4,295 articles
Aloe vera
Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis), a succulent cultivated worldwide, yields inner-leaf gel used in cosmetics and burn care and bitter latex containing the laxative anthraquinone aloin; non-decolorized whole leaf extract is an IARC possible carcinogen.
Alopecurus
Alopecurus (foxtail grasses), Poaceae genus published by Linnaeus in 1753 with 45 temperate-zone species; includes meadow foxtail (A. pratensis) and black-grass (A. myosuroides), a major herbicide-resistant cereal weed in Europe.
Alopecurus myosuroides
Alopecurus myosuroides, black-grass, is an annual cross-pollinating grass weed of European winter cereals, the most important herbicide-resistant weed in European agriculture, with resistance to seven herbicide modes of action and estimated UK losses of £0.4 billion yearly.
Alopecurus pratensis
Alopecurus pratensis, the meadow foxtail (French vulpin des prés), is a perennial grass native from Europe to Mongolia, among the earliest-heading forage grasses of European meadows.
Aloysia
Aloysia Paláu is a genus of about 30-41 species of aromatic American shrubs in Verbenaceae, tribe Lantaneae, centered in South America; best known for lemon verbena (Aloysia citrodora), used in teas, flavoring, and folk medicine.
Aloysia citrodora
Aloysia citrodora (lemon verbena, lemon beebrush; syn. Aloysia triphylla, Lippia citriodora) is a lemon-scented Verbenaceae shrub native to southern Bolivia and northwest Argentina, grown for herbal tea and medicine; verbascoside is its key extract constituent.
Alpinia purpurata
Alpinia purpurata (red ginger, red-ginger) is a rhizomatous Zingiberaceae herb native to Maluku and the SW Pacific, grown tropically for red-bracted cut-flower spikes; naturalized in Hawaii, Fiji, and Colombia.
Alsophila australis
Alsophila australis (rough tree fern, formerly Cyathea australis) is an Australian tree fern of Cyatheaceae, native to eastern and southeastern Australia, with a trunk to 10 m, tripinnate fronds to 3.5 m, and frequent horticultural confusion with Cyathea cooperi.
Alsophila bryophila
Alsophila bryophila (syn. Cyathea bryophila), helecho gigante de la sierra, a slow-growing tree fern endemic to Puerto Rico's montane forests at 700-1325 m, with an erect trunk to 7 m, fronds to 2 m, and growth of about 5 cm per year.
Alsophila cunninghamii
Alsophila cunninghamii (slender tree fern, gully tree fern, pūnui; basionym Cyathea cunninghamii) is a Cyatheaceae tree fern with a trunk to 20 m, native to southeastern Australia and New Zealand, in wet forest gullies; NZTCS Not Threatened.
Alsophila cuspidata
Alsophila cuspidata (Kunze) D.S.Conant, basionym Cyathea cuspidata Kunze, is a scaly tree fern (Cyatheaceae) from Nicaragua to southern tropical America, wet tropical biome, used for food, CITES Appendix II.
Alsophila dregei
Alsophila dregei (syn. Cyathea dregei), the grassland tree fern, is a Cyatheaceae tree fern of streambanks in African montane grassland and Madagascar, 3–7 m tall, Least Concern but protected and CITES Appendix II listed.
Alsophila manniana
Alsophila manniana (spiny tree fern, syn. Cyathea manniana Hook. 1865), Africa's largest tree fern, grows streamside in wet montane tropical Africa to over 12 m, spreads by stolons, reproduces rarely by spores, least concern.
Alsophila of Africa and the Indian Ocean islands
The Alsophila tree ferns of Africa and the Indian Ocean islands grow on mainland Africa, Madagascar, the Comoros, Seychelles, and Mascarenes, with most taxa endemic to Madagascar.
Alsophila of Malesia and New Guinea
Alsophila of Malesia and New Guinea is the group of scaly tree ferns of the genus Alsophila native to the Malay Archipelago, the Philippines, and New Guinea.
