4,295 articles
Carlina
Carlina (carline thistles) is a genus of about 30 spiny Asteraceae herbs in tribe Cardueae, subtribe Carlininae, named by Linnaeus in 1753, native from Macaronesia and North Africa to Siberia and Iran, with yellow discoid heads and papery radiating bracts.
Carlina acaulis
Carlina acaulis L., stemless carline thistle or silver thistle, a stemless Asteraceae perennial of European mountains; root essential oil (91.5–99% carlina oxide) studied as antimicrobial and botanical insecticide.
Carnauba wax
Carnauba wax (cera de carnaúba, Copernicia cerifera cera) is the hardest natural wax, from Brazilian carnauba palm leaves; melts 82–86 °C, ~62% esters, used in food glazing, cosmetics, polishes, and tablets.
Carnivorous plant
Carnivorous plants, also known as insectivorous plants, trap and digest insects and other small prey for nutrients, an adaptation to nutrient-poor habitats like bogs that has evolved independently at least 13 times.
Carob
Carob (Ceratonia siliqua), Mediterranean evergreen legume; sweet pods ground as caffeine-free cocoa substitute, seeds yield locust bean gum; major producers Spain, Italy, Portugal.
Carolina Reaper
Carolina Reaper, bred by Ed Currie of PuckerButt Pepper Company in South Carolina, was the Guinness-certified hottest chilli from 2013 (1,569,300 SHU average) until Pepper X dethroned it in October 2023 at 2,693,000 SHU.
Carpinus betulus
Carpinus betulus, the European hornbeam, a Betulaceae tree native from Europe to Iran; dense hard wood, coppiced for firewood, used as hedge and shade tree, tolerant of wet clay soils and shade.
Carrot
Carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus), a root vegetable domesticated in Central Asia around 900 CE, originally purple and yellow; orange carrots arose in 16th-17th century Europe from yellow carrots and now dominate, supplying 30% of US dietary vitamin A.
Carthamus
Carthamus (from Arabic Qurtum) is a genus of spiny Asteraceae herbs from Europe to Central Asia; its only cultivated species, safflower (Carthamus tinctorius, 2n=24), was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent over 4000 years ago from wild progenitor C. palaestinus for dyes, oil, and medicine.
Carya
Carya (hickories), genus of Juglandaceae trees native from Assam to China and Indo-China and E. Canada to Mexico; disjunct EA-ENA distribution, origin ~66.64 Ma, includes pecan C. illinoinensis.
Caryocar
Caryocar (pequi trees) is a genus of 16 Neotropical tree species in Caryocaraceae, Malpighiales, native to Tropical America; C. brasiliense yields pequi fruit and oil rich in oleic acid.
Caryocar brasiliense
Caryocar brasiliense (pequi, pequizeiro) is a Caryocaraceae tree native to Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay, emblematic of the Cerrado. Its oily, carotenoid-rich fruit supports extractive food, cosmetic, and medicinal uses, protected since 1987 and by Brazil's 2025 national pequi policy.
Caryocar costaricense
Caryocar costaricense (ajo, ajillo, manú) is an endangered Central American timber tree of Caryocaraceae, the family's only Central American species, native to Costa Rica and adjacent Panama, with garlic-scented yellow flowers and CITES Appendix II listing.
Caryophyllaceae
Caryophyllaceae, the pink family (Caryophyllales), is a family of about 100 genera and 2,200–3,000 species of herbs including Silene, Dianthus, and Gypsophila, mainly temperate northern hemisphere.
Caryophyllales
Caryophyllales, the carnation order including Centrospermae, is a eudicot order of 34 APG families (Caryophyllaceae, Cactaceae, Amaranthaceae, Droseraceae) marked by betalain pigments, P-type sieve-tube plastids, perispermous seeds, and carnivorous lineages.
Caryopteris × clandonensis
Caryopteris × clandonensis (bluebeard, blue mist shrub) is a hybrid shrub from Clandon, Surrey, bred by Arthur Simmonds around 1930 from C. incana and C. mongholica, grown for late-summer blue flowers that attract pollinators.
Cascabela thevetia
Cascabela thevetia, yellow oleander (syn. Thevetia peruviana), is a toxic Apocynaceae shrub native from Mexico to South America, containing digoxin-like cardiac glycosides such as thevetin A and B, and a frequent agent of self-poisoning in India and Sri Lanka.
Casearia
Casearia (Jacq., 1760) is a pantropical genus of about 200-250 Salicaceae trees and shrubs, half Neotropical, with pellucid-dotted leaves, apetalous axillary flowers, and arillate seeds; South American origin, late Eocene diversification.
Cassava
Cassava (Manihot esculenta, yuca, manioc, tapioca) is a drought-tolerant Euphorbiaceae root crop from the Americas feeding ~800 million people; cyanogenic roots need processing; major diseases CMD and CBSD; used for starch and bioethanol.
Cassia fistula
Cassia fistula, the golden shower tree or amaltas, is a Fabaceae tree native to India and Sri Lanka with yellow pendulous blooms and long black pods used as a laxative; Thailand's national flower.
Cassiope
Cassiope is a genus of about 18 species of dwarf evergreen shrubs in the heath family, known as mountain heathers and native to cool Northern Hemisphere regions.
Castanea
Castanea (chestnut), genus of Fagaceae trees and shrubs with up to 14 species across Asia, Europe, and North America; includes sweet chestnut (C. sativa) and blight-devastated American chestnut (C. dentata).
Castanea mollissima
Castanea mollissima (板栗), Chinese chestnut, a Fagaceae tree native to China and Korea grown for edible nuts; blight-resistant donor species used in American chestnut restoration breeding, cultivated in China for at least 2,000 years.
Castanea pumila
Castanea pumila, chinquapin or Allegheny chinquapin, is a rhizomatous North American shrub or small tree in Fagaceae with one sweet nut per spiny bur, moderately resistant to chestnut blight.
Castanea sativa
Castanea sativa, sweet or European chestnut, is the only European Castanea species, a large deciduous nut and timber tree native from the Balkans to northern Iran, threatened by chestnut blight and ink disease.
Castanopsis
Castanopsis (chinquapin, chinkapin) is a genus of about 110-145 species of evergreen Fagaceae trees native to tropical and subtropical Asia, sister to Castanea, with spiny cupules enclosing edible nuts and valuable timber.
Casterlorum
Casterlorum, type species Casterlorum crispum, a form genus of Ordovician fossil land plants from Douglas Dam, Tennessee, interpreted as the geologically oldest known hornwort, about 460 Ma.
Casuarina
Casuarina is a genus of about 17 species of flowering trees and shrubs, native from tropical Asia to the western Pacific, known as she-oak or Australian pine.
Casuarina equisetifolia
Casuarina equisetifolia (she-oak, Australian pine, horsetail tree), a nitrogen-fixing Casuarinaceae tree native from India to the western Pacific; fast-growing coastal windbreak and fuelwood species, invasive and prohibited in Florida.
Casuarinaceae
Casuarinaceae R.Br. (she-oaks, beefwoods) is a Fagales family of four genera, Allocasuarina, Casuarina, Ceuthostoma, Gymnostoma, and about 90-97 species, native to Australia, Malesia, and the western Pacific, with jointed photosynthetic twigs, scale leaves, woody cones, and Frankia nitrogen-fixing root nodules.