4,295 articles
Bassia
Bassia (Bassia All., 1766; formerly Kochia) is a genus of about 20 C4 herbs in Amaranthaceae native to the Northern Hemisphere and southern Africa; its best-known species, B. scoparia (burningbush, summer cypress), is an ornamental and invasive weed.
Bassia scoparia
Bassia scoparia (kochia, summer cypress, burning bush; syn. Kochia scoparia) is a C4 annual Amaranthaceae native to Eurasia, an ornamental and forage plant that is a major tumbleweed weed of the North American Great Plains with resistance to five herbicide sites of action.
Bauhinia
Bauhinia (Plum) is a genus of pantropical trees and shrubs belonging to the Fabaceae family. Taxonomic debate exists over its circumscription, with counts ranging from 150 to 380 species.
Bauhinia × blakeana
Bauhinia × blakeana (洋紫荊), Hong Kong orchid tree, a sterile artificial hybrid of B. purpurea × B. variegata discovered near Pokfulam in the 1880s; flower is Hong Kong's emblem since 1965.
Bay leaf
Bay leaf, from the Mediterranean bay laurel (Laurus nobilis), is used whole to flavor soups, stews, and braises, then removed before serving because it stays rigid.
Bazzania
Bazzania, also called whipworts, is the largest genus of leafy liverworts in Lepidoziaceae, with about 258 species worldwide; known for Bazzania-type oil bodies, vitta leaf cells, and chemically rich species such as Bazzania trilobata.
Bean
Bean: seed of Fabaceae plants used as food; originally the broad bean (Vicia faba), later extended to Phaseolus and Vigna. Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) was domesticated twice, in Mesoamerica and the Andes, and supplies both dry and snap beans.
Beech
Beech (Fagus), genus of ~15 Northern Hemisphere deciduous trees in Fagaceae; smooth grey bark, three-angled nuts in spiny cupules, masting every 5–8 years, hard 710 kg/m3 timber, threatened by bark and leaf disease and warming.
Beetroot
Beetroot (Beta vulgaris Garden Beet Group) is the swollen red root vegetable of beet, domesticated from sea beet, historically grown for leaves, now eaten boiled, pickled, or in borscht and studied for dietary nitrate and betalains.
Begonia
Begonia is a mega-diverse genus of Begoniaceae with roughly 1,400–2,167 species of succulent herbs across tropical Africa, America, Asia, and Oceania, known for asymmetric leaves, monoecious flowers, three-winged capsules, and thousands of ornamental hybrids.
Begoniaceae
Begoniaceae (begonia family), C.Agardh 1824, a Cucurbitales family with two genera, Begonia (1,400-2,200+ species, pantropical) and monotypic Hawaiian Hillebrandia; asymmetric leaves, inferior ovary, three-winged capsules, sister to Datiscaceae.
Belgian endive
Belgian endive (witloof, chicon), Cichorium intybus var. foliosum, is a forced chicory head grown in darkness from cold-stored taproots; originated in Belgium around 1850, EU output about 350,000 tons yearly.
Bell pepper
Bell pepper (Capsicum annuum sweet group), also called sweet pepper or capsicum: a blocky, thick-walled, non-pungent pepper whose green, yellow, orange, red, or brown fruit color comes from chlorophyll, carotenoid, and anthocyanin pigments during ripening.
Bellis
Bellis (daisies) is an accepted Asteraceae genus published by Linnaeus in 1753, native from Macaronesia, North Africa, and Europe to Central Asia and Iran, with 15 accepted species including the common daisy Bellis perennis.
Bellis perennis
Bellis perennis (English daisy, lawn daisy, common daisy), Linnaeus 1753, a perennial Asteraceae herb native from Madeira and Europe to Central Asia, a rosette lawn weed with white-rayed, yellow-centered flower heads, 2n=18, and medicinal and food uses.
Bellium minutum
Bellium minutum (little-Mary, Zwergmaßliebchen) is a small annual daisy in Asteraceae, tribe Astereae, native to Sicily, the East Aegean Islands, NW Türkiye, and Cyprus, first published in 1771 and grown as an ornamental mat-forming groundcover.
Belvisia
Belvisia is a small genus of tropical Polypodiaceae ferns with a narrow, tail-like fertile spike at the frond apex, ranging from tropical Africa to Polynesia and Australia.
Benmore Botanic Garden
Benmore Botanic Garden, near Dunoon in Argyll, is a 120-acre mountainside garden of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, RBGE's first Regional Garden (1929), known for its 1863 Redwood Avenue, 300 rhododendron species, Victorian Fernery, and Golden Gates.
Bennettitales
Bennettitales, or cycadeoids, are extinct Mesozoic seed plants with cycad-like foliage and flower-like cones, ranging from the Triassic to an Oligocene relict, and central to angiosperm-origin debates.
Berberidaceae
Berberidaceae, the barberry family (Berberis, Mahonia), is a Ranunculales family of 13–19 genera and about 769 species of shrubs and herbs with yellow wood, berberine alkaloids, and temperate to tropical-mountain distribution.
Berberis
Berberis (barberry, zeresh) is a genus of about 600 spiny Berberidaceae shrubs native to temperate and tropical mountains, source of the alkaloid berberine; Japanese barberry B. thunbergii is invasive in North America.
Berberis vulgaris
Berberis vulgaris, common or European barberry, is a spiny Berberidaceae shrub native to Europe to W. and N. Iran, source of berberine, studied for lipid and glycemic effects, and alternate host of wheat stem rust.
Bergamot essential oil
Bergamot essential oil (Citrus bergamia aetheroleum), cold-pressed from bergamot peel, mainly Reggio Calabria; limonene, linalool, linalyl acetate; bergapten phototoxicity, IFRA 0.4% limit; Earl Grey tea and perfumery flavoring.
Bergamot orange
Bergamot orange (Citrus bergamia), a sour citrus hybrid grown almost only in Reggio Calabria, Italy; cold-pressed peel oil rich in linalool and linalyl acetate flavours Earl Grey tea and perfumes; bergapten causes phototoxicity.
Bergenia
Bergenia (elephant's ears, pigsqueak) is a Saxifragaceae genus of evergreen rhizomatous perennials native to temperate Asia, with 10 accepted species per Kew, red winter foliage, spring pink flowers, and rhizomes used in Ayurveda as Pashanabheda.
Berry
Berry: small edible fruits such as strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, and currant, defined in trade by the OECD/UNECE FFV-57 standard; covers domestication histories, breeding programs, cultivar trials, and grading rules.
Berry (botany)
Berry (botany): a simple fleshy fruit from a single flower's ovary with an entirely fleshy pericarp, e.g. grape, tomato, banana; includes hesperidium and pepo; excludes strawberries, raspberries, and drupes.
Bersama
Bersama Fresen. (1837), a genus of African evergreen trees and shrubs in Francoaceae (formerly Melianthaceae), type species B. abyssinica; 7 accepted species per Kew, widely used in traditional medicine.
Beta vulgaris
Beta vulgaris (beet) is a biennial Amaranthaceae species whose varieties include beetroot, Swiss chard, spinach beet, sugar beet, and fodder beet, all descended from wild sea beet subsp. maritima; sugar beet supplies about 35% of world sugar.
Betel
Betel (Piper betle, paan leaf): climbing Piperaceae vine of Indo-China to Malesia whose leaves wrap the betel quid with areca nut and lime; quid and areca nut are IARC Group 1 carcinogens, the leaf itself is not.