Alsophila of South and Southeast Asia
Alsophila of South and Southeast Asia are tree ferns of the family Cyatheaceae, ranging from India and the Himalaya through southern China to mainland Southeast Asia.
Alsophila smithii
Alsophila smithii (kātote, soft tree fern; formerly Cyathea smithii) is a small New Zealand endemic tree fern of Cyatheaceae with soft 2.5 m fronds, a skirt of dead stipes, trunks to 8 m, and Not Threatened status.
Alsophila spinulosa
Alsophila spinulosa (syn. Cyathea spinulosa), the spiny tree fern of Cyatheaceae, native from the Indian subcontinent to East Asia; an endangered Jurassic relict with 6 m trunks, protected as a national second-class plant in China.
Alstonia scholaris
Alstonia scholaris (devil tree, blackboard tree, dita bark, saptaparni) is an Apocynaceae tree native from South Asia to northern Australia, rich in indole alkaloids, used in Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, with a Chinese leaf-alkaloid bronchitis drug in trials.
Alstroemeria
Alstroemeria, known in the trade as the Peruvian lily or lily of the Incas, is a South American genus of about 132 flowering plant species named by Linnaeus in 1762.
Alternanthera
Alternanthera (joyweed) is a genus of 80–200 Amaranthaceae herbs, mostly American tropics, with opposite leaves, head-like inflorescences, pseudostaminodes, medicinal and aquarium species, and the invasive alligatorweed.
Alternanthera sessilis
Alternanthera sessilis (sessile joyweed, dwarf copperleaf, mukunuwenna), Amaranthaceae herb with green and red cultivars; edible medicinal weed of tropical Asia, Australia, and tropical America, studied for antioxidant, analgesic, antihyperglycemic, and hepatoprotective effects, also an EPPO-listed invasive weed.
Alternation of generations in bryophytes
Alternation of generations in bryophytes is a life cycle in which the haploid gametophyte produces eggs and sperm, and the diploid sporophyte produces spores, each generation giving rise to the other.
Alyssum
Alyssum (madwort) is a Brassicaceae genus of about 112 accepted species native from the Canary Islands and North Africa to temperate Eurasia; its Odontarrhena section contains many nickel hyperaccumulators, and sweet alyssum belongs instead to Lobularia.
Amana
Amana (Honda, 1935), East Asian tulips, a Liliaceae genus of bulbous herbs native to China, Korea, and Japan; about 13 species, sister to Erythronium, formerly placed in Tulipa.
Amaranth
Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) is a C4 pseudocereal genus of about 50-60 species; grain types A. caudatus, A. cruentus, and A. hypochondriacus are gluten-free, lysine-rich, drought- and salt-tolerant crops domesticated in Mesoamerica and the Andes.
Amaranth grain
Amaranth grain: seed of Amaranthus caudatus, cruentus, and hypochondriacus, a gluten-free American pseudocereal domesticated three times, cultivated over 8,000 years, rich in lysine, calcium, iron, and squalene oil.
Amaranthaceae
Amaranthaceae (amaranth family, including former Chenopodiaceae) is a cosmopolitan Caryophyllales family of about 185 genera and 2,050–2,500 species, with small petal-less flowers, C4 photosynthesis diversity, and crops like amaranth, quinoa, spinach, and sugar beet.
Amaranthus
Amaranthus (amaranth) is a cosmopolitan genus of C4 herbs in Amaranthaceae, including the grain crops A. cruentus, A. hypochondriacus, and A. caudatus, leafy vegetables such as A. tricolor, and noxious weeds like A. palmeri.
Amaranthus caudatus
Amaranthus caudatus (kiwicha, love-lies-bleeding) is an Andean pseudocereal grain amaranth domesticated from A. quitensis, incompletely domesticated, with protein-rich seeds, phytic acid 2.9–7.9 g/kg, and salt-tolerant varieties.