Seed plants

Succulent plant

Succulent plants, or succulents, are plants that store water in leaves, stems, or roots to survive drought; the trait occurs across many plant families, mostly with water-efficient CAM photosynthesis.

Sugarcane

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is a tropical grass, domesticated in New Guinea, supplying about 80 percent of the world's sugar and a major feedstock for bioethanol.

Sumac

Sumac: ground spice from Rhus coriaria (Arabic summāq, dark red), a purple sour Mediterranean seasoning; also the Rhus genus (~150 species), distinct from poisonous Toxicodendron vernix (poison sumac), which causes urushiol dermatitis.

Sunflower oil

Sunflower oil, also called sunflower seed oil, is the vegetable oil pressed from sunflower seeds, making up about 9 percent of global vegetable oil production.

Sweet pea

Sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) is a scented annual climbing legume native to Sicily and southern Italy, introduced to Britain around 1691–1699, grown for fragrant cut flowers; Grandiflora and Spencer cultivar types; toxic seeds.

Swertia

Swertia L. is a genus of about 170 gentian-family herbs native from subarctic Northern Hemisphere to Old World tropical mountains, with xanthone- and iridoid-rich species such as S. chirayita used in Asian traditional medicine.

Swietenia

Swietenia (mahogany genus, Meliaceae) is a New World genus of three species, S. mahagoni, S. macrophylla, and S. humilis, plus hybrid S. x aubrevilleana, native from Mexico to Bolivia and Florida to the Caribbean, source of true mahogany timber, CITES-listed.

Swietenia macrophylla

Swietenia macrophylla, known as big-leaf or Honduran mahogany (caoba), is a large tropical tree of the mahogany family native from Mexico to Bolivia, prized for its valuable timber.

Syagrus

Syagrus (palm genus, Mart. 1824; queen palm Syagrus romanzoffiana) is a Neotropical Arecaceae genus of about 71 species, mostly Brazilian, sister to the coconut, with 14 natural hybrids and bitter palm-heart species.

Symphonia

Symphonia L.f. (Clusiaceae, Malpighiales) is a genus of tropical trees with 16 accepted species native to Mexico to Tropical America, tropical Africa, and Madagascar; best known for Symphonia globulifera, a pantropical timber and gum tree with pore-like stigmas and bird pollination.

Symphoricarpos

Symphoricarpos (snowberry), Caprifoliaceae genus of about 15 deciduous shrub species native to North America and central-southern China, grown for white to purplish drupes; type S. orbiculatus, published by Duhamel 1755.

Symphoricarpos albus

Symphoricarpos albus (L.) S.F.Blake, the common snowberry, is a suckering deciduous shrub in the honeysuckle family, native across North America to Baja California, with pink flowers and waxy white berries lasting into winter.

Symphytum

Symphytum (comfrey), Boraginaceae genus of about 34-40 perennial herbs native to Europe and W. Asia; knitbone topical remedy for sprains and bruises, but contains hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids limiting use.

Symplocaceae

Symplocaceae (sweetleaf family), Ericales, two genera Cordyloblaste and Symplocos, c. 300–320 woody species disjunct between eastern Asia and the Americas; Eurasian origin c. 52 Ma, revised 2008 classification.

Symplocarpus foetidus

Symplocarpus foetidus, eastern skunk cabbage, is a perennial Araceae wetland plant of eastern North America that thermoregulates its spadix near 20 °C by cyanide-resistant respiration, blooming through snow in early spring.

Symplocos

Symplocos (sweetleaf) is a genus of about 300-411 accepted species of trees and shrubs in Symplocaceae, Ericales, native from Asia to the Pacific and the Americas, absent from Africa; leaves dry yellow from aluminium accumulation, fruits often blue.

Syngonium podophyllum

Syngonium podophyllum (arrowhead vine, American evergreen) is a climbing Araceae liana native from Mexico to tropical America, grown as a houseplant, toxic from calcium oxalate crystals, and a Category I invasive in Florida.

Synsepalum dulcificum

Synsepalum dulcificum, the miracle fruit or miracle berry (神秘果), a West African Sapotaceae shrub whose glycoprotein miraculin binds hT1R2-hT1R3 and makes sour foods taste sweet for 1-2 hours; EU-authorized novel food at 0.7 g/day.

Syringa vulgaris

Syringa vulgaris, the common lilac (Oleaceae), is a deciduous shrub native to the Balkan mountains, with fragrant spring panicles, over 1,600 cultivars, and a breeding history from Lemoine's 1870s French hybrids onward.

Syzygium

Syzygium (Myrtaceae), the world's most species-rich tree genus with over 1100 species, Old World tropics, origin in Australia-New Guinea; includes clove (S. aromaticum) and jambolan (S. cumini).

Syzygium cumini

Syzygium cumini (jambolan, Java plum, jamun) is a Myrtaceae evergreen tree native from tropical Asia to north Queensland, grown for dark purple astringent fruit, used in traditional medicine, and invasive in south Florida.

Tabebuia

Tabebuia Gomes ex DC. is a genus of 74 accepted Bignoniaceae trees native from Mexico to tropical America; once broadly circumscribed, it was split in 2007 into Tabebuia, Handroanthus, and Roseodendron.

Tabernaemontana

Tabernaemontana Plum. ex L. is a pantropical genus of about 100–126 alkaloid-rich shrubs and trees in Apocynaceae, first published in 1753; not to be confused with Amsonia tabernaemontana or Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani.

Tabernaemontana divaricata

Tabernaemontana divaricata, crepe jasmine or pinwheel flower, an Apocynaceae shrub native from the Himalayas to Indo-China, cultivated for fragrant pinwheel flowers, containing 66 reported alkaloids, IUCN least concern.

Tabernanthe iboga

Tabernanthe iboga (iboga) is a Central African Apocynaceae shrub, Bwiti sacrament in Gabon, source of ibogaine (~0.3% of root bark), IUCN Least Concern but threatened by overharvesting; Gabon banned wild export in 2019.

Tacca

Tacca (bat flowers, bat lily) is a genus of about 13-19 species of stemless tropical herbs in Dioscoreaceae, order Dioscoreales, formerly Taccaceae, with whisker-like bracteole inflorescences, mostly self-pollinating, including Polynesian arrowroot.

Tagetes

Tagetes, the marigold genus of Asteraceae, about 50 aromatic herb species native to subtropical America; French and African marigolds are Mexican in origin and roots contain nematicidal thiophenes.

Tagetes erecta

Tagetes erecta (cempasúchil, African marigold) is a Mexican annual Asteraceae, the Day of the Dead flower and the world's main lutein source, with dried flowers containing 0.1–0.2% carotenoids, 80% lutein diesters.

Tagliatelle

Tagliatelle: fresh Italian egg-pasta ribbons cut from the sfoglia, 5–10 mm wide, canonical in Bologna at 8 mm cooked per the 1972 Chamber of Commerce deposit; classic dish is tagliatelle al ragù alla bolognese.