4,295 articles
Medicago lupulina
Medicago lupulina, black medick or black medic, is a selfing annual or short-lived perennial legume native from Europe to China, used as forage and cover crop, nodulating with Ensifer meliloti and E. medicae, and a common lawn weed in North America.
Medicago truncatula
Medicago truncatula (barrel medic), a Mediterranean annual legume and model organism for legume biology, with diploid genome 2n=16, Sinorhizobium nitrogen-fixing nodulation, and reference genomes A17 Mt3.5-Mt5.0 and R108.
Medicinal plants
Medicinal plants: plant species containing therapeutic substances or precursors of drugs, also called herbal medicine or phytomedicine. Over 50% of modern medicines come from natural sources; use, safety, and regulation vary worldwide.
Medinilla
Medinilla (Medinilla Gaudich. ex DC.) is a paleotropical genus of about 370-390 shrubby Melastomataceae species, recently redefined to include Pachycentria and Plethiandra, with showy ornamentals like M. magnifica.
Mediterranean conifer and mixed forests
The Mediterranean conifer and mixed forests ecoregion is relict fir and pine woodland on the moist mid- to high-altitude slopes of North Africa's principal mountain ranges.
Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe
Mediterranean dry woodlands and steppe (WWF PA1213, ID 797) is a North African ecoregion of arid Atlas plateaus, alfa grasslands, and Aleppo pine, spanning Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, threatened by desertification.
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub
Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub: a biome of sclerophyll forest, maquis, and scrub in mediterranean-type climates (mild wet winters, hot dry summers), notably the 81-million-hectare Mediterranean Basin, fire-adapted, biodiverse, and threatened by drought and wildfires.
Medjool
Medjool (Mejhool, Medjoul, Majhoul) is a soft, large-fruited cultivar of the date palm Phoenix dactylifera from Morocco's Tafilalet district, introduced to the USA in 1927 by Walter Swingle and to Israel in 1934.
Megaceros
Megaceros Campb. is a hornwort genus in Dendrocerotaceae, described 1907 from Java, defined by green spores, spiral pseudoelaters, stomata-less capsules, and pyrenoid-lacking multiple chloroplasts; redefined 2010 to Asian/Australasian species, distinct from the fossil deer genus Megaceros.
Megalastrum
Megalastrum Holttum is a genus of terrestrial ferns in Dryopteridaceae, segregated from Ctenitis and allied to Lastreopsis and Rumohra. Native from Mexico to southern South America with Old World outliers; about 30 to 90 species depending on treatment.
Megaskepasma erythrochlamys
Megaskepasma erythrochlamys, Brazilian red-cloak or red justicia, is the sole species of its Acanthaceae genus, a tropical evergreen shrub with red bracts and white tubular flowers, native to northern South America and Central America and widely cultivated.
Megathyrsus
Megathyrsus, also called Panicum subgenus Megathyrsus, is a small C4 grass genus (Poaceae) established in 2003 by Simon and Jacobs, with four African species; its type species M. maximus (Guinea grass, syn. Panicum maximum) is a major tropical forage grass.
Megathyrsus maximus
Megathyrsus maximus, guinea grass (formerly Panicum maximum), is a tufted perennial Poaceae forage grass native to tropical and southern Africa, widely grown in tropical pastures and invasive in semi-arid subtropics.
Melaleuca
Melaleuca, the paperbarks, is a Myrtaceae genus of about 260 to 382 species native from Indo-China to Australia and New Caledonia. Its species yield tea tree and niaouli oils, while M. quinquenervia has invaded over 200,000 hectares of Florida Everglades wetlands.
Melaleuca acacioides
Melaleuca acacioides F.Muell. is a paperbark tree or shrub (Myrtaceae) of southern New Guinea and northern Australia, 1.5–10 m tall with Acacia-like foliage, published in 1862 and rated least concern.
Melaleuca alternifolia
Melaleuca alternifolia, the Australian tea tree, a Myrtaceae shrub native to Queensland and northeast NSW; source of tea tree oil (terpinen-4-ol type, ISO 4730), used topically for acne and infections, toxic if swallowed.
Melampyrum
Melampyrum (cowwheat, 며느리밥풀속) is a genus of hemiparasitic annual herbs in Orobanchaceae, type species M. pratense, with about 35-37 accepted species across temperate Eurasia and North America.
Melastoma malabathricum
Melastoma malabathricum (senduduk, Singapore rhododendron, Malabar melastome) is a Melastomataceae shrub native from Seychelles and Asia to Australia, a folk-medicinal aluminum-accumulating weed with purple berries that stain the mouth black.
Melastomataceae
Melastomataceae Juss., the melastome family, a pantropical Myrtales family of about 150–190 genera and 4,500–5,800 species, recognized by acrodromous leaf venation, hypanthiate flowers, and buzz-pollinated poricidal anthers.
Melia
Melia (chinaberry genus) is a genus of three Meliaceae tree species, M. azedarach, M. dubia, and M. volkensii, native to Africa, Asia, and Australia, known for toxic limonoid-rich fruits, insecticidal compounds, and invasive M. azedarach.
Melia azedarach
Melia azedarach, chinaberry or Persian lilac (Meliaceae), a deciduous Asian-Australian tree with lilac flowers and toxic yellow drupes; planted for timber and pesticide, invasive in the southern US, South Africa, and on EPPO's 2025 list.
Meliaceae
Meliaceae, the mahogany family (Meliaceae Juss., nom. cons., type genus Melia), is a pantropical Sapindales family of about 50 genera and 600-800 species of scented-wood trees, including Swietenia mahogany, neem, and limonoid-rich chemistry.
Melica
Melica, commonly known as melic or melicgrass, is a genus of about 90 species of perennial grasses in the grass family Poaceae, found in temperate and subtropical regions worldwide.
Melicoccus bijugatus
Melicoccus bijugatus (mamoncillo, Spanish lime, quenepa, genip) is a Sapindaceae fruit tree native to northern South America, naturalized in the Caribbean and Florida; IUCN Least Concern, sister to Talisia in RAxML phylogenies.
Melilotus
Melilotus (sweet-clover, melilot) is a Fabaceae genus of fragrant annual and biennial herbs, 23 accepted species native from temperate Eurasia to South Africa, used as forage and cover crops, source of the anticoagulant dicoumarol, and invasive in North American grasslands.
Melilotus albus
Melilotus albus (white sweet-clover, Bokhara-clover), Fabaceae biennial legume native from Europe to China and N. Africa; grown for forage, honey, and green manure; coumarin-bearing, salt- and drought-relevant, invasive in North America.
Melilotus officinalis
Melilotus officinalis, yellow sweetclover or ribbed melilot, a Eurasian biennial Fabaceae legume introduced as forage, nitrogen-fixing and invasive in North America; moldy hay yields toxic dicoumarol.
Melinis
Melinis P.Beauv. (Natal grass genus, molasses grass, Melinis repens) is a genus of about 20-23 African and Arabian grasses in Poaceae, subtribe Melinidinae, published 1812; several species are forage or ornamental grasses and invasive weeds.
Melinis minutiflora
Melinis minutiflora (molasses grass, capim-gordura), an African perennial fodder grass of Poaceae, invasive in the Brazilian Cerrado and Hawaii; sticky, molasses-scented leaves, flammable biomass, suppresses tree regeneration, controlled by integrated fire-herbicide-manual management.
Melocactus
Melocactus (Turk's cap cacti), genus Link & Otto 1827 in Cactaceae, tribe Cereeae, native from S. Mexico to tropical America; ~36-50 species; distinctive bristly cephalium; hummingbird and lizard pollination; several CITES Appendix I species.