4,295 articles
Cenchrus ciliaris
Cenchrus ciliaris (buffelgrass, African foxtail grass; syn. Pennisetum ciliare) is a perennial C4 tussock grass native from Africa to India, valued as drought-tolerant livestock forage yet a fire-promoting invasive weed in Australia, Mexico, and the Sonoran Desert.
Cenchrus purpureus
Cenchrus purpureus, Napier grass or elephant grass (syn. Pennisetum purpureum), is a perennial C4 grass native to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, grown as a tropical forage with dry-matter yields up to 78 t/ha/year, and an invasive risk in Florida and Hawaii.
Centaurea
Centaurea (knapweeds, cornflowers, starthistles) is a large Asteraceae genus of about 700-777 Old World species, centered in the Mediterranean and Western Asia, taxonomically difficult, medicinally studied, with invasive North American members.
Centaurea cyanus
Centaurea cyanus (cornflower, bachelor's button, Cyanus segetum) is an annual Asteraceae of the eastern Mediterranean, a former cereal weed now declining in Europe, self-incompatible with pseudo-self-compatibility, Least Concern in the EU but invasive in US prairies.
Centaurium erythraea
Centaurium erythraea, common centaury, is a Gentianaceae biennial herb native from the Azores and Morocco to SW Siberia and Iran, used in traditional medicine for dyspepsia and loss of appetite, with an EU traditional-use herbal monograph and bitter secoiridoid constituents.
Centella
Centella is a genus of about 20-55 perennial Apiaceae herbs native to the tropics and subtropics, mostly African; its type species Centella asiatica (gotu kola, cica) yields asiaticoside and asiatic acid used in supplements and cosmetics.
Centella asiatica
Centella asiatica (gotu kola, cica, Indian pennywort) is a creeping Apiaceae herb of the Old World tropics used in Ayurveda and Chinese medicine; its triterpenoids asiaticoside and madecassoside underpin wound-healing and skincare uses.
Central American pine–oak forests
Central American pine–oak forests (WWF NT0303), a tropical coniferous ecoregion of mid-elevation mountains in Chiapas, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua; about 111,000 km² of pine and oak forest, endemic birds and herpetofauna, Vulnerable status.
Centrosema
Centrosema (DC.) Benth., a Fabaceae genus (subtribe Clitoriinae) of climbing tropical American legumes, about 30–45 species, type C. brasilianum; used as tropical forage, pasture, cover crop, and green manure.
Cephalanthera
Cephalanthera (helleborines) is a genus of about 21 terrestrial orchid species in tribe Neottieae, native from North Africa and temperate Eurasia to Indo-China and western North America; many species are mixotrophic or mycoheterotrophic via ectomycorrhizal Thelephoraceae fungi.
Cephalocereus senilis
Cephalocereus senilis, the old man cactus or viejito, is an endangered Mexican columnar cactus from Hidalgo and Veracruz, covered in white hair-like spines, with a lateral cephalium and nocturnal flowers.
Cephalotaxus
Cephalotaxus (plum yews, 三尖杉属) is a genus of East Asian evergreen conifers, sole genus of Cephalotaxaceae, sister to Taxaceae; source of cephalotaxine alkaloids used in leukemia therapy, with several IUCN-threatened species.
Cephalotaxus fortunei
Cephalotaxus fortunei, Chinese plum yew (三尖杉), a dioecious conifer of Taxaceae from central-southern China and N Myanmar; source of antitumor Cephalotaxus alkaloids, IUCN Least Concern, introduced by Robert Fortune ca. 1849.
Cephalotaxus harringtonii
Cephalotaxus harringtonii (Japanese plum yew, Inugaya; often spelled C. harringtonia) is an East Asian evergreen conifer shrub, shade- and heat-tolerant, deer resistant, dioecious, with plum-like seeds and cephalotaxine alkaloids used in tumor therapy research.
Cephalotus
Cephalotus, the Australian or Albany pitcher plant (Cephalotus follicularis), is the sole species of Cephalotaceae, a carnivorous pitfall-trap plant endemic to southwest Western Australia, IUCN Vulnerable, with a 2017 genome revealing convergent co-option of digestive enzymes.
