4,295 articles
Apricot
Apricot (Prunus armeniaca), a Rosaceae stone fruit from Central Asia with two domestication events; Turkey leads fresh production (1.27 Mt, 2024) and Türkiye dominates dried apricots; kernels contain toxic amygdalin.
Apricot kernel
Apricot kernel (Prunus armeniaca seed, amygdalin, laetrile, vitamin B17): seed inside the apricot pit; contains amygdalin that releases cyanide; no evidence it treats cancer; sale restricted in AU/NZ and EU.
Aquatic and wetland ferns
Aquatic and wetland ferns include free-floating genera such as Salvinia and Azolla and the rooted water-clover Marsilea; some, like giant salvinia, double their biomass in days and become serious invasive weeds.
Aquatic fern
Aquatic ferns are ferns of the order Salviniales that float on or root in fresh water, the only heterosporous ferns, with roughly 70 species in two families.
Aquifoliaceae
Aquifoliaceae (holly family, Ilicaceae synonym) is a monogeneric flowering plant family in Aquifoliales, campanulids: Ilex, ca. 500-600 dioecious tree and shrub species, drupes with pyrenes, source of yerba mate and ornamental hollies.
Aquifoliales
Aquifoliales (Senft, 1856) is an accepted order of campanulid flowering plants with five families, Aquifoliaceae, Cardiopteridaceae, Helwingiaceae, Phyllonomaceae, and Stemonuraceae; synonyms Ilicales, Cardiopteridales, Helwingiales; best known for hollies, Ilex.
Aquilaria malaccensis
Aquilaria malaccensis (agarwood, karas) is a Critically Endangered Thymelaeaceae tree from Bangladesh to Malesia, the preferred agarwood source for Middle Eastern and Indian perfumery, CITES Appendix II listed since 1995, with wild populations down over 80%.
Aquilegia
Aquilegia (columbine) is a Ranunculaceae genus of about 130 perennial species native from the temperate Northern Hemisphere to Guatemala, known for petal nectar spurs that evolved 5-7 million years ago and track pollinator tongue length.
Aquilegia canadensis
Aquilegia canadensis (red columbine, wild columbine), a Ranunculaceae perennial native from Central and Eastern Canada to NE Mexico; nodding red spurred flowers, highly self-compatible, mean 75% selfing, strong inbreeding depression (δ≈0.88).
Aquilegia vulgaris
Aquilegia vulgaris (common columbine, granny's bonnets) is a European perennial Ranunculaceae herb with nodding blue-violet flowers and short hooked nectar spurs, bumblebee-pollinated, type species of Aquilegia, toxic (cyanogenic glucosides), widely cultivated and naturalized.
Arabidopsis
Arabidopsis is a genus of nine Brassicaceae species, led by Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress), the first plant genome sequenced (2000, about 125 Mb, five chromosomes) and the standard model organism of plant biology.
Arabidopsis thaliana
Arabidopsis thaliana, or thale cress, is a small flowering plant in the mustard family and a central model organism in plant biology, with the first fully sequenced plant genome.
Arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides from wheat bran
Arabinoxylan-oligosaccharides (AXOS) from wheat bran, also sold as wheat bran extract, are short prebiotic oligosaccharides (average DP 3-8) made by enzymatic depolymerization of wheat bran arabinoxylan; they raise fecal bifidobacteria and hold FDA GRAS status (GRN 343).
Arabis
Arabis (rockcress) is a genus of Brassicaceae, tribe Arabideae, type species Arabis alpina, with roughly 70-100 accepted Northern Hemisphere temperate-alpine species and a paraphyletic, repeatedly revised circumscription.
Araceae
Araceae, the arum family (spathe and spadix plants, including duckweeds Lemnoideae), is a monocot family in Alismatales with about 144 genera and 3,650–4,000 species, early Cretaceous fossils, thermogenic inflorescences, and staple crops taro and tannia.
Araceae taxonomy and systematics
The taxonomy of Araceae, the arum family, classifies about 150 genera and over 4,600 species into eight subfamilies, with duckweeds nested inside and generic limits actively redrawn.
Arachis
Arachis (peanut genus) is a South American legume genus in Fabaceae, tribe Dalbergieae, with about 69-84 species in nine sections; its type species Arachis hypogaea is the allotetraploid cultivated peanut derived from A. duranensis and A. ipaensis.
Arachis pintoi
Arachis pintoi (pinto peanut, forage peanut, maní forrajero), a stoloniferous perennial Fabaceae legume from central Brazil, used as tropical forage, cover crop, and living mulch; fixes 88–244 kg N/ha/yr; cultivar Amarillo; high invasion risk in Florida.
Aralia racemosa
Aralia racemosa, American spikenard (grande salsepareille), a thornless 60-180 cm herbaceous perennial of Araliaceae native to eastern North America, with aromatic roots once used in root beer and folk medicine.
Araliaceae
Araliaceae (ginseng or ivy family), Juss. 1789, order Apiales: 46 accepted genera, about 2,000 species of tropical and subtropical trees, shrubs, lianas, and herbs, including Panax, Hedera, Schefflera, and Polyscias.
Araucaria
Araucaria, monkey puzzle tree genus (Araucaria Juss.), a genus of 19 southern-hemisphere conifer species in Araucariaceae, from Jurassic fossils to the Endangered Araucaria araucana of Chile and Argentina.
Araucaria angustifolia
Araucaria angustifolia, Paraná pine or araucária, a critically endangered dioecious conifer of southern Brazil and Misiones, Argentina; source of edible pinhão seeds, once Brazil's dominant timber tree, with over 97% of its 200,000 km² forest lost.
Araucaria araucana
Araucaria araucana, the monkey puzzle tree or pewen, is an endangered Chilean-Argentine conifer of Araucariaceae, sacred to the Mapuche-Pewenche, a Chilean Natural Monument and CITES Appendix I species.
Araucaria bidwillii
Araucaria bidwillii, the bunya pine or bunya-bunya, is a large evergreen conifer native to subtropical eastern Australia, producing some of the largest and heaviest cones of any living conifer.
Araucaria cunninghamii
Araucaria cunninghamii (hoop pine, colonial pine, Moreton Bay pine) is a 50–70 m Araucariaceae conifer native to New Guinea and eastern Australia, section Eutacta, IUCN Least Concern, with four genetic groups and major plantation timber use.
Araucaria heterophylla
Araucaria heterophylla, the Norfolk Island pine (syn. Araucaria excelsa), is a Vulnerable Araucariaceae conifer endemic to Norfolk Island, grown worldwide as a coastal tree and houseplant, with 10-15 lb cones.
Araucariaceae
Araucariaceae, the southern conifer family with genera Araucaria, Agathis, and Wollemia, about 41 species, Triassic origin, sister to Podocarpaceae, now centered in New Caledonia, New Guinea, Australia, and South America.
Araucariaceae by region: floras and conservation status
A regional survey of Araucariaceae, the Southern Hemisphere conifer family of monkey puzzles, kauris, and the Wollemi pine, listing species counts and conservation status by region.
Árbol del Tule
Árbol del Tule (El Árbol del Tule, ahuehuete, sabino) is a giant Montezuma cypress in Santa María del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico, the world's greatest-circumference tree: 36.2 m girth, 14.05 m diameter, over 2,000 years old by many estimates.
Arbutus
Arbutus (madrones, strawberry trees) is a genus of 12 accepted evergreen Ericaceae species with red exfoliating bark, urn-shaped flowers, and berry fruit, native from Macaronesia and the Mediterranean to western Canada and Central America.