Plants and algae

Erica carnea

Erica carnea, known as winter heath or snow heath, is a low evergreen subshrub of central and southern European mountains that flowers pink, crimson, or white from January to April.

Erica cinerea, bell heather or twisted heath, is a western European Ericaceae subshrub of dry acidic heaths, whorled needle leaves, purple summer flowers, IUCN Least Concern, over 140 garden cultivars.

Erica gracilis

Erica gracilis, the slender heath or rose heath, is a South African flowering shrub in the heather family, native to the Cape Provinces and sold as a winter pot plant.

Erica tetralix

Erica tetralix, cross-leaved heath, is a European Ericaceae subshrub of wet acidic heaths and bogs, with leaves in whorls of four and pale pink bell flowers, pH 4.0-5.0, 2n=24.

Ericaceae

Ericaceae, the heath family (Ericales), includes heathers, rhododendrons, and blueberries: about 125 genera and 4,200+ species, pore-dehiscing anthers, and obligate ericoid mycorrhiza in nutrient-poor soils.

Ericales

Ericales (Bercht. & J.Presl, 1820) is an asterid order of eudicot flowering plants with 22 families, 346 genera, and about 12,000 species, including tea, blueberry, persimmon, Brazil nut, and rhododendron; it diversified from about 110 Ma.

Ericameria nauseosa

Ericameria nauseosa, rubber rabbitbrush (formerly Chrysothamnus nauseosus), is a widespread western North American Asteraceae shrub with yellow fall flowers, two subspecies and 22 varieties, used for revegetation, wildlife browse, and rubber.

Erigeron

Erigeron (fleabane) is a cosmopolitan genus of daisy-like herbs in Asteraceae, tribe Astereae, published by Linnaeus in 1753, with 461 accepted species; Conyza is a disputed synonym, and species include E. annuus, E. canadensis, and E. karvinskianus.

Eriobotrya

Eriobotrya (loquat genus) is a Rosaceae genus of evergreen trees native from the Himalaya to Taiwan and western Malesia, with about 36 species; its type species Eriobotrya japonica is the loquat fruit tree, and its merger into Rhaphiolepis remains disputed.

Eriogonum

Eriogonum, wild buckwheats, is a North American genus of about 256 species in Polygonaceae, ranging from Alaska to northern Mexico, centered in California, with many rare soil specialists and restoration-used shrubs.

Eriophorum

Eriophorum (cottongrass) is a Linnaean 1753 genus of Holarctic sedges in Cyperaceae, native to subarctic and temperate Northern Hemisphere bogs and tundra, with cottony white to rusty-red bristle heads; E. vaginatum indicates deep peat.

Eriophorum vaginatum

Eriophorum vaginatum (tussock cottongrass, hare's tail) is a tussock-forming perennial sedge of subarctic and temperate Northern Hemisphere peatlands and tundra, a methane conduit and foundation species; single-spikelet, inflated sheath, stems to 60 cm.

Eriosyce curvispina

Eriosyce curvispina, also placed as Neoporteria or Horridocactus curvispinus, is a globular cactus endemic to central Chile. A 2024 molecular revision split the broad species complex into nine endemic species and assessed E. curvispina as Vulnerable.

Erodium

Erodium (stork's-bill, filaree), a genus of about 80–122 Geraniaceae herbs, mainly Mediterranean, known for long-beaked fruits whose hygroscopic awns explosively launch and drill seeds into soil; E. cicutarium is a widespread weed.

Erodium cicutarium

Erodium cicutarium, common stork's-bill or redstem filaree (芹叶牻牛儿苗), a Geraniaceae annual/biennial herb native to temperate Eurasia and North Africa, naturalized worldwide, with stork-bill fruits, ballistic seed dispersal, and up to 9,900 seeds per plant.

Eruca sativa

Eruca sativa, known as arugula, rocket, or rucola, is an annual Mediterranean herb in the mustard family grown as a peppery salad vegetable and for Taramira oil in India.

Eruca vesicaria

Eruca vesicaria, also called garden rocket or arugula (Eruca sativa), is an annual Brassicaceae herb native to Spain, Morocco, and Algeria, grown for pungent salad leaves and taramira seed oil.

Erycina

Erycina Lindl. (syn. Psygmorchis) is a genus of seven miniature neotropical twig-epiphytic orchids in Oncidiinae, native from Mexico to southern tropical America and Trinidad, described by Lindley in 1853.

Eryngium

Eryngium (sea holly, eryngo) is the largest genus of Apiaceae, about 250 spiny, capitate-flowered species worldwide, split into subgenera Eryngium and Monocotyloidea, used as food, medicine, and ornamentals.

Eryngium campestre

Eryngium campestre, the field eryngo, is a spiny perennial herb of the carrot family native to Europe, North Africa, and the Caucasus, growing up to about 75 cm.

Eryngium maritimum

Eryngium maritimum, sea holly, is a spiny blue-flowered perennial Apiaceae of European coastal dunes and shingle from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, a poor competitor threatened locally by habitat loss and invasive plants.

Erysimum

Erysimum (wallflower) is a large, taxonomically complex genus of Brassicaceae with about 150–350 species across temperate Eurasia, Macaronesia, North Africa, and the Americas, combining glucosinolates with cardenolides and radiating rapidly in the Pliocene-Pleistocene.