and central Malesia, the source of keruing construction timber and oleo-resin, with many threatened species.

Dipteryx

Dipteryx (cumaru, tonka bean trees; Dipteryx odorata, D. alata) is a Neotropical Fabaceae genus of 12 large canopy tree species, sources of tonka beans with coumarin, dense decking timber, and CITES Appendix II listing since 2022.

Dipteryx odorata

Dipteryx odorata, cumaru or tonka bean tree (Coumarouna odorata), a large Fabaceae tree of northern South America; seeds yield coumarin for perfume and food, timber traded as cumaru; IUCN Data Deficient, genus in CITES Appendix II.

Diseases of aroid foliage plants

Diseases of aroid foliage plants are the bacterial, fungal, and viral disorders of ornamental arum family (Araceae) crops, most seriously Xanthomonas bacterial blight of Anthurium.

Distichlis

Distichlis (saltgrass), genus of dioecious rhizomatous halophytic grasses in Poaceae, native to temperate and subtropical America and Australia; includes D. spicata, used for turf, forage, and salt marsh restoration.

Distichlis spicata

Distichlis spicata, saltgrass (also alkali, inland, or coastal saltgrass), is a rhizomatous halophytic grass native to temperate and subtropical America, tolerating salinity up to about 1 M NaCl and used for forage, turf, restoration, and salt-soil remediation.

Diuris

Diuris (donkey orchids, double tails) is a genus of about 102 accepted terrestrial orchid species in tribe Diurideae, native to southern and eastern Australia and the Lesser Sunda Islands, named for the two tail-like lateral sepals.

Diuris filifolia

Diuris filifolia (Cat's Face Orchid) is a rare tuberous orchid endemic to southwestern Western Australia, described by Lindley in 1840, with pale yellow brown-marked flowers, known from three disjunct swamp-edge populations and not seen for many years.

Dizi (笛子) (instrument)

Dizi (笛子), the Chinese transverse bamboo flute, also called di or hengdi; distinguished by the dimo membrane (mirliton) over an extra hole giving a bright buzzing tone; six finger holes, bangdi and qudi regional types, central to opera, sizhu, and modern Chinese orchestra.

Dodonaea

Dodonaea (hopbush, hopseed bush) is a genus of about 65–72 shrub and tree species in Sapindaceae, mostly Australian, with petal-less flowers and winged capsules; type species Dodonaea viscosa.

Dolichos

Dolichos L. is a conserved legume genus (Fabaceae, Phaseoleae, Phaseolinae) of about 55-60 Old World tropical species, mostly African; distinguished from Macrotyloma by short standard appendages, reticulate pollen and purple flowers; hyacinth bean (D. lablab) now Lablab purpureus.