4,295 articles
Arbutus unedo
Arbutus unedo, the strawberry tree (madroño, medronheiro), is a Mediterranean Ericaceae evergreen shrub or small tree with white urn-shaped autumn flowers and warty red fruits that ripen a year after flowering; used for medronho brandy, honey, and jams.
Arceuthobium
Arceuthobium (dwarf mistletoes), genus of hemi-parasitic flowering plants on conifers; 39 accepted species, conserved against Razoumofskya; explosive seed dispersal up to 16 m; major North American forest pathogen.
Archaeopteris
Archaeopteris, an extinct Devonian progymnosperm tree (wood genus Callixylon), is the earliest known modern tree, about 385–360 million years old, reaching up to 40 m, dominating Late Devonian forests worldwide before seed plants radiated.
Archegonium
Archegonium: the flask-shaped multicellular female sex organ of bryophytes, ferns, lycophytes, and gymnosperms, producing one egg; canal cells disintegrate at maturity so sperm can fertilize it.
Arctium
Arctium (burdock) is a genus of about 10-11 biennial Asteraceae herbs native to temperate Eurasia, known for hooked burs that inspired Velcro, the edible and medicinal root of A. lappa, and introduced weedy status in North America.
Arctium lappa
Arctium lappa (greater burdock, gobō, niu bang 牛蒡) is a biennial Asteraceae herb native to temperate Eurasia, grown for its edible root in East Asia and studied medicinally for lignans arctiin and arctigenin.
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, bearberry or kinnikinnick, an Ericaceae subshrub whose arbutin-rich leaves are used traditionally for mild urinary tract infection symptoms in women; EU monograph limits use to one week.
Ardisia
Ardisia (marlberry) is a genus of about 740 accepted species in Primulaceae, pantropical trees and shrubs with gland-dotted leaves and one-seeded drupes, widely used in traditional medicine and including invasive species such as A. crenata.
Areca
Areca (betel nut palms) is a genus of about 45 accepted species of single-stemmed Asian palms in Arecaceae, native from South China and India to the Solomon Islands; Areca catechu yields the areca nut chewed by over 400 million people, and the houseplant "areca palm" is actually Dypsis lutescens.
Areca catechu
Areca catechu (betel nut palm, binomial Areca catechu L., 1753) is a Philippine-native Arecaceae palm whose areca nut, chewed by over 600 million people with betel leaf and lime, is an IARC Group 1 human carcinogen.
Areca nut
Areca nut (betel nut), seed of the palm Areca catechu, chewed by over 10% of the world's population; IARC Group 1 carcinogen causing oral cancer and oral submucous fibrosis; its main alkaloid arecoline is Group 2B.
Arecaceae
Arecaceae (Palmae) is a family of monocot plants in the order Arecales. It is globally significant as one of the most important families for wild extracted resources.
Arecales
Arecales is an order of monocot flowering plants, named by Bromhead in 1840, containing the palms (Arecaceae) and Dasypogonaceae; it sits in the commelinid clade alongside Poales, Zingiberales, and Commelinales.
Arenaria (plant)
Arenaria (Caryophyllaceae), sandworts, a genus of small mat-forming herbs with 5-merous white or pink flowers and toothed capsules; about 180 species in temperate and alpine Northern Hemisphere habitats, taxonomy reshaped by molecular phylogenetics.
Arenga
Arenga is a genus of about 25 Arecaceae palm species in tribe Caryoteae, native from tropical Asia to northern Australia. Its type species, the sugar palm Arenga pinnata, yields palm sugar, starch, and black ijuk fiber.
Arenga pinnata
Arenga pinnata (sugar palm, aren, enau) is a solitary Arecaceae palm of Southeast Asia tapped for sap made into sugar, toddy, and bioethanol, and used for trunk starch, kolang-kaling seeds, and durable ijuk fiber; it flowers once and dies.
Arepa
Arepa: round flat maize-dough bread, staple of Colombia and Venezuela, pre-Columbian in origin; name from Cumanagoto erepa, first documented 1548. Venezuelans stuff it as a main dish; Colombians eat thinner arepas as accompaniment.
Argan oil
Argan oil, a plant oil from kernels of the endemic argan tree (Argania spinosa) of southwest Morocco; UNESCO-listed traditional extraction, oleic/linoleic-rich composition, γ-tocopherol, schottenol and spinasterol sterols, and the world's most expensive vegetable oil.
Argemone
Argemone, prickly poppy (Mexican poppy, Argemone mexicana), a Papaveraceae genus of 33 spiny yellow-sapped herbs native to the Americas and Hawaii; A. mexicana seed oil causes epidemic dropsy.
Argemone mexicana
Argemone mexicana (Mexican prickly poppy, cardo santo), a prickly annual Papaveraceae herb native to Central America, pantropical weed and medicinal plant whose sanguinarine-rich seed oil causes epidemic dropsy when it adulterates mustard oil.
Argentina anserina
Argentina anserina (silverweed, silverweed cinquefoil; formerly Potentilla anserina) is an allotetraploid stoloniferous Rosaceae perennial of temperate wetlands across the Northern Hemisphere, invasive in Patagonia, IUCN least concern.
Argyreia nervosa
Argyreia nervosa, Hawaiian baby woodrose or elephant creeper, is a Convolvulaceae liana native to the Indian subcontinent to Myanmar whose seeds contain 0.5–0.9% ergoline alkaloids including LSA, giving LSD-like but sedating effects.
Aria torminalis
Aria torminalis, the wild service tree (syn. Sorbus torminalis, Torminalis glaberrima), is a suckering Rosaceae tree of Europe to Iran and NW Africa, with chequer fruits, prized timber, and IUCN Least Concern status.
Ariocarpus retusus
Ariocarpus retusus (star rock, living rock, false peyote) is the type species of the living rock cacti, a spineless grey cactus from northeastern Mexico, 10–25 cm across, white autumn flowers, IUCN Least Concern but CITES Appendix I.
Ariocarpus scaphirostris
Ariocarpus scaphirostris (also spelled scaphirostrus), the Nuevo León living-rock cactus, is an endangered CITES Appendix I cactus endemic to Nuevo León, Mexico, with boat-shaped tubercles and a population down over 80% in 20 years.
Arisaema
Arisaema (天南星属), jack-in-the-pulpits or cobra lilies, is a genus of about 200 aroid herbs (Araceae) native from Africa and Arabia through Asia to North America, with hooded spathes, sex-changing plants, 15 sections, and medicinal rhizomes.
Arisaema triphyllum
Arisaema triphyllum, jack-in-the-pulpit (also Indian turnip, wake robin), a North American Araceae herb with hooded spathe, size-dependent sex change, fungus-gnat pollination, and calcium oxalate toxicity.
Aristida
Aristida (three-awn, threeawns, speargrass) is a genus of about 300 tufted Poaceae grasses with three-awned lemmas, in Aristidoideae, mostly C4, of tropical and subtropical arid grasslands worldwide.
Aristolochia
Aristolochia (birthwort, Dutchman's pipe) is a cosmopolitan genus of about 350–569 species in Aristolochiaceae with trap flowers pollinated by flies, containing carcinogenic aristolochic acids.
Aristolochiaceae
Aristolochiaceae, the birthwort family (Aristolochiaceae Juss., 1789), is a Piperales family of climbers and herbs including Aristolochia and Asarum, known for trap-pollinated flowers and nephrotoxic, carcinogenic aristolochic acids.