4,295 articles
Alerce Milenario
Alerce Milenario, or Gran Abuelo, is an ancient Patagonian cypress (Fitzroya cupressoides) in Alerce Costero National Park, Chile, estimated at up to 5,484 years old, possibly older than California's Methuselah, though unverified by complete ring counting.
Aleurites
Aleurites is a two-species Euphorbiaceae tree genus of tropical Asia to the western Pacific, best known as the candlenut, Aleurites moluccanus, an oilseed and traditional-use tree with toxic raw seeds; tung oil trees formerly placed here now belong to Vernicia.
Aleurites moluccanus
Aleurites moluccanus, the candlenut tree (kukui, kemiri, 石栗), is an Euphorbiaceae tree native from tropical Asia to the western Pacific, grown for oil-rich seeds used as food, medicine, candles, and biodiesel; invasive in Pacific islands.
Alexis (malting barley)
Alexis is a German spring malting barley variety bred by Saatzucht Josef Breun (Trumpf × Br. 1622, 1975), protected 1986, Europe's standard brewing barley until 2005, later a conservation variety and craft malt.
Algae
Algae: diverse photosynthetic organisms (including cyanobacteria, seaweeds, diatoms) across four kingdoms; 50,589 living species, 3-billion-year fossil record, primary producers, food and industrial uses, harmful blooms.
Algae fuel
Algae fuel, a third-generation biofuel from microalgae or kelp, was pursued by DOE's Aquatic Species Program from 1978; costs of $1.64 to over $30 per gallon and harvesting, drying, and extraction bottlenecks still limit commercialization.
Algal bloom
Algal bloom: rapid growth of algae or cyanobacteria in fresh or marine water; harmful algal blooms (HABs) produce toxins like microcystins, driven by nutrient pollution, warming, and stratification, exemplified by Lake Erie.
Alginic acid
Alginic acid (alginate, E 400, INS 400, CAS 9005-32-7) is a polysaccharide from brown seaweed, a copolymer of mannuronic and guluronic acid that gels with calcium by the egg-box model and is used as a thickener, gelling agent, and dental impression material.
Alhagi
Alhagi (camelthorn genus) is a genus of four spiny Fabaceae shrubs native from Chad and the E. Mediterranean to the Himalaya; A. maurorum is a noxious weed and medicinal plant, A. sparsifolia a Taklimakan desert phreatophyte.
Alisma
Alisma, commonly known as water plantains, is a genus of ten species of aquatic and wetland herbs in the family Alismataceae, named by Linnaeus in 1753.
Alismataceae
Alismataceae, the water-plantain family (Vent., 1799, nom. cons.), is a family of aquatic or semi-aquatic monocot herbs with worldwide distribution; type genus Alisma, about 12-18 genera including Sagittaria and Echinodorus, former Limnocharitaceae included.
Alismatales
Alismatales (R.Br. ex Bercht. & J.Presl, 1820) is an early-diverging monocot order of 14 families, the largest clade of aquatic angiosperms and the only one containing all marine seagrasses, diverging ca 131 Ma.
Alliaria petiolata
Alliaria petiolata, known as garlic mustard, is a biennial mustard herb native to Europe that has become invasive in North American forests since the 1860s.
Allium
Allium is a large genus of Amaryllidaceae bulb plants including onion, garlic, leek, and chives; about 1140 species native to the Northern Hemisphere and southern Africa, with three major evolutionary lineages.
Allium ampeloprasum
Allium ampeloprasum (wild leek, elephant garlic, great-headed garlic) is a Mediterranean-to-Central-Asian Amaryllidaceae species whose cultivated groups include leek, kurrat, pearl onion, and elephant garlic; IUCN Least Concern.
Allium fistulosum
Allium fistulosum, the Welsh onion or Japanese bunching onion, is a bulbless perennial onion with hollow leaves, domesticated from A. altaicum in Siberia and China, and cultivated mainly in East Asia.
Allium giganteum
Allium giganteum (giant onion, ornamental onion), a bulbous Amaryllidaceae perennial native to Central and western Asia described by Regel in 1883; tallest ornamental onion, 3-5 ft, purple 5-6 inch umbels, May-June bloom, not culinary.
Allium moly
Allium moly (lily leek, yellow garlic, golden garlic) is a yellow-flowered bulbous Amaryllidaceae geophyte native to eastern Spain, Italy, and northwest Africa, placed in Allium subgenus Amerallium section Molium, IUCN Least Concern, grown as an ornamental.
Allium nigrum
Allium nigrum, black garlic or broad-leaved garlic (Allium multibulbosum synonym), a Mediterranean bulbous allium with odorless white green-centered flowers, grown as an ornamental and used as a food spice in Sicily.
Allium of western North America
The Allium species of western North America are wild native onions, with 60 of North America's 84 native species growing in Washington, Oregon, and California.
Allium tricoccum
Allium tricoccum, ramp or wild leek (ail des bois), a spring-ephemeral edible allium native to eastern North American forests; slow-growing (5-7 years to flower), heavily overharvested, vulnerable in Québec, distinct from A. burdickii and European A. ursinum.
Allium tuberosum
Allium tuberosum (garlic chives, Chinese chives, nira, jiu, buchu) is an East Asian Allium crop grown for mild garlic-flavored leaves and flowers, domesticated in northern China over 3,000 years ago, tetraploid 2n=32.
Allium ursinum
Allium ursinum (ramsons, bear's garlic, wild garlic) is a bulbous European woodland plant whose spring leaves are eaten as a herb; toxic lookalikes and in vitro-only pharmacology distinguish it from cultivated garlic.
Allium vineale
Allium vineale (crow garlic, field garlic, wild garlic, wild onion) is a bulbous perennial allium native to Europe, the Mediterranean, and western Asia, naturalized in North America and Australia. It reproduces mainly by bulbils and offsets, has hollow cylindrical leaves, and is a difficult turf and cereal-crop weed.
Almond
Almond (Prunus dulcis, syn. P. amygdalus), an early-domesticated Near Eastern nut tree; wild ancestor likely P. fenzliana; California grows about 80% of world supply; kernels contain amygdalin.
Alnus glutinosa
Alnus glutinosa, common or black alder, is a European wetland tree in Betulaceae that fixes nitrogen via Frankia root nodules, has sticky buds, water-durable timber, and is invasive in North America, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Alnus rubra
Alnus rubra, the red alder, is a fast-growing deciduous tree of the birch family native to the Pacific Coast from Alaska to California, the largest alder in the Americas.
Alnus viridis
Alnus viridis (green alder, now often Alnus alnobetula) is a fast-growing deciduous nitrogen-fixing alder shrub of cool Northern Hemisphere subalpine zones, a pioneer on disturbed soils, 0.5–6 m tall.
Alocasia
Alocasia is a genus of over 113 Araceae species native from tropical Asia to eastern Australia, including giant taro and Chinese taro; rainforest herbs with calcium oxalate raphides and a Borneo-centered Miocene dispersal history.
Aloe
Aloe is a genus of over 300-550 succulent Asphodelaceae plants native to Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, and NW India; Aloe vera gel and latex are widely used medicinally, with mixed clinical evidence and CITES-listed species.