Cerastium
Cerastium (mouse-ear chickweed, chickweed) is a cosmopolitan genus of Caryophyllaceae herbs published by Linnaeus in 1753, type C. arvense, with about 100-218 species, white notched petals, and capsules opening by apical teeth.
Ceratonia
Ceratonia is a small Fabaceae genus of two evergreen species, carob (Ceratonia siliqua) and C. oreothauma, native from the Mediterranean to Arabia and Somalia, grown for pods and locust bean gum.
Ceratophyllum
Ceratophyllum (hornwort, coontail), sole genus of Ceratophyllaceae, rootless submerged freshwater angiosperms with whorled forked leaves; about six species, sister group to eudicots, Early Cretaceous divergence.
Ceratophyllum demersum
Ceratophyllum demersum, coontail or common hornwort, is a cosmopolitan rootless submerged aquatic plant of Ceratophyllaceae, sold as an aquarium oxygenator, used in phytoremediation, and invasive in New Zealand.
Ceratozamia
Ceratozamia is a genus of dioecious cycads (Zamiaceae) native from Mexico to Honduras, with horned sporophylls, about 36–43 species, montane karst habitats, and an Oligocene origin.
Ceratozamia hildae
Ceratozamia hildae, the bamboo cycad (cícada bambú, chamalillo), is an endangered Mexican cycad of the Sierra Gorda, Querétaro and San Luis Potosí, distinguished by bow-tie clusters of papery leaflets; CITES Appendix I, IUCN Endangered.
Ceratozamia mixeorum
Ceratozamia mixeorum (Chemnick, T.J.Greg. & Salas-Mor., 1997) is an endangered cycad endemic to the Sierra Mixe, Oaxaca, Mexico, growing in oak-Liquidambar cloud forest at 1450–1900 m; phylogenies place it with C. matudae.
Cerbera
Cerbera is a genus of six species of toxic evergreen trees and shrubs in Apocynaceae, native from Tanzania and the Indian Ocean to the Pacific; best known are the sea mango (Cerbera manghas) and the suicide tree (Cerbera odollam), whose cerberin-rich seeds cause digoxin-like cardiac poisoning.
Cerbera manghas
Cerbera manghas, the sea mango or pink-eyed cerbera (海杧果), is a poisonous Apocynaceae coastal tree from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific; its seeds contain the cardiac glycoside cerberin, lethal at half a seed.
Cerbera odollam
Cerbera odollam, the suicide tree or pong-pong (Apocynaceae), is a coastal Asian-Pacific tree whose cerberin-rich seeds cause digoxin-like cardiac poisoning, driving many suicides and homicides, especially in Kerala, India.
Cercidiphyllum
Cercidiphyllum, the katsura tree genus (katsura, 桂), is the sole genus of Cercidiphyllaceae with two East Asian species, C. japonicum and C. magnificum, dioecious Tertiary relict trees with heart-shaped leaves and a rich Cretaceous fossil record.
Cercis
Cercis, the redbud genus (Judas tree, Cercis siliquastrum), is a group of about 10 diploid small trees in Fabaceae native to warm-temperate North America and Eurasia, notable as a polyploidy-free genomic relic of the ancestral legume.
Cercis canadensis
Cercis canadensis, eastern redbud (American Judas tree), a small Fabaceae tree native from SE Canada to northern Mexico, with magenta-pink spring flowers on bare stems; IUCN least concern, NatureServe G5, USDA zones 4B-9A, Oklahoma state tree.
Cereal
Cereal: Poaceae grasses grown for edible starchy grain (wheat, maize, rice, barley, oats, rye, sorghum, millets), distinct from pseudocereals like buckwheat and quinoa; supply ~45% of global calories.
Cereal germ
Cereal germ is the vitamin-rich embryo of a grain kernel, separated during milling. Wheat germ holds 25% protein, 8-13% lipids, and vitamin E, but oxidizes rapidly without stabilization.