4,295 articles
Pistia
Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce, jalkumbhi), sole species of genus Pistia in Araceae, is a free-floating pantropical aquatic herb that forms dense invasive mats and is widely used in wastewater phytoremediation.
Pitcairnioideae
Pitcairnioideae, a subfamily of Bromeliaceae (bromeliads), traditionally the terrestrial, spiny-leaved group with dry capsules and winged seeds; molecular work split it, leaving five genera including Pitcairnia, Dyckia, and Deuterocohnia.
Pitcher plant
Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants with pitfall-trap leaves that digest prey in fluid; unrelated lineages Nepenthes, Sarracenia, Darlingtonia, Heliamphora, and Cephalotus evolved them independently in nutrient-poor wetlands.
Pith
Pith is the central ground tissue, usually parenchyma, inside the vascular cylinder of stems and roots; it can form aerenchymatous cavities, responds to shade and submergence, and was named by Theophrastus.
Pithecellobium
Pithecellobium (blackbead) is a genus of spiny mimosoid legume trees and shrubs in Fabaceae, tribe Ingeae, native from Mexico to Brazil and Florida to the Caribbean, with about 21 accepted species including the Madras thorn, Pithecellobium dulce.
Pithecellobium dulce
Pithecellobium dulce, Manila tamarind, Madras thorn, guamúchil, kamachile: a spiny Fabaceae tree native from Mexico to Peru, grown for its sweet edible seed aril, fodder, and timber, and invasive in Hawaii, Florida, and India.
Pittosporum
Pittosporum (Banks ex Gaertn.) is the largest genus of Pittosporaceae (Apiales), about 150-200 species of trees and shrubs with sticky-resin-coated seeds, native from Africa and Asia to Australia and the Pacific, absent from the Americas; includes ornamentals and the invasive P. undulatum.
Plant
Plant (Plantae): photosynthetic eukaryotes, from land plants to broadly defined Archaeplastida; fungi and most algae excluded. Covers classification, evolution, 335,497 flowering species, uses, and extinction risk.
Plant breeding
Plant breeding: the science of changing plant genetics for better crops, spanning selection, hybridization, genomic selection, and genome editing, from the Green Revolution to the EU's 2026 NGT regulation.
Plant Development
Plant development: the gene-, hormone-, and timing-driven transformation of plants through maturity stages. Continuous meristem-based growth, phytohormone crosstalk (auxin, cytokinin, gibberellin), and environmental sensitivity distinguish it from animal development.
Plant hormone
Plant hormones (phytohormones) are low-concentration plant signaling molecules; ten groups including auxin, gibberellins, cytokinins, ABA, ethylene, salicylates, jasmonates, brassinosteroids, strigolactones, and peptide hormones regulate growth and stress via crosstalk.
Plant life
Plant life: plants in general, of all types; synonymous in scope with vegetation (plant cover of an area) and flora (species of a region). Over 300,000 catalogued species; produce 80% of breathable oxygen.
Plant nutrition
Plant nutrition: the study of the 14 essential elements plants need, six macronutrients (N, P, S, K, Ca, Mg) and micronutrients, their functions, deficiency symptoms, sensing, and fertilizer management.
Plant oils/gaiac wood oil
Guaiac wood oil (Plant oils/Gaiac Wood oil, CAS 8016-23-7, FEMA 2534) is a woody-rosy essential oil distilled from Bulnesia sarmientoi heartwood, rich in bulnesol and guaiol; used in perfumery and flavoring, not EU-approved as a pesticide.
Plant oils/marjoram oil
Marjoram oil (sweet marjoram oil, CAS 8015-01-8) is the essential oil steam-distilled from dried leaves of Origanum majorana L., rich in 4-terpinenol and terpinenes; EU-authorized as a feed flavoring additive (10 mg/kg) and FDA food flavoring, but not an approved EU pesticide.
Plant oils/ylang ylang oil
Ylang ylang oil (Cananga odorata, CAS 8006-81-3), a floral essential oil from tropical flowers, distilled in Extra–Third grades; used in perfumery, flavoring (FEMA 3119), EU feed additive, restricted in cosmetics.
Plant physiology
Plant physiology: the study of how plants function, covering photosynthesis, respiration, transpiration, xylem water transport, mineral nutrition, and stress responses; founded experimentally by Stephen Hales in 1727.
Plant Senescence
Plant senescence is the genetically programmed final stage of plant development, in which cells, organs, or whole organisms dismantle cellular structures and remobilize nutrients before dying.
Plant stem
Plant stem: the main structural axis of a vascular plant's shoot system, bearing nodes, internodes, and buds. Distinguished by vascular bundle arrangement: ringed in dicots, scattered in monocots, with secondary growth forming wood.
Plant taxonomy
Plant taxonomy: the science of identifying, naming, and classifying plants under the ICN, from Linnaeus's binomial system to molecular phylogenetics, integrative species delimitation, and Kew's WCVP database of 343,000+ species.
Plant world
The Plant World: American monthly journal of popular and general botany, 1897-1919, published by the Plant World Association, Baltimore; absorbed the Asa Gray Bulletin in 1901 and was succeeded by Ecology in 1920.
Plantaginaceae
Plantaginaceae, the plantain family (Lamiales), about 2,100 species in ~106 genera worldwide; expanded from polyphyletic Scrophulariaceae, 12 tribes, includes Plantago, Antirrhinum, Digitalis, Penstemon, Veronica.
Plantago
Plantago (plantains) is a cosmopolitan genus of about 246 accepted herb species in Plantaginaceae, with rosette leaves, spike inflorescences, and mucilaginous seeds; P. ovata yields psyllium husk, and P. lanceolata and P. major are global weeds and ecological models.
Plantago coronopus
Plantago coronopus, buck's-horn plantain, is a salt-tolerant Plantaginaceae herb native from Europe to Central Asia, with lobed rosette leaves eaten in salads, four subspecies, and introduced invasive populations in Korea, Australia, and the Americas.
Plantago lanceolata
Plantago lanceolata, ribwort plantain or narrowleaf plantain, a perennial Plantaginaceae herb native to temperate Eurasia and Macaronesia, naturalized worldwide; used as forage, food, and an EMA-listed traditional demulcent cough remedy.
Plantago major
Plantago major (broadleaf plantain, great plantain, white-man's-foot) is a Plantaginaceae herb native to temperate Eurasia and Africa, introduced worldwide, a lawn weed of compacted soil and an ancient wound-healing medicinal herb; distinct from psyllium (P. ovata).
Plantago ovata
Plantago ovata (psyllium, ispaghul, blond plantain) is a small Plantaginaceae herb native from the Mediterranean to India; its seed husk yields arabinoxylan gel fibre used as a bulk laxative, cholesterol-lowering supplement, and food thickener.
Platanaceae
Platanaceae, the plane-tree family (Platanus, sycamores), a monogeneric Proteales family of 10 deciduous tree species with peeling bark, globular flower heads, and 2n = 42, native mainly to temperate North America.
Platanthera
Platanthera (bog orchid, fringed orchid) is a large Northern Hemisphere genus of terrestrial orchids, about 155–200 species across Eurasia, North Africa, Macaronesia, and the Americas, moth-pollinated, hybridization-prone, with several threatened species.
Platanus
Platanus (plane trees, sycamores) is the sole genus of Platanaceae, order Proteales, with 10 accepted species native from SE Europe to Indochina and E Canada to Guatemala; includes the London plane hybrid and faces canker stain disease.