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Combretum
Combretum (bushwillows) is a genus of about 290 accepted Combretaceae species, trees, shrubs, and woody climbers native to the tropics and subtropics with African diversity center; formerly separate genera such as Quisqualis are now included, and many species are used in African traditional medicine.
Commelina
Commelina (dayflowers), largest genus of Commelinaceae with roughly 170–230 species, pantropical herbs with blue, unequal petals and spathaceous bracts; includes weedy C. benghalensis and dye plant C. communis.
Commelinaceae
Commelinaceae, the dayflower or spiderwort family, is a family of monocot flowering plants, about 650 species in 41 genera, including dayflowers (Commelina) and spiderworts (Tradescantia).
Commelinales
Commelinales: monocot order of five families (Commelinaceae, Haemodoraceae, Hanguanaceae, Philydraceae, Pontederiaceae), about 1,000 pantropical species, sister to Zingiberales within commelinids.
Commiphora
Commiphora is a genus of about 182 arid-adapted trees and shrubs in Burseraceae, the frankincense and myrrh family, native from Africa to Sri Lanka and South America; it is the source of myrrh resin and guggul.
Common names of ferns
Common names of ferns are vernacular names like maidenhair, sword fern, and water fern, applied outside botanical nomenclature, with one name often covering several unrelated genera.
Common sunflower
Common sunflower (Helianthus annuus, mirasol), a North American annual aster domesticated in eastern North America ~4,000-5,000 years ago; major oilseed crop with heliotropic young heads, 40-50% oil in modern hybrids.
Common wheat
Common wheat (Triticum aestivum), or bread wheat, is an allohexaploid cereal (AABBDD, 2n=42) formed from emmer and Aegilops tauschii about 8,000-11,000 years ago; the world's leading wheat for bread flour.
Concord grape
Concord grape: American Vitis labrusca-dominant juice grape cultivar developed in 1849 in Massachusetts; known for foxy methyl anthranilate aroma, cold hardiness to about −23 to −29 °C, and 80% of New York grape production.
Cone (botany)
Cone (botany), or strobilus: the reproductive shoot of gymnosperms such as pines, cycads, and ginkgo, with separate pollen and seed cones; a pine cone is not a fruit because gymnosperm ovules sit naked on cone scales, not in an ovary.
Conifer
Conifer: cone-bearing gymnosperm trees and shrubs with naked seeds on cone scales, mostly evergreen needle or scale leaves, wind pollinated; about 650 species, fossil record over 300 million years, dominant in boreal forests.
Conifer cultivars of the Pinaceae
Conifer cultivars of the Pinaceae are garden variants of pines, spruces, firs, and larches, propagated asexually so their traits hold, arising from seedling selections and witch's brooms.
Coniferous forest ecoregions by continent
A continent-by-continent survey of the WWF's named coniferous forest ecoregions, covering boreal taiga, Pacific temperate rainforest, Mexican pine-oak woods, Valdivian forest, and threatened New Caledonian conifers.
Conium maculatum
Conium maculatum, poison hemlock, deadly hemlock or poison parsley, is a toxic biennial Apiaceae herb with purple-spotted hollow stems, containing coniine and gamma-coniceine; it killed Socrates and poisons livestock and humans.
Conocarpus
Conocarpus (button mangrove, Damas tree) is a two-species Combretaceae genus of mangrove-like trees native to tropical America and West Africa; C. erectus is salt-tolerant, widely introduced, and invasive in Pakistani cities.
Conservation of Cycas
Conservation of Cycas covers threats to the cycad genus Cycas: habitat destruction, harvesting for leaves and horticulture, invasive pests, and illegal trade that bypasses CITES protections.
Conservation of Torreya and Amentotaxus
Conservation of Torreya and Amentotaxus covers programs protecting two threatened yew-family conifers: the endangered Florida torreya, down over 98% since the 1900s, and the rare Asian catkin yews.
Convolvulaceae
Convolvulaceae, the morning-glory or bindweed family, is a family of about 1,700 to 2,000 twining flowering plants, sister to the nightshade family and including the sweet potato.
Convolvulus
Convolvulus (bindweeds) is a genus of about 228 accepted species of twining or erect herbs in Convolvulaceae, published by Linnaeus in 1753, native to temperate and subtropical regions, with Calystegia nested within it and field bindweed (C. arvensis) its best-known weed.
Convolvulus arvensis
Convolvulus arvensis, field bindweed or wild morning glory, is a perennial Convolvulaceae vine weed with roots to 30 feet, 1-inch root fragments that regrow, seeds viable for decades, and documented 2,4-D resistance.
Cooking banana
Cooking banana, or plantain and related starchy Musa cultivars (AAB, ABB, East African AAA), is a banana eaten cooked rather than raw, a staple carbohydrate across the tropics with fufu, steamed matoke, and fried preparations.
Copaifera
Copaifera, first published in 1762, is a genus of about 41 accepted legume tree species of tropical America, Africa, and Borneo, known for the copaiba oleoresin tapped from their trunks.
Copernicia
Copernicia (Brazilian wax palm) is a genus of fan-leaved palms native to the Caribbean and South Tropical America; its species C. prunifera, the carnauba palm of northeastern Brazil, yields carnauba wax used in cosmetics, food, and polishes.
Copra
Copra: dried coconut kernel, the raw material for coconut oil and copra meal; dried from 50% to about 6% moisture, about 70% oil; distinct from fresh-process virgin coconut oil.
Coprosma
Coprosma (mirror plant, karamū) is a genus of about 120 dioecious, wind-pollinated Rubiaceae shrubs centered in New Zealand, spread across the Pacific by birds, with fleshy orange to purple-black drupes.
Coptis
Coptis (goldthread, huanglian 黄连) is a Ranunculaceae genus of about 15–18 species disjunctly distributed in East Asia and North America; its alkaloid-rich rhizome (Rhizoma Coptidis) yields berberine and coptisine for traditional Chinese medicine.
Coptis chinensis
Coptis chinensis (黄连, huanglian, Chinese goldthread), a Ranunculaceae herb whose dried rhizome (Coptidis rhizoma) is used in Chinese medicine; main source of berberine, with studied lipid, IBS, and diabetes evidence.
Corchorus
Corchorus is a pantropical Malvaceae genus of about 74 species, including C. capsularis and C. olitorius, the two jute fiber crops, whose leaves are also eaten and used in folk medicine.
Corchorus olitorius
Corchorus olitorius (jute mallow, molokhia, ewedu) is an annual Malvaceae herb of the tropical Old World grown for edible mucilaginous leaves and jute fiber; leaves provide 207 mg calcium and 6.3 mg iron per 100 g.
Cordia alliodora
Cordia alliodora (laurel, solera, nogal cafetero), a Boraginaceae timber tree native from Mexico to Argentina, grown for mahogany-like wood and as shade over coffee and cacao; fast-growing, IUCN Least Concern, invasive in parts of the Pacific.