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Podocarpaceae
Podocarpaceae, the podocarps, is the second largest conifer family and the dominant Southern Hemisphere conifer family, with 20 genera and about 201 species. Its fleshy, bird-dispersed seed cones bear an epimatium, and Parasitaxus is the only parasitic gymnosperm.
Podocarps in cultivation and use
The cultivation and use of podocarps centers on Podocarpus macrophyllus, a staple hedge and topiary conifer, and on yellowwood, rimu, and mataī timber in South Africa and New Zealand.
Podocarpus
Podocarpus, known as plum pine, is a genus of roughly 100 to 120 evergreen conifer species native to tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia, Australasia, and the Americas.
Podocarpus latifolius
Podocarpus latifolius, the real yellowwood or broad-leaved yellowwood, is South Africa's national tree, a slow-growing evergreen conifer of Podocarpaceae reaching 20-30 m in forests, with pale yellow timber once heavily logged and now protected.
Podocarpus parlatorei
Podocarpus parlatorei (pino de cerro, Parlatore's podocarp) is a dioecious conifer tree endemic to Yungas montane forests of Bolivia and NW Argentina, 1200–3000 m; CITES Appendix I since 1975, IUCN Vulnerable 2025, threatened by climate-driven niche squeeze.
Podocarpus totara
Podocarpus totara (tōtara) is a large New Zealand conifer growing up to 30 m tall, valued for its naturally durable timber and its central place in Māori culture.
Podophyllotoxin
Podophyllotoxin (Condylox, Wartec) is a plant lignan extracted from mayapple roots, applied topically for genital warts and chemically modified into the anticancer drugs etoposide, teniposide, and etopophos.
Podophyllum
Podophyllum (mayapples) is a Berberidaceae genus of 17 species from Afghanistan to China and eastern North America; P. hexandrum, the Himalayan mayapple, is the main podophyllotoxin source and is Endangered.
Pogonatum
Pogonatum, also called hair-cup or haircap mosses, is a genus of about 52 acrocarpous mosses in Polytrichaceae, named for the hairy calyptra; distinguished by 32 compound peristome teeth, no stomata, and a mammillose capsule wall.
Pogonatum urnigerum
Pogonatum urnigerum (Urn Haircap, Urn Hair Moss), a glaucous blue-green acrocarpous moss of the Polytrichaceae on acidic gravelly ground across the Holarctic, with urn-like autumn capsules and 30-50 leaf lamellae.
Pogostemon
Pogostemon, also called pogostemon or patchouli genus, is a Lamiaceae genus of about 80-95 herb and shrub species with disjunct African-Asian distribution; P. cablin yields patchouli essential oil, about 1,300 tonnes yearly.
Poikilohydry
Poikilohydry: the inability of plants such as bryophytes, lichens, and resurrection plants to regulate internal water content, contrasting with homoiohydry; distinct from desiccation tolerance, with which it is often but not always combined.
Poinsettia
Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima, cuetlaxochitl, flor de Nochebuena), a Mexican shrub grown for red winter bracts; introduced to the U.S. by Joel Poinsett in 1828; short-day flowering; low toxicity.
Poison ivy
Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans, formerly Rhus radicans) is a North American Anacardiaceae vine or shrub whose urushiol oil causes allergic contact dermatitis in 10–50 million Americans yearly; three leaflets, cross-reacts with poison oak and sumac.
Polemoniaceae
Polemoniaceae, the phlox family, is an Ericales family of about 27 genera and 400 species of herbs and shrubs with 5-merous fused-petal flowers, centered in western North America; ornamentals include Phlox, Cobaea, Gilia, and Polemonium.
Polemonium caeruleum
Polemonium caeruleum, Jacob's-ladder or Greek valerian, is a perennial Polemoniaceae herb native from Europe to Japan and the Himalaya, with blue flowers, insect pollination, and five accepted subspecies.
Polianthes tuberosa
Polianthes tuberosa, commonly known as the tuberose, is a night-fragrant flowering plant native to Mexico, grown worldwide as a cut flower and a source of expensive perfume oil.
Pollia
Pollia Thunb. (1781) is a genus of about 19-26 perennial herbs in Commelinaceae, pantropical mainly in Asia; known for the structurally colored metallic-blue marble berry Pollia condensata and distinct from the gastropod genus Pollia Gray, 1834.
Pollination
Pollination: transfer of pollen from anthers to stigmas by insects, other animals, wind, or water. Angiosperms are ancestrally insect pollinated; 87.5% of wild flowering plants and 35% of crop production depend on it.
Polyalthia
Polyalthia (Blume, 1830) is a genus of about 100 accepted species of trees and shrubs in Annonaceae, native from Madagascar to tropical Asia and NE Australia, polyphyletic historically, with medicinal clerodane diterpenoids and alkaloids.
Polygala
Polygala, known commonly as milkwort, is a large nearly cosmopolitan genus of flowering plants in the milkwort family, Polygalaceae, first published by Linnaeus in 1753.
Polygalaceae
Polygalaceae, the milkwort family, is a Fabales family of about 30 genera and 1,200 species with keel-like zygomorphic flowers; largest genus Polygala (about 750 species), New World clade now genus Senega.
Polygonaceae
Polygonaceae, the buckwheat or knotweed family, is a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants in the order Caryophyllales, with sheathing stipules called ocreae, and includes the food plants buckwheat, rhubarb, and sorrel.
Polygonatum
Polygonatum (Solomon's seal, Huangjing) is a genus of about 78 accepted perennial herbs in Asparagaceae, native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with three sections, Himalaya-Hengduan origin c. 20 Ma, and rhizomes used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Polygonum
Polygonum (knotweed), a Linnaean 1753 genus of Polygonaceae herbs with ocreae and trigonous achenes, cosmopolitan with most species north temperate; formerly included Persicaria, Fallopia, Reynoutria, and Fagopyrum.
Polygonum aviculare
Polygonum aviculare (prostrate knotweed, knotgrass, bian xu) is a prostrate annual knotweed of Polygonaceae, native to temperate Eurasia, a cosmopolitan weed with medicinal, diuretic use and herbicide-resistant populations.
Polyphlebium venosum
Polyphlebium venosum (R.Br.) Copel., veined bristle fern or veined filmy fern, a Hymenophyllaceae filmy fern of SE Australia and New Zealand; translucent fronds, trumpet-shaped indusia, epiphytic on Dicksonia antarctica; basionym Trichomanes venosum R.Br. 1810.
Polypodiaceae
Polypodiaceae, the polypody family, is the largest fern family, about 65 genera and 1,650 species (over 4,000 with former Dryopteridaceae genera), cosmopolitan, mostly tropical, with creeping rhizomes, no indusium, and many epiphytes.
Polypodiales
Polypodiales, the polypod ferns, is the largest order of leptosporangiate ferns in class Polypodiopsida, about 82% of fern species, with six PPG suborders and a cavitation-catapult annulus for spore release.
Polypodium
Polypodium (polypody ferns), family Polypodiaceae, published by Linnaeus in 1753; creeping-rhizome epiphytic ferns with exindusiate sori, native from temperate Northern Hemisphere to Tropical America and Africa, about 225 species broadly, 46 accepted.