3,306 articles
Monotropa uniflora
Monotropa uniflora, ghost pipe or Indian pipe (shui jing lan), is a white chlorophyll-free Ericaceae herb parasitizing Russulaceae mycorrhizal fungi linked to trees, native from Canada to Mexico and East Asia, with a ~46 kb reduced plastome.
Monstera
Monstera is a genus of evergreen climbing plants in the arum family, native from Mexico to tropical America, known for large perforated leaves behind the name Swiss cheese plant.
Monstera deliciosa
Monstera deliciosa (Swiss-cheese plant, ceriman, tarovine) is a hemiepiphytic Araceae vine native to southern Mexico to Guatemala, grown for fenestrated leaves and edible ripe fruit; toxic unripe parts, high invasion risk in Florida.
Moraceae
Moraceae, the mulberry family, is a tropical Rosales family of trees, shrubs, and figs with milky latex and stipular scars, sister to Urticaceae, about 47 accepted genera and over 1,000 species.
Morinda
Morinda L. (noni genus, Indian mulberry, Morinda citrifolia) is a pantropical genus of Rubiaceae in tribe Morindeae with head inflorescences and syncarpous fruits; 39 accepted species, lectotype M. royoc, root bark used as morindin dye.
Morinda citrifolia
Morinda citrifolia (noni, Indian mulberry), a Rubiaceae shrub native to tropical Asia and northern Australia, used in Pacific traditional medicine; its juice is an EU-authorized novel food, with no approved drugs and limited human evidence.
Moringa (genus)
Moringa (murungai) is the sole genus of Moringaceae, 13 species of dry-tropical trees in Brassicales; M. oleifera, the drumstick tree, is grown for food, fodder, ben oil, and seed-based water coagulation.
Moringa oleifera
Moringa oleifera, the drumstick, horseradish, or ben oil tree, is a fast-growing Himalayan-native tree cultivated across the tropics for nutritious leaves, water-purifying seeds, ben oil, and traditional medicine; clinical evidence remains preliminary.
Moringaceae
Moringaceae, the horseradish tree family, is a conserved Brassicales family with one genus, Moringa Adans., of about 13 dry-tropical species native to Africa, Arabia, and India; Moringa oleifera is the widely cultivated drumstick tree.
Morning glory
Morning glory: common name for Convolvulaceae plants, especially Ipomoea vines with funnel-shaped flowers that wilt within hours. Includes sweet potato, hard-seeded dormancy, Mesoamerican ritual use, and many invasive weed species.
Morphology and reproduction of Cycas
Cycas is a genus of about 120 dioecious, palm-like cycads, unique among living cycad genera in bearing loose, leaf-like female megasporophylls rather than compact cones, alongside coralloid nitrogen-fixing roots.
Morus alba
Morus alba, white mulberry (桑), a Moraceae tree native to central China, cultivated for millennia as the obligate feed of Bombyx mori silkworms; medicinal phytochemistry, forage value, and invasive hybridization with Morus rubra.
Morus nigra
Morus nigra, black mulberry (shah-toot), a deciduous Moraceae fruit tree native to western and southwestern Iran, cultivated since antiquity; decosaploid with 308 chromosomes and fruit 1–2.5 cm.
Mountain pine beetle
Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae), a western North American bark beetle that kills pines via pheromone-coordinated mass attacks and blue-stain fungi; its 2000-2015 outbreak was the largest recorded.
Mountain pine beetle epidemic in British Columbia
The mountain pine beetle epidemic in British Columbia was a bark beetle outbreak from the late 1990s to 2015 that killed most of the province's mature lodgepole pine.
Mucuna
Mucuna is a pantropical genus of about 112 accepted liana species in Fabaceae, tribe Phaseoleae, first published in 1763. Known for irritant pod hairs, explosive mammal pollination, floating seeds, and the velvet bean Mucuna pruriens.
Mucuna pruriens
Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean, cowitch, kapikacchu), a tropical Fabaceae climbing legume with irritant pod hairs, whose seeds contain 4–6% levodopa and have been trialed as a Parkinson's disease treatment and nitrogen-fixing cover crop.
Muesli
Muesli (Müesli), a raw oat-based breakfast dish with nuts and fruit created around 1900 by Swiss doctor Bircher-Benner; unbaked, unlike granola, with lower calories and sugar per serving.
Mugwort
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), also felon herb or wild wormwood, an aromatic perennial Asteraceae herb of temperate Eurasia and North Africa, naturalized and invasive in North America, used in traditional medicine, moxibustion, and cooking, and a major cause of pollen allergy.
Muhlenbergia
Muhlenbergia (muhly grasses), sole genus of subtribe Muhlenbergiinae in Poaceae; about 174–183 species, C4 grasses centered in Mexico, originating 9.3 mya in the Sierra Madre, including ornamental pink muhly M. capillaris.
Muntingia calabura
Muntingia calabura (Jamaican cherry, capulín, kerukup siam) is the sole species of Muntingiaceae genus Muntingia, a 2–12 m Neotropical pioneer tree from Mexico to Bolivia with edible red berries, widely naturalized and studied for flavonoid-rich pharmacological activity.
Murraya
Murraya J.Koenig, also Chalcas, is a Rutaceae genus of 8 accepted species (about 12 in some treatments) native to tropical and subtropical Asia and the SW Pacific, including the curry leaf tree Murraya koenigii and orange jasmine Murraya paniculata.
Murraya paniculata
Murraya paniculata, orange jessamine or orange jasmine (synonym Murraya exotica), a Rutaceae shrub native to tropical Asia to Vanuatu, grown as a fragrant hedge and regulated as a Huanglongbing/psyllid host.
Musa
Musa is a genus of treelike herbaceous plants in the banana family, native to tropical Asia and the western Pacific, that includes the wild ancestors of cultivated bananas.
Musa acuminata
Musa acuminata, the wild banana of tropical and subtropical Asia, is the A-genome ancestor of nearly all cultivated bananas except Fe'i types; its 523 Mb genome was sequenced in 2012, and domestication began about 7,000 years ago in Southeast Asia.
Musa balbisiana
Musa balbisiana (Balbis banana, starchy banana) is a wild seeded diploid banana (BB genome, 2n=22) native to tropical and subtropical Asia, one of two progenitors of cultivated bananas, donor of the B genome to plantain and cooking cultivars, and a source of drought and disease resistance.
Musaceae
Musaceae, the banana family (Zingiberales), comprises the genera Musa, Ensete, and Musella: giant herbs with pseudostems, unisexual flowers, and banana fruits; monophyletic, with Musa and Ensete-Musella clades and Palaeocene origin.
Musanga
Musanga is an African genus of Urticaceae with two species; the type, Musanga cecropioides (African corkwood, umbrella tree; synonym Musanga smithii), is a fast-growing stilt-rooted pioneer tree of wet tropical Africa used for light timber, pulp, and traditional medicine.
Muscari
Muscari (grape hyacinths) is a genus of about 85 species of bulbous Asparagaceae native from Europe and the Mediterranean to Central Asia, named for the musk scent of many species, with five subgenera after 2023 phylogenetic reclassification.
Mustard plant
Mustard plant: Brassica juncea, B. nigra, B. rapa, and Sinapis alba, annual Brassicaceae herbs grown for pungent seeds, oil, and greens; pungency from myrosinase acting on glucosinolates to release allyl isothiocyanate.