4,295 articles
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.
Syrah
Syrah, called Shiraz in Australia since the 1830s, is a black Vitis vinifera grape from the northern Rhône, parents Dureza and Mondeuse blanche; France and Australia hold the largest plantings, styles ranging from peppery Côte-Rôtie to ripe Barossa Shiraz.
Syringa
Syringa, the lilacs, a genus of about 20-30 Oleaceae shrubs and small trees native from southeastern Europe to East Asia; S. vulgaris, Victor Lemoine's French hybrids, and reblooming Bloomerang cultivars define it.
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.
Systematic placement and evolution of whisk ferns
Whisk ferns (Psilotaceae) are a small family of rootless, leafless vascular plants, once classed as relics of early land plants, that molecular studies place as ferns sister to Ophioglossaceae.
Systematics and fossil record of Dryopteridaceae
Dryopteridaceae, the shield-fern family, the largest fern family with over 2100 species; systematics revised in 2025 into seven subfamilies and 24 genera including Pseudarachniodes, with a sparse fossil record from Cretaceous amber and permineralized rhizomes.
Systematics of Pteridaceae
Systematics of Pteridaceae: classification of the maidenhair and brake fern family, over 1,000 species in five subfamilies, molecular phylogeny, cheilanthoid taxonomy, and recent PPG II reclassification.
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.
Syzygium samarangense
Syzygium samarangense, the wax apple or Java apple (makopa, jambu air), is a Myrtaceae fruit tree native from NE India to Vanuatu, grown across Southeast Asia; crisp bell-shaped fruits are 92.9% water, with 'Pink' covering 85% of Taiwan's planted area.
Tabasco pepper
Tabasco pepper, a Capsicum frutescens chili variety named for Mexico's Tabasco state, bears upright 1.5-inch fruits at 30,000–50,000 Scoville units and is the pepper behind Tabasco sauce, first made by Edmund McIlhenny on Avery Island, Louisiana, in 1868.
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.
Tabellaria
Tabellaria is a genus of freshwater diatoms, single-celled algae with silica cell walls, that forms zig-zag colonies and is widely used in paleolimnology to reconstruct past lake acidity.
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.
Tagetes patula
Tagetes patula, French marigold, is a dwarf aromatic Asteraceae annual, allotetraploid (2n=48) from T. erecta × T. tenuifolia; Kew synonymizes it with T. erecta while NCBI and GRIN keep it current.
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.
Takakia
Takakia is a genus of two relict mosses (Takakiopsida) diverged from other mosses about 390 mya, known from the Himalaya, Japan, Borneo, and western North America, with a 27,467-gene genome and populations declining under Tibetan Plateau warming.
Talinum
Talinum Adans. (fameflower) is a genus of about 28 accepted species of fleshy herbs in Talinaceae, Caryophyllales, native to the tropics and subtropics; includes waterleaf (T. fruticosum) and Javanese ginseng (T. paniculatum).
Tamale
Tamale (tamal, from Nahuatl tamalli): Mesoamerican dish of masa corn dough with filling, wrapped in corn husk or banana leaf and steamed; over 500 Mexican varieties, Delta hot tamales simmered, holiday tamalada tradition.
Tamaricaceae
Tamaricaceae, the tamarix family, is a Caryophyllales family of halophytic shrubs and small trees with scale-like leaves and capsular fruit. Four accepted genera, Myricaria, Myrtama, Reaumuria, and Tamarix; sister to Frankeniaceae; Tamarix has about 70 species.
Tamarillo
Tamarillo (Solanum betaceum, syn. Cyphomandra betacea), or tree tomato, an Andean Solanaceae fruit tree grown in New Zealand, Colombia, and Ecuador; egg-shaped tangy fruit, frost-sensitive, virus-prone, named in New Zealand in 1967.