3,306 articles
Leersia
Leersia, commonly called cutgrass, is a genus of 18 accepted species of annual and perennial wetland grasses in the rice tribe Oryzeae, found worldwide and closely related to rice.
Legume
Legume: seeds and fruits of Fabaceae plants (beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils, soybean); dry-seed types are pulses. Fix nitrogen via rhizobia nodules, boost following-crop yields ~20%, cover ~180 Mha globally.
Leguminous flora
Leguminous flora, the Fabaceae or Leguminosae (豆科), the third largest flowering plant family with about 22,520 species in 796 genera, defined by pod fruits and root-nodule nitrogen fixation with Rhizobium bacteria.
Lemna
Lemna (duckweed) is a cosmopolitan genus of about 13 species of tiny free-floating aquatic plants in Araceae, reduced to fronds with one root each, used in wastewater phytoremediation, animal feed, and plant research.
Lemna gibba
Lemna gibba (gibbous duckweed, swollen duckweed), Araceae, a free-floating duckweed with swollen fronds 1-8 mm, native from Europe to Central Asia, Africa, and America; used in OECD 221 toxicity tests, wastewater phytoremediation, and aquaculture feed.
Lemna minor
Lemna minor (common duckweed, lesser duckweed) is a tiny free-floating Araceae aquatic plant of temperate waters worldwide, used for phytoremediation, animal feed, medicine, and OECD toxicity testing; IUCN Least Concern.
Lemna protein
Lemna protein, or Lemna leaf protein (LLP), is protein from the duckweed Lemna minor; Plantible Foods' GRN 1256 received an FDA no-questions letter in 2026, with EU novel food authorization and egg-white-like functional properties.
Lemnoideae
Lemnoideae (duckweeds, formerly Lemnaceae): five genera, 36–37 species of tiny free-floating aquatic flowering plants in Araceae; fastest-growing angiosperms, Wolffia doubling in under 24 hours, protein-rich and used as food and wastewater treatment.
Lemon balm
Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis, sweet balm, toronjil) is a lemon-scented Lamiaceae perennial herb native from the Mediterranean to Central Asia, grown as a culinary and medicinal herb; rich in rosmarinic acid and citronellal, studied for anxiety and sleep.
Lentibulariaceae
Lentibulariaceae, the bladderwort family (Lentibulariaceae Rich., 1808), is the largest carnivorous plant family in Lamiales, with three genera: Pinguicula (flypaper traps), Genlisea (eel traps), and Utricularia (suction bladders).
Lentil
Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.), an annual self-pollinating pulse legume domesticated about 8,500 years ago in the Near East; grown in 53 countries for protein-rich seeds, led by Canada and India.
Leontopodium
Leontopodium (edelweiss) is an Asteraceae genus of roughly 30–57 perennial species, mostly Asian with two European alpines, L. alpinum and L. nivale, studied for phylogeny, lignans like leoligin, and alpine conservation.
Leontopodium nivale
Leontopodium nivale, the edelweiss (also Leontopodium alpinum), is a European mountain daisy with white felted bracts, split into widespread subsp. alpinum and the Apennines–Pirin endemic subsp. nivale.
Leonurus
Leonurus (motherwort), Lamiaceae genus of about 25 temperate Eurasian herb species; source of alkaloids leonurine and stachydrine, used as uterotonic in East Asia and sedative in Europe.
Leopoldinia piassaba
Leopoldinia piassaba (piassaba palm, chiquichiqui) is an Amazonian Rio Negro palm described by Wallace in 1853 whose leaf-sheath fiber, harvested on a 4–5 year cycle, supplies brooms, ropes, and composites.
Lepidium
Lepidium (peppergrasses, cresses) is a cosmopolitan genus of about 264 accepted species in Brassicaceae, tribe Lepidieae, first published by Linnaeus in 1753; it includes garden cress (L. sativum) and maca (L. meyenii).
Lepidium coronopus
Lepidium coronopus (L.) Al-Shehbaz, greater swinecress or swine cress, formerly Coronopus squamatus, is a prostrate annual or biennial mustard native from Macaronesia and Europe to Central Asia, with warty indehiscent fruits, introduced in North America, Australia, and New Zealand.
Lepidium meyenii
Lepidium meyenii (maca) is a Brassicaceae perennial of the high Andes, cultivated at 4,000–4,400 m for its hypocotyl; synonyms include Lepidium peruvianum; studied for sexual function with limited clinical evidence.
Lepidozamia
Lepidozamia, also called scaly zamia or pineapple cycad, is an Australian cycad genus of two species, L. hopei and L. peroffskyana, in Zamiaceae; sister to African Encephalartos, with large cones, toxic red seeds, and Eocene fossils at Anglesea, Victoria.
Leptospermum
Leptospermum (tea trees) is a Myrtaceae genus of shrubs and small trees native from Indo-China to New Zealand, most diverse in Australia; type species mānuka (L. scoparium), split into five genera by 2023 revision.
Lespedeza
Lespedeza (bush clover) is a Fabaceae genus of 48 accepted species native to Asia, Australia, and North America; some species are forage legumes, while sericea lespedeza (L. cuneata) is an invasive, tannin-rich noxious weed in the United States.
Lettuce
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa), an Asteraceae leafy annual vegetable; types include iceberg, butterhead, romaine, looseleaf, and celtuce. Domesticated in the Caucasus around 4,000 BC; cool-season crop prone to bolting and tipburn.
Leucaena
Leucaena (lead tree, ipil-ipil) is a Fabaceae genus of about 25 unarmed, bipinnate-leaved trees and shrubs native from the southern USA to Peru; L. leucocephala is a major tropical fodder tree containing toxic mimosine and listed among the world's worst invasive species.
Leucanthemum
Leucanthemum (oxeye daisies, marguerites) is a genus of 51 accepted Asteraceae species native from the Azores and Europe to the Russian Far East and Iran, including Leucanthemum vulgare, the oxeye daisy.
Leucanthemum vulgare
Leucanthemum vulgare, oxeye daisy (formerly Chrysanthemum leucanthemum), a rhizomatous Asteraceae perennial native from Europe to Siberia and Iran, introduced worldwide and a noxious pasture weed producing up to 26,000 seeds per plant.
Leucospermum
Leucospermum, the pincushions, is a genus of 48 Proteaceae shrubs from southern Africa, centered in the Cape Floristic Region; named by Robert Brown in 1810, with new sections Hamata and Secundifolia described in 2022.
Leucothoe
Leucothoe (doghobble) is a genus of five evergreen Ericaceae shrubs native to East Asia and the western and southeastern United States, reduced from about 45 species after phylogenetic splits into Agarista, Eubotrys, and Eubotryoides.
Leyland cypress
Leyland cypress (× Hesperotropsis leylandii, Leylandii) is a sterile hybrid conifer from Leighton Hall, Wales, grown as fast hedges, screens, and Christmas trees; prone to Seiridium canker and UK hedge disputes.
Leymus
Leymus (wild rye), a Triticeae grass genus separated from Elymus in 1848, with about 57 rhizomatous perennial species of temperate Northern Hemisphere steppes, dunes, and salt marshes; allopolyploid NsXm genomes, Ns from Psathyrostachys; includes forage grass Leymus chinensis.
Leymus chinensis
Leymus chinensis (羊草, yang cao, sheepgrass) is a perennial Triticeae grass dominating Eurasian steppe grasslands across northern China, Mongolia, and Siberia; a key forage with two ecotypes, used for fodder and grassland restoration.