3,306 articles
Maris Otter
Maris Otter is a two-row winter malting barley bred by G. D. H. Bell at the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge (Proctor x Pioneer cross, 1965/1966), prized for low-nitrogen, malty cask-ale malt and still grown under contract in England.
Marjoram
Marjoram (Origanum majorana, sweet marjoram) is a Lamiaceae culinary herb from Cyprus and southern Turkey, milder and sweeter than oregano, with terpinen-4-ol/sabinene hydrate essential oil studied as a natural pesticide.
Marrubium
Marrubium (horehounds) is a Lamiaceae herb genus, type species M. vulgare, white horehound; 40-53 species native from Macaronesia and Europe to Central Asia and the Himalaya; source of the diterpene marrubiin.
Marrubium vulgare
Marrubium vulgare, white horehound (Marrubii herba), a Lamiaceae perennial herb native from Europe to the Himalaya, used traditionally as an expectorant, for dyspepsia, and for appetite loss; EMA traditional-use monograph, major diterpene marrubiin, invasive weed in Australia.
Masa
Masa: dough from nixtamalized maize (lime-cooked corn), basis of tortillas, tamales, pupusas, arepas. Also masa harina, dehydrated masa flour (Maseca, Minsa). Alkaline cooking frees niacin and raises calcium 10–20x.
Masdevallia
Masdevallia (Ruiz & Pav., 1794) is a genus of about 656 accepted pleurothallid orchids native from Mexico to southern tropical America, known as kite orchids for triangular fused-sepal flowers, grown cool and humid in cultivation.
Masdevallia veitchiana
Masdevallia veitchiana (Veitch's masdevallia, pate de gallo) is a Peruvian orchid species published by Reichenbach in 1868, with orange flowers up to 20 cm covered in fine purple hairs; cool-growing, humidity-loving, and vulnerable in Cusco.
Mastic (μαστίχα) (plant resin)
Mastic (μαστίχα, mastiha) is the aromatic resin of Pistacia lentiscus, produced almost exclusively in southern Chios, Greece; a PDO product since 1997, harvested by traditional incision, UNESCO-listed in 2014, and used in food, gum, and herbal medicine.
Matricaria
Matricaria (chamomile genus) is a small Asteraceae genus of six annual fragrant herbs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere; its species M. chamomilla yields the herbal medicine matricariae flos.
Matricaria chamomilla
Matricaria chamomilla (German chamomile, syn. Matricaria recutita) is an annual Asteraceae herb whose flower heads yield chamomile tea and essential oil rich in α-bisabolol and chamazulene; clinical trials suggest modest sleep-quality benefits and generally mild, self-limiting adverse events.
Matthiola
Matthiola (stocks, gillyflower) is a genus of about 50-60 fragrant Brassicaceae herbs and subshrubs named for Pietro Andrea Matthioli; type species Matthiola incana, the common stock, native to southern Europe.
Matucana
Matucana is a genus of about 25 accepted globular Peruvian cacti in Cactaceae, tribe Trichocereeae, published by Britton & Rose in 1922, with diurnal red to yellow flowers and CITES Appendix II protection.
Maxillaria
Maxillaria (Ruiz & Pav., 1794), tiger orchid, a large neotropical orchid genus in Maxillariinae with 665 accepted Kew species; shown polyphyletic by DNA data and broadly recircumscribed in 2015.
Medicago
Medicago, commonly called medics, is a genus of about 91 species of legume plants including alfalfa, the world's most widely cultivated forage crop, and the model species barrel medic.
Medicago lupulina
Medicago lupulina, black medick or black medic, is a selfing annual or short-lived perennial legume native from Europe to China, used as forage and cover crop, nodulating with Ensifer meliloti and E. medicae, and a common lawn weed in North America.
Medicago truncatula
Medicago truncatula (barrel medic), a Mediterranean annual legume and model organism for legume biology, with diploid genome 2n=16, Sinorhizobium nitrogen-fixing nodulation, and reference genomes A17 Mt3.5-Mt5.0 and R108.
Medicinal plants
Medicinal plants: plant species containing therapeutic substances or precursors of drugs, also called herbal medicine or phytomedicine. Over 50% of modern medicines come from natural sources; use, safety, and regulation vary worldwide.
Medinilla
Medinilla (Medinilla Gaudich. ex DC.) is a paleotropical genus of about 370-390 shrubby Melastomataceae species, recently redefined to include Pachycentria and Plethiandra, with showy ornamentals like M. magnifica.
Mediterranean conifer and mixed forests
The Mediterranean conifer and mixed forests ecoregion is relict fir and pine woodland on the moist mid- to high-altitude slopes of North Africa's principal mountain ranges.
Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe
Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe (WWF PA1213, ID 797) is a North African ecoregion of arid Atlas plateaus, alfa grasslands, and Aleppo pine, spanning Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, threatened by desertification.
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub: a biome of sclerophyll forest, maquis, and scrub in mediterranean-type climates (mild wet winters, hot dry summers), notably the 81-million-hectare Mediterranean Basin, fire-adapted, biodiverse, and threatened by drought and wildfires.
Megaskepasma erythrochlamys
Megaskepasma erythrochlamys, Brazilian red-cloak or red justicia, is the sole species of its Acanthaceae genus, a tropical evergreen shrub with red bracts and white tubular flowers, native to northern South America and Central America and widely cultivated.
Megathyrsus
Megathyrsus, also called Panicum subgenus Megathyrsus, is a small C4 grass genus (Poaceae) established in 2003 by Simon and Jacobs, with four African species; its type species M. maximus (Guinea grass, syn. Panicum maximum) is a major tropical forage grass.
Megathyrsus maximus
Megathyrsus maximus, guinea grass (formerly Panicum maximum), is a tufted perennial Poaceae forage grass native to tropical and southern Africa, widely grown in tropical pastures and invasive in semi-arid subtropics.
Melaleuca
Melaleuca, the paperbarks, is a Myrtaceae genus of about 260 to 382 species native from Indo-China to Australia and New Caledonia. Its species yield tea tree and niaouli oils, while M. quinquenervia has invaded over 200,000 hectares of Florida Everglades wetlands.
Melaleuca alternifolia
Melaleuca alternifolia, the Australian tea tree, a Myrtaceae shrub native to Queensland and northeast NSW; source of tea tree oil (terpinen-4-ol type, ISO 4730), used topically for acne and infections, toxic if swallowed.
Melampyrum
Melampyrum (cowwheat, 며느리밥풀속) is a genus of hemiparasitic annual herbs in Orobanchaceae, type species M. pratense, with about 35-37 accepted species across temperate Eurasia and North America.
Melastoma malabathricum
Melastoma malabathricum (senduduk, Singapore rhododendron, Malabar melastome) is a Melastomataceae shrub native from Seychelles and Asia to Australia, a folk-medicinal aluminum-accumulating weed with purple berries that stain the mouth black.
Melastomataceae
Melastomataceae Juss., the melastome family, a pantropical Myrtales family of about 150–190 genera and 4,500–5,800 species, recognized by acrodromous leaf venation, hypanthiate flowers, and buzz-pollinated poricidal anthers.
Melia
Melia (chinaberry genus) is a genus of three Meliaceae tree species, M. azedarach, M. dubia, and M. volkensii, native to Africa, Asia, and Australia, known for toxic limonoid-rich fruits, insecticidal compounds, and invasive M. azedarach.