Plants and algae

Lutheria splendens

Lutheria splendens, the flaming sword bromeliad, formerly Vriesea splendens, is an epiphytic tank bromeliad from eastern Colombia to Trinidad-Tobago, with banded leaves, scarlet-bracted spikes, and leaf-trichome-based absorption.

Luzula

Luzula (woodrushes) is a cosmopolitan genus of about 80–125 accepted species in the rush family Juncaceae, perennial grass-like herbs with ciliate leaves, closed sheaths, and three-seeded capsules, published by de Candolle in 1805.

Lychee

Lychee (Litchi chinensis, 荔枝, litchi) is the sole species of its genus in the soapberry family, a tropical tree native to southern China with over 2,000 years of cultivation; Asia grows over 95% of the roughly 2-million-tonne world crop, led by China and India.

Lychee cultivars

Lychee cultivars are named, clonally propagated varieties of the lychee tree of southern China, led by Feizixiao, Nuomici, and Guiwei in China and by Mauritius and Brewster in Florida, South Africa, and Australia.

Lycium

Lycium (goji, wolfberry) is a Solanaceae genus of 75–101 spiny shrub species with red, black, or yellow berries, cosmopolitan in arid regions, including the medicinal L. barbarum and salt-tolerant L. ruthenicum.

Lycopodiaceae systematics and classification

Lycopodiaceae, the clubmoss and firmoss family, is an ancient family of vascular plants with about 400 species worldwide, now divided into three subfamilies and 17 genera.

Lycopodiales

Lycopodiales (clubmosses) is an order of homosporous vascular plants containing the single family Lycopodiaceae, with about 400 species on all continents except Antarctica, three subfamilies, a fossil record over 400 million years old, and spores historically used in flash photography.

Lycopodiella

Lycopodiella, the bog clubmosses, is a genus of terrestrial clubmosses named in 1964 by the Czech botanist Jiří Holub, with about 41 species most diverse in South America.

Lycopodiopsida

Lycopodiopsida (clubmosses, lycophytes) is a class of seedless vascular plants, sister to all other extant vascular plants, with three families: Lycopodiaceae, Isoëtaceae, and Selaginellaceae, descended from Devonian-Carboniferous dominants.

Lycopodium

Lycopodium (clubmoss) is a Linnaean 1753 genus of spore-bearing vascular plants in Lycopodiaceae, cosmopolitan, with 59 accepted species, hydrophobic flammable spores used in pyrotechnics and pharmacognosy, and 508 reported secondary metabolites.

Lycopodium clavatum

Lycopodium clavatum, stag's-horn or running clubmoss, is a widespread clubmoss of the temperate Northern Hemisphere and tropical mountains, slow-growing from spores, secure globally (G5) but seriously threatened in California (CNPS 4.1), used in traditional medicine and sporopollenin drug delivery research.

Lycopodium powder

Lycopodium powder, also called clubmoss spores or lycopodium spores (Lycopodium clavatum), is a yellow-tan flammable spore powder used in pyrotechnics, early flash photography, and as a reference dust in explosion testing; St 1 class, lower explosion limit 15 g/m³.

Lycopus

Lycopus (bugleweed, water-horehound), a Lamiaceae genus of wetland perennials native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere and Australia; about 14–19 species; L. virginicus used traditionally as an antithyroid herb.

Lycopus europaeus

Lycopus europaeus, gypsywort or European bugleweed, is a perennial Lamiaceae wetland herb native from the Azores and NW. Africa to Siberia and the W. Himalaya, introduced in North America and New Zealand, IUCN Least Concern, rich in rosmarinic acid.

Lycoris (plant)

Lycoris is a genus of about 25 bulbous amaryllis-family plants native from Nepal to Japan, known for leafless flower stalks that emerge suddenly in late summer.

Lycoris radiata

Lycoris radiata (ヒガンバナ, higanbana; 石蒜), the red spider lily, is an Amaryllidaceae bulb native from Nepal to Japan, blooming red spider-like umbels in late summer; Japanese triploid strains are sterile, while fertile diploid var. pumila occurs in China.

Lygodium

Lygodium, climbing ferns, genus of twining ferns in Schizaeaceae/Lygodiaceae with about 29-40 pantropical species; indeterminate rachises reach 30 m; L. japonicum and L. microphyllum are major Florida invaders.

Lysiloma

Lysiloma (false tamarind, tzalam, sabicu) is a genus of eight dry-forest legume trees native from Arizona and Florida to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, sister to Hesperalbizia.

Lysimachia

Lysimachia (loosestrife) is a genus of about 250-292 species of Primulaceae herbs, native from temperate to tropical-mountain regions, centered in China; former genera Anagallis, Glaux, and Trientalis are now merged into it.

Lysimachia arvensis

Lysimachia arvensis (scarlet pimpernel, formerly Anagallis arvensis) is a Mediterranean annual herb of Primulaceae with red or blue flowers, a widespread introduced weed, tetraploid and self-compatible, mildly toxic to livestock.

Lysimachia vulgaris

Lysimachia vulgaris, yellow or garden loosestrife, is a rhizomatous Primulaceae perennial native from Europe to Siberia and the W. Himalaya, invasive in North American wetlands and a Washington Class B noxious weed.

Lythraceae

Lythraceae, the loosestrife family (Myrtales), is a family of 28 genera and ca. 625 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees, including pomegranate (Punica), henna (Lawsonia), crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia), and water chestnut (Trapa).

Lythrum

Lythrum, the loosestrifes, is a genus of about 35-40 Lythraceae herbs of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, often heterostylous; its species L. salicaria (purple loosestrife) is a major North American wetland invader.

Macadamia

Macadamia is a genus of four subtropical rainforest trees in the Proteaceae family, native to eastern Australia and cultivated worldwide for its edible macadamia nut.

Macaranga

Macaranga (Thouars, 1806) is a genus of about 300 dioecious Euphorbiaceae trees and shrubs of the Old World tropics, sister to Mallotus, with 3-4-locellate anthers, hollow-twig ant-plant symbioses, and pioneer secondary-forest ecology.

Macaroni

Macaroni, known in Italian as maccheroni, is dry pasta shaped like narrow tubes, made from wheat semolina or flour and water, associated especially with Naples and best known in macaroni and cheese.

Maclura

Maclura is a genus of about 13 spiny, dioecious trees, shrubs, and woody climbers in the mulberry family, Moraceae, native to Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas.

Maclura pomifera

Maclura pomifera, osage-orange or hedge-apple (bois-d'arc), a thorny dioecious Moraceae tree native to Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, famous as pre-barbed-wire prairie hedgerows, with decay-resistant wood, and invasive in parts of Australia.

Macroptilium

Macroptilium (Benth.) Urb., a genus of 23 accepted herbaceous legumes in Fabaceae native to tropical and subtropical America, close to Phaseolus; includes siratro (M. atropurpureum), burgundy bean, and llanos macro, used as forage, cover crops, and green manure.