3,306 articles
Nolina texana
Nolina texana (sacahuista, Texas sacahuista, Texas beargrass) is a perennial Asparagaceae rosette plant native from southern New Mexico through Texas to northern Mexico, with fibrous leaves to 5 feet, late-winter flowers, and seeds poisonous to livestock.
Nopal
Nopal (nopalli, Nahuatl) is the Mexican name for Opuntia prickly pear cacti, especially Opuntia ficus-indica, whose pads (nopalitos) are eaten as a low-calorie vegetable and forage; CAM photosynthesis, mucilage, and Mexico's leading production distinguish it.
Nothofagus alpina
Nothofagus alpina, raulí, is a deciduous southern beech of Chile and southwest Argentina, reaching 45 m and 650–800 years, prized for rose-coloured timber and widely planted in Chilean silviculture; IUCN Least Concern.
Nothofagus dombeyi
Nothofagus dombeyi, coihue or coigüe (Dombey's beech), an evergreen southern beech (Nothofagaceae) up to 40 m, dominant in Chilean-Argentine Patagonian forests from Colchagua to Aysén; IUCN Least Concern, hard timber tree.
Nothofagus pumilio
Nothofagus pumilio (lenga), a deciduous southern beech of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego; dominant Andean treeline species and main commercial timber of southern Chile and Argentina, managed by shelterwood.
Nothotsuga
Nothotsuga, bristlecone hemlock (长苞铁杉), is a monotypic Pinaceae genus whose sole species N. longibracteata is a relict tree of southern China, split from Tsuga about 90 mya and rated Near Threatened.
Nuphar
Nuphar (spatterdock, yellow pond-lily) is a genus of about 15 aquatic species in the water-lily family Nymphaeaceae, native to temperate and subtropical Northern Hemisphere fresh waters, basal in its family with Barclaya as closest relative.
Nut (food)
Nut (food): edible hard-shelled kernels including true botanical nuts, drupes, and seeds such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and peanuts. Eaten since prehistoric times; linked to lower cardiovascular and all-cause mortality; main hazard is aflatoxin.
Nut (fruit)
A nut is, in strict botany, a dry, one-seeded fruit with a hard pericarp that does not open at maturity, though in cooking the word covers almost any edible oily kernel in a shell.
Nutmeg
Nutmeg, the dried seed kernel of Myristica fragrans (mace is its red aril), a tropical spice native to the Banda Islands of Indonesia, once a Dutch VOC monopoly, traded for Manhattan in 1667, and toxic via myristicin in large doses.
Nyctaginaceae
Nyctaginaceae, the four o'clock family, is a Caryophyllales family of about 30-32 genera and 400 species, mostly New World tropics, with anthocarp fruits, Mirabilis jalapa, Bougainvillea, bird-catcher Pisonia trees, and two independent C4 origins.
Nyctanthes arbor-tristis
Nyctanthes arbor-tristis (Parijat, night jasmine, tree of sadness) is an Oleaceae shrub or small tree to 10 m, native Himalaya to Jawa, with fragrant night-opening white flowers, orange dye tubes, and Ayurvedic medicinal use.
Nymphaea
Nymphaea (water lilies) is a cosmopolitan genus of about 50 aquatic flowering plants in Nymphaeaceae, with floating cordate leaves, showy flowers, five subgenera, an Early Cretaceous family fossil record, and major ornamental and edible uses.
Nymphaea alba
Nymphaea alba, the European white water lily (weiße Seerose), is a rhizomatous aquatic herb native from Europe to the W. Himalaya and NW. Africa, with floating cordate leaves, white 70–140 mm flowers, and close affinity to N. candida.
Nymphaea lotus
Nymphaea lotus, the white Egyptian lotus or white water lily, is an African tuberous water lily (Nymphaeaceae) with white night-opening flowers, edible and medicinal uses, and IUCN Least Concern status.
Nymphaeaceae
Nymphaeaceae, commonly called the water-lily family, is a family of perennial aquatic flowering plants with floating leaves and showy flowers, comprising about 70 species in five genera including Nymphaea and Victoria.
Nymphoides
Nymphoides (floatinghearts, water snowflakes) is a cosmopolitan genus of about 50 floating-leaved aquatic herbs in Menyanthaceae that resemble water lilies but are unrelated, with white or yellow fringed flowers and invasive tendencies.
Nymphoides indica
Nymphoides indica, the water snowflake, is a floating aquatic plant with round green leaves and white fringed flowers, native to tropical Asia and the Pacific.
Nypa fruticans
Nypa fruticans (nipa palm, mangrove palm, golpata), the sole species of genus Nypa and the only monocot true mangrove, a stemless clumping palm of Indo-West Pacific brackish shores, Least Concern natively but invasive in the Niger Delta.
Oak
Oak (Quercus, Fagaceae): about 425 species of acorn-bearing trees and shrubs of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, wind-pollinated, prone to hybridization yet genetically distinct, vital to wildlife and timber.
Oat
Oat (Avena sativa), a hexaploid cereal grass of Poaceae, sixth in world cereal production; a secondary crop domesticated from weed in Near East wheat and barley fields, grown in cool moist climates and valued for cholesterol-lowering beta-glucan fiber.
Oat beta-glucan
Oat beta-glucan is the water-soluble, mixed-linkage fiber in oat cell walls that lowers LDL cholesterol and blood glucose, backing approved heart-health claims for intakes of about 3 g per day.
Oat diseases and pests
Oat diseases and pests are the biotic constraints on cultivated oat yield, dominated by crown rust and barley yellow dwarf virus, which can cut yields by up to 80%.
Oat milk
Oat milk, a plant-based beverage made from oats and water, was invented in the early 1990s by Rickard Öste at Lund University and commercialized by Oatly (founded 1994); enzyme hydrolysis, low protein, beta-glucan fiber, and barista coffee use distinguish it.
Oat protein
Oat protein (Avena sativa), also called oat protein isolate or concentrate, is a plant protein whose major storage fraction is 12S globulin; it is hypoallergenic, mildly flavored, and limited by low neutral-pH solubility.
Oatmeal
Oatmeal: ground, steel-cut, or rolled hulled oats (Avena sativa groats) and the porridge made from them. Types differ in processing, cooking time, and glycemic index; beta-glucan fiber supports its heart-health claims.
Ochnaceae
Ochnaceae DC. (including Medusagynaceae and Quiinaceae) is a conserved pantropical family of Malpighiales: about 500-550 species, 30-37 genera of evergreen trees and shrubs with stipules, yellow petals, and superior ovaries.
Ochroma
Ochroma (balsa tree, Ochroma pyramidale) is a monotypic Malvaceae genus native from S. Mexico to tropical America. Its wood, 60–380 kg/m³, is the lightest commercial timber, used in sandwich panels; Ecuador supplies 80–90% of trade.
Ocimum
Ocimum (basil genus), Lamiaceae mint family, pantropical aromatic herbs and shrubs named by Linnaeus in 1753; about 65 species mostly African, including sweet basil (O. basilicum) and holy basil (O. tenuiflorum), valued for terpenoid and phenylpropanoid essential oils.
Ocimum gratissimum
Ocimum gratissimum (clove basil, African basil, ram/Vana tulsi) is a Lamiaceae aromatic shrub of the Old World tropics, grown for eugenol- or thymol-rich essential oil with multiple chemotypes, used in food, medicine, ritual, and as an insect repellent.