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Marigold
Marigold is a common name for several Asteraceae flowers: Calendula officinalis (pot marigold, W Mediterranean) and American Tagetes species (T. erecta African marigold, T. patula French marigold), grown ornamentally and for lutein carotenoids.
Marimo (毬藻)
Marimo (毬藻), Aegagropila linnaei/brownii, is a freshwater green alga forming velvet-like lake balls, famous at Lake Akan, Japan, a Special Natural Monument, now endangered worldwide.
Marine algae of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay
Marine algae of the Cape Peninsula and False Bay, South Africa: seaweed communities at the Benguela-Agulhas transition, with Ecklonia maxima kelp forests, peak South African seaweed richness, and contrasting Atlantic versus False Bay floras.
Marionberry
Marionberry is the market name for 'Marion', a trailing blackberry cultivar crossed from 'Chehalem' and 'Olallie', released in 1956 by USDA-ARS and Oregon State, named for Marion County, Oregon, and grown mostly in the Willamette Valley for processing.
Maris Otter
Maris Otter is a two-row winter malting barley bred by G. D. H. Bell at the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge (Proctor x Pioneer cross, 1965/1966), prized for low-nitrogen, malty cask-ale malt and still grown under contract in England.
Maris Piper
Maris Piper is a British maincrop potato cultivar bred at the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge and released in 1966, prized above all for chips and roast potatoes.
Marjoram
Marjoram (Origanum majorana, sweet marjoram) is a Lamiaceae culinary herb from Cyprus and southern Turkey, milder and sweeter than oregano, with terpinen-4-ol/sabinene hydrate essential oil studied as a natural pesticide.
Marrow (vegetable)
Marrow, the mature fruit of Cucurbita pepo, same species as courgette or zucchini; a British-grown vegetable harvested at 20-30 cm or larger, stored after hardening, with varieties like 'Tiger Cross' and a 116 kg record.
Marrubium
Marrubium (horehounds) is a Lamiaceae herb genus, type species M. vulgare, white horehound; 40-53 species native from Macaronesia and Europe to Central Asia and the Himalaya; source of the diterpene marrubiin.
Marrubium vulgare
Marrubium vulgare, white horehound (Marrubii herba), a Lamiaceae perennial herb native from Europe to the Himalaya, used traditionally as an expectorant, for dyspepsia, and for appetite loss; EMA traditional-use monograph, major diterpene marrubiin, invasive weed in Australia.
Marsh ferns in gardens, as weeds and in conservation
Marsh ferns, the Thelypteridaceae family, are wetland ferns sold for gardens, invasive abroad as cultivated escapes such as Macrothelypteris torresiana, and conservation-dependent as wetlands shrink.
Marsilea
Marsilea (water clover, pepperwort) is a genus of about 49–65 aquatic ferns in Marsileaceae, order Salviniales, with four-leaflet clover-like leaves and hard sporocarps showing seed-like physical dormancy.
Marsilea minuta
Marsilea minuta L. (water clover, dwarf waterclover) is a small aquatic fern of Marsileaceae, native to the tropical and subtropical Old World, with four-lobed clover-like leaves, sporocarps showing physical dormancy, and uses as a potherb, medicine, and rice weed.
Marsileaceae
Marsileaceae is a family of rooted aquatic ferns, the water clovers and pillworts, comprising three genera and about 50 to 75 species in tropical and warmer temperate regions.
Marsileaceae fossil record and evolution
The Marsileaceae fossil record and evolution are known mainly from dispersed spores and a few whole-plant fossils, showing the family's extant lineages separated by the mid-Cretaceous.
Marsileaceae sporocarps
Marsileaceae sporocarps: hard bean-shaped reproductive bodies of the water-clover ferns Marsilea, Regnellidium, and Pilularia, enclosing sori with mega- and microsporangia, viable over a century, opening on wetting to release gelatinous sori.
Masa
Masa: dough from nixtamalized maize (lime-cooked corn), basis of tortillas, tamales, pupusas, arepas. Also masa harina, dehydrated masa flour (Maseca, Minsa). Alkaline cooking frees niacin and raises calcium 10–20x.
Masdevallia
Masdevallia (Ruiz & Pav., 1794) is a genus of about 656 accepted pleurothallid orchids native from Mexico to southern tropical America, known as kite orchids for triangular fused-sepal flowers, grown cool and humid in cultivation.
Masdevallia veitchiana
Masdevallia veitchiana (Veitch's masdevallia, pate de gallo) is a Peruvian orchid species published by Reichenbach in 1868, with orange flowers up to 20 cm covered in fine purple hairs; cool-growing, humidity-loving, and vulnerable in Cusco.
Mastic (μαστίχα) (plant resin)
Mastic (μαστίχα, mastiha) is the aromatic resin of Pistacia lentiscus, produced almost exclusively in southern Chios, Greece; a PDO product since 1997, harvested by traditional incision, UNESCO-listed in 2014, and used in food, gum, and herbal medicine.
Mating system
Mating system, in biology, the pattern of self-fertilization versus outcrossing in a population. Key in plants and ferns: Fisher's 50% selfing advantage, inbreeding depression, bimodal outcrossing rates, antheridiogen sex control.
Mating systems and population genetics of fern reproduction
The mating systems of ferns describe how hermaphroditic gametophytes self, inbreed, or outcross; most homosporous ferns predominantly outcross, contrary to the textbook image of habitual selfing.
Matricaria
Matricaria (chamomile genus) is a small Asteraceae genus of six annual fragrant herbs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere; its species M. chamomilla yields the herbal medicine matricariae flos.
Matricaria chamomilla
Matricaria chamomilla (German chamomile, syn. Matricaria recutita) is an annual Asteraceae herb whose flower heads yield chamomile tea and essential oil rich in α-bisabolol and chamazulene; clinical trials suggest modest sleep-quality benefits and generally mild, self-limiting adverse events.
Matthiola
Matthiola (stocks, gillyflower) is a genus of about 50-60 fragrant Brassicaceae herbs and subshrubs named for Pietro Andrea Matthioli; type species Matthiola incana, the common stock, native to southern Europe.
Matthiola incana
Matthiola incana, known as hoary stock or tenweeks stock, is a woody-based cabbage-family perennial from southern Europe, grown for centuries as a fragrant garden and cut flower.
Matucana
Matucana is a genus of about 25 accepted globular Peruvian cacti in Cactaceae, tribe Trichocereeae, published by Britton & Rose in 1922, with diurnal red to yellow flowers and CITES Appendix II protection.
Maxillaria
Maxillaria (Ruiz & Pav., 1794), tiger orchid, a large neotropical orchid genus in Maxillariinae with 665 accepted Kew species; shown polyphyletic by DNA data and broadly recircumscribed in 2015.
McIntosh (apple)
The McIntosh, also known as McIntosh Red, is a Canadian dessert apple found in 1811 on John McIntosh's farm in Dundela, Ontario, and propagated from about 1870.
Medicago
Medicago, commonly called medics, is a genus of about 91 species of legume plants including alfalfa, the world's most widely cultivated forage crop, and the model species barrel medic.