4,295 articles
Mucuna pruriens
Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean, cowitch, kapikacchu), a tropical Fabaceae climbing legume with irritant pod hairs, whose seeds contain 4–6% levodopa and have been trialed as a Parkinson's disease treatment and nitrogen-fixing cover crop.
Muesli
Muesli (Müesli), a raw oat-based breakfast dish with nuts and fruit created around 1900 by Swiss doctor Bircher-Benner; unbaked, unlike granola, with lower calories and sugar per serving.
Mugwort
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), also felon herb or wild wormwood, an aromatic perennial Asteraceae herb of temperate Eurasia and North Africa, naturalized and invasive in North America, used in traditional medicine, moxibustion, and cooking, and a major cause of pollen allergy.
Muhlenbergia
Muhlenbergia (muhly grasses), sole genus of subtribe Muhlenbergiinae in Poaceae; about 174–183 species, C4 grasses centered in Mexico, originating 9.3 mya in the Sierra Madre, including ornamental pink muhly M. capillaris.
Mung bean
Mung bean (Vigna radiata), green gram, an annual South Asian grain legume domesticated 4,000–6,000 years ago, grown on over 7.3 million hectares, spread by climate-constrained routes across Asia, used as food, sprouts, and green manure.
Mung bean sprout
Mung bean sprout, the edible seedling of Vigna radiata (green gram), grown 3-10 days from soaked beans; distinct from alfalfa or soybean sprouts, with rising GABA and free amino acids during germination and known Salmonella and Listeria outbreak links.
Muntingia calabura
Muntingia calabura (Jamaican cherry, capulín, kerukup siam) is the sole species of Muntingiaceae genus Muntingia, a 2–12 m Neotropical pioneer tree from Mexico to Bolivia with edible red berries, widely naturalized and studied for flavonoid-rich pharmacological activity.
Murraya
Murraya J.Koenig, also Chalcas, is a Rutaceae genus of 8 accepted species (about 12 in some treatments) native to tropical and subtropical Asia and the SW Pacific, including the curry leaf tree Murraya koenigii and orange jasmine Murraya paniculata.
Murraya paniculata
Murraya paniculata, orange jessamine or orange jasmine (synonym Murraya exotica), a Rutaceae shrub native to tropical Asia to Vanuatu, grown as a fragrant hedge and regulated as a Huanglongbing/psyllid host.
Musa
Musa is a genus of treelike herbaceous plants in the banana family, native to tropical Asia and the western Pacific, that includes the wild ancestors of cultivated bananas.
Musa acuminata
Musa acuminata, the wild banana of tropical and subtropical Asia, is the A-genome ancestor of nearly all cultivated bananas except Fe'i types; its 523 Mb genome was sequenced in 2012, and domestication began about 7,000 years ago in Southeast Asia.
Musa balbisiana
Musa balbisiana (Balbis banana, starchy banana) is a wild seeded diploid banana (BB genome, 2n=22) native to tropical and subtropical Asia, one of two progenitors of cultivated bananas, donor of the B genome to plantain and cooking cultivars, and a source of drought and disease resistance.
Musaceae
Musaceae, the banana family (Zingiberales), comprises the genera Musa, Ensete, and Musella: giant herbs with pseudostems, unisexual flowers, and banana fruits; monophyletic, with Musa and Ensete-Musella clades and Palaeocene origin.
Musang King
Musang King, also Mao Shan Wang (猫山王), is Malaysia's premium durian cultivar, clone D197 (Raja Kunyit), registered 9 December 1993 from Kelantan; known for creamy bittersweet yellow flesh, a 2017 draft genome, MyIPO brand protection until 2034, and major Chinese export demand.
Musanga
Musanga is an African genus of Urticaceae with two species; the type, Musanga cecropioides (African corkwood, umbrella tree; synonym Musanga smithii), is a fast-growing stilt-rooted pioneer tree of wet tropical Africa used for light timber, pulp, and traditional medicine.
Muscari
Muscari (grape hyacinths) is a genus of about 85 species of bulbous Asparagaceae native from Europe and the Mediterranean to Central Asia, named for the musk scent of many species, with five subgenera after 2023 phylogenetic reclassification.
Muscat (grape)
Muscat, also known as Moscato, is an ancient family of more than 200 grape varieties known for their floral, musky aroma, used as wine grapes, table grapes, and raisins.
Mustard plant
Mustard plant: Brassica juncea, B. nigra, B. rapa, and Sinapis alba, annual Brassicaceae herbs grown for pungent seeds, oil, and greens; pungency from myrosinase acting on glucosinolates to release allyl isothiocyanate.
Mutisia
Mutisia L.f. is a genus of about 65 accepted species of tendrilled lianas and scrambling shrubs in Asteraceae, tribe Mutisieae, native to the Andes and southern South America, with showy heads and hummingbird pollination.
Myco-heterotrophy in orchids
Myco-heterotrophy in orchids: all orchids germinate on fungal carbon because their seeds lack reserves; some stay fully fungal-fed, while mixotrophic green orchids combine photosynthesis with fungal carbon, detected by 13C, 15N, and 2H isotope enrichment.
Myosotis
Myosotis (forget-me-nots) is a genus of about 80–100 species of hairy Boraginaceae herbs with blue five-lobed flowers and four nutlets, of Northern Hemisphere origin, radiating in New Zealand where most native species are threatened.
Myrcia
Myrcia is a genus of roughly 800 accepted species of evergreen shrubs and trees in the myrtle family, native from southern Mexico to tropical America, especially Brazil.
Myrciaria
Myrciaria O.Berg is a genus of 47 accepted New World Myrtaceae shrubs and trees, native to tropical America with peak diversity in Brazil's Atlantic Forest, including jaboticaba and camu-camu fruit species.
Myrciaria dubia
Myrciaria dubia, camu-camu, is an Amazonian Myrtaceae shrub or small tree of flooded riverbanks across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana, and Bolivia, with pulp containing 2.4-3.0 g vitamin C per 100 g; IUCN Least Concern.
Myrica
Myrica (bayberry, wax myrtle) is a cosmopolitan genus of about 50 accepted species of aromatic, actinorhizal shrubs and trees in Myricaceae (Fagales), including bog myrtle, wax myrtles, and Chinese bayberry, with Morella now synonymized under it.
Myricaceae
Myricaceae, the bayberry or sweet gale family, is a small Fagales family of aromatic, resin-dotted shrubs and small trees (Myrica, Comptonia, Morella, Canacomyrica) with waxy drupes and Frankia nitrogen-fixing root nodules.
Myriophyllum
Myriophyllum (watermilfoils), Haloragaceae genus of about 60 aquatic species with feathery whorled leaves; includes invasive Eurasian watermilfoil (M. spicatum) and parrotfeather (M. aquaticum), whose hybrids resist 2,4-D herbicide.
Myriophyllum spicatum
Myriophyllum spicatum, Eurasian watermilfoil or spiked watermilfoil, is a submerged Haloragaceae aquatic herb native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa, invasive across 48 U.S. states, spreading by fragments, hybridizing with M. sibiricum.
Myriopteris
Myriopteris, a genus of about 47 xeric-adapted lip ferns (Pteridaceae, Cheilanthoideae) of North and Central America, resurrected by Grusz & Windham 2013 from polyphyletic Cheilanthes; type M. marsupianthes, sister to the pellaeid clade.
Myristica
Myristica (nutmeg genus) is a genus of about 173 dioecious Myristicaceae trees from tropical Asia to the western Pacific; Myristica fragrans of the Banda Islands yields nutmeg and mace.