edgepedia

Seed plants

3,306 articles

Poppy

Poppy: flowering plant of the family Papaveraceae (41 genera, ~700 species), especially Papaver somniferum, the opium poppy, source of opium, morphine, codeine, and edible poppy seed; also the red common poppy and ornamental genera like Eschscholzia and Meconopsis.

Poppy seed

Poppy seed, the edible seed of Papaver somniferum (opium poppy, hul gil), used in bakery foods and oil; seeds are alkaloid-free inside but contaminated with morphine and codeine latex residue, monitored by FDA and EFSA.

Populus

Populus (poplars, aspens, cottonwoods) is a genus of about 61 accepted species of fast-growing dioecious trees in Salicaceae, native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere; major sources of pulp, plywood, and phytoremediation, and the model tree genus for genomics.

Populus alba

Populus alba (white poplar, abele, silver-leaf poplar) is a Salicaceae tree native from Central and Southern Europe to Xinjiang and the West Himalaya, with white-woolly leaf undersides, riparian habitat, timber and medicinal uses, and model status in drought stress research.

Populus balsamifera

Populus balsamifera, balsam poplar or tacamahac, is the northernmost American hardwood, a fast-growing Salicaceae floodplain tree from Newfoundland to Alaska, used for pulp and construction and hybridizing with P. trichocarpa.

Populus deltoides

Populus deltoides, eastern cottonwood (also plains cottonwood, necklace poplar), a fast-growing Salicaceae tree of North American floodplains; dioecious, millions of wind- and water-dispersed seeds, three subspecies, IUCN Least Concern.

Populus euphratica

Populus euphratica (胡杨), Euphrates or desert poplar, Salicaceae tree from North Africa to Mongolia; relict salt- and drought-tolerant riparian species, IUCN Least Concern, key to arid-land restoration.

Populus nigra

Populus nigra, the black poplar (Lombardy poplar is its cv. Italica), is a dioecious European riparian tree, a floodplain keystone species, threatened by habitat loss and hybrid introgression; Britain's native subsp. betulifolia has about 7,000 trees.

Populus tomentosa

Populus tomentosa (毛白杨), commonly the Chinese white poplar, is a deciduous tree of the willow family native to China and widely planted in the north for timber and pulp.

Populus tremula

Populus tremula, European or common aspen (Salicaceae), a temperate Eurasian and North African dioecious tree whose flattened leaf petioles make its leaves tremble; wind-dispersed fluffy seeds, wood for pulp and construction, IUCN Least Concern.

Populus tremuloides

Populus tremuloides, quaking or trembling aspen, is North America's most widespread tree, a clonal Salicaceae species regenerating by root suckers, with flattened petioles causing leaf quaking and aspen stands acting as natural firebreaks.

Populus trichocarpa

Populus trichocarpa, black cottonwood or western balsam poplar, is the largest western North American hardwood and the first tree genome sequenced (2006, ~500 Mb, 19 chromosomes), a riparian model tree and biofuel crop.

Portulaca

Portulaca (purslane) is the sole genus of Portulacaceae, about 100-153 succulent species worldwide. Includes Portulaca oleracea, the first known C4-CAM plant, with OL and AL clades and base chromosome x=9.

Portulaca grandiflora

Portulaca grandiflora, moss rose or onze horas, is a South American succulent Portulacaceae ornamental with C4 plus inducible CAM photosynthesis, sunlight-closing flowers, and worldwide garden naturalization.

Portulaca oleracea

Portulaca oleracea, purslane or verdolaga (马齿苋), a cosmopolitan succulent weed and leafy vegetable; the first known C4 plant with drought-induced facultative CAM, rich in omega-3 ALA, IUCN least concern.

Portulacaceae

Portulacaceae, the purslane family (Caryophyllales), now holds only Portulaca, ca. 100 succulent C4 species, some also performing CAM; formerly a broad paraphyletic family of about 20 genera split into eight families.

Portulacaria afra

Portulacaria afra (spekboom, elephant bush) is a succulent shrub of southern Africa in Didiereaceae, used for bonsai, food, folk medicine, and large-scale thicket restoration and carbon sequestration.

Potamogeton

Potamogeton, the pondweeds, is a genus of aquatic flowering herbs named by Linnaeus in 1753, with 80 to 90 species in fresh and brackish waters worldwide.

Potamogeton natans

Potamogeton natans, broad-leaved or floating-leaf pondweed, is a perennial floating-leaved aquatic plant of Potamogetonaceae, native to the temperate and subtropical Northern Hemisphere, least concern (IUCN LC, G5), found in quiet waters up to about 1.5 m deep.

Potamogetonaceae

Potamogetonaceae, the pondweed family (formerly including Zannichelliaceae), is an Alismatales family of aquatic herbs in fresh and brackish waters worldwide, with 4-7 genera and about 90-95 species, type genus Potamogeton.

Potato

Potato (Solanum tuberosum, papa): Andean nightshade tuber domesticated near Lake Titicaca 10,000–7,000 years ago, the world's fourth most important food crop, spread to Europe in the 1570s and a staple by 1800.

Potentilla

Potentilla (cinquefoil), Rosaceae genus published by Linnaeus in 1753; 520 accepted species, subarctic to tropical-mountain range, five-petaled yellow flowers, achenes, medicinal phytochemistry, disputed generic limits.

Potentilla erecta

Potentilla erecta (tormentil, erect cinquefoil) is a perennial Rosaceae herb of Europe to W. Siberia whose tannin-rich rhizome (Tormentillae rhizoma) is an EU traditional herbal medicine for mild diarrhoea and mouth inflammation.

Pothos

Pothos is both a real Araceae genus (Pothos L., 1753, type P. scandens, 66 species) and the common name for the houseplant Epipremnum aureum, or devil's ivy, reclassified out of Pothos after its flowers were studied.

Potpourri

Potpourri (pot-pourri), from French for "rotten pot", is a fragrant mix of dried flower petals, herbs, spices, fixatives and essential oils used to scent rooms; also any medley or miscellany.

Pouteria

Pouteria Aubl. is a genus of about 171 accepted Sapotaceae trees and shrubs, type P. guianensis, native to the tropics and subtropics and centered in the Neotropics, with edible fruits such as abiu and canistel.

Premna

Premna L. (also Premna integrifolia, agnimantha) is a genus of about 130 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas in Lamiaceae, subfamily Premnoideae, native to the Old World tropics and used in traditional medicine.

Primula

Primula (primroses), a genus of about 400-500 perennial herbs in Primulaceae, is the model taxon for heterostyly: pin and thrum flowers, a diallelic S locus, self-incompatibility, and repeated evolution of selfing homostyles.

Primula auricula

Primula auricula, commonly called auricula, bear's ear, or mountain cowslip, is a perennial primrose native to the Alps and other mountains of central and southern Europe, and a prized garden plant since the sixteenth century.

Primula elatior

Primula elatior (L.) Hill, the oxlip or true oxlip, is a distylous perennial woodland herb of Europe to Siberia, confined in Britain to East Anglian boulder-clay woods, hybridizing with P. vulgaris (P. × digenea) and P. veris (P. × media).