4,295 articles
Nigella sativa
Nigella sativa (black cumin, black seed, kalonji) is an annual Ranunculaceae herb native from Romania to Iran, grown for dark aromatic seeds rich in thymoquinone and linoleic acid, used as spice and in herbal medicine.
Night-blooming cereus
Night-blooming cereus, also called Reina de la noche, is a common name for at least four cactus species, including dragonfruit, whose large white flowers open for a single night.
Nitrogen uptake
Nitrogen uptake is the assimilation of ammonium, nitrate, and organic nitrogen by plants and microorganisms, studied in crops and streams with 15N tracers and quantified by metrics like uptake length.
Nixtamalization
Nixtamalization (Nahuatl nextli + tamali) is the alkaline lime- or ash-cooking and steeping of maize to make nixtamal and masa. It releases bound niacin, adds calcium, cuts mycotoxins, and prevents pellagra.
Nodularia spumigena
Nodularia spumigena is a filamentous, nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium of the order Nostocales that forms toxic summer blooms in brackish waters, most prominently the Baltic Sea, and produces the liver toxin nodularin.
Nolana
Nolana (Nolanaceae, now Solanaceae) is a genus of about 92 species of fog-desert herbs and shrubs native to coastal Peru and Chile and the Galápagos, recognized by its hard mericarp fruits.
Nolina texana
Nolina texana (sacahuista, Texas sacahuista, Texas beargrass) is a perennial Asparagaceae rosette plant native from southern New Mexico through Texas to northern Mexico, with fibrous leaves to 5 feet, late-winter flowers, and seeds poisonous to livestock.
Non-vascular plant
A non-vascular plant is a land plant lacking the xylem and phloem tissues that move water and nutrients internally, a group that in practice means the bryophytes: the mosses, liverworts, and hornworts.
Nopal
Nopal (nopalli, Nahuatl) is the Mexican name for Opuntia prickly pear cacti, especially Opuntia ficus-indica, whose pads (nopalitos) are eaten as a low-calorie vegetable and forage; CAM photosynthesis, mucilage, and Mexico's leading production distinguish it.
Nori
Nori (海苔; kim in Korea, zicai in China) is dried sheet-form red seaweed of Porphyra/Pyropia used to wrap sushi, with 30-50% protein, produced mainly in Japan, Korea, and China.
Norimaki (海苔巻)
Norimaki (海苔巻) is Japanese rolled sushi: vinegared rice and filling rolled in a dried nori seaweed sheet, as futomaki, hosomaki, or temaki. Nori cultivation began in Edo in the late 1600s; Drew-Baker's 1949 conchocelis discovery stabilized the industry.
Nothofagus alpina
Nothofagus alpina, raulí, is a deciduous southern beech of Chile and southwest Argentina, reaching 45 m and 650–800 years, prized for rose-coloured timber and widely planted in Chilean silviculture; IUCN Least Concern.
Nothofagus dombeyi
Nothofagus dombeyi, coihue or coigüe (Dombey's beech), an evergreen southern beech (Nothofagaceae) up to 40 m, dominant in Chilean-Argentine Patagonian forests from Colchagua to Aysén; IUCN Least Concern, hard timber tree.
Nothofagus pumilio
Nothofagus pumilio (lenga), a deciduous southern beech of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego; dominant Andean treeline species and main commercial timber of southern Chile and Argentina, managed by shelterwood.
Nothotsuga
Nothotsuga, bristlecone hemlock (长苞铁杉), is a monotypic Pinaceae genus whose sole species N. longibracteata is a relict tree of southern China, split from Tsuga about 90 mya and rated Near Threatened.
Notothyladaceae
Notothyladaceae (Müll.Frib. ex Prosk., 1960) is a hornwort family in the order Notothyladales, with genera Notothylas, Phaeoceros, Paraphymatoceros, and Mesoceros; synonym Phaeocerotaceae.
Notothylas
Notothylas (Sull. ex A. Gray) is a genus of hornworts in Notothyladaceae, order Notothyladales, with about 9-11 species. Distinguished by a bullet-shaped sporophyte under 2 mm, absent stomata, and a poorly developed columella.
Nuphar
Nuphar (spatterdock, yellow pond-lily) is a genus of about 15 aquatic species in the water-lily family Nymphaeaceae, native to temperate and subtropical Northern Hemisphere fresh waters, basal in its family with Barclaya as closest relative.
Nut (food)
Nut (food): edible hard-shelled kernels including true botanical nuts, drupes, and seeds such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios, and peanuts. Eaten since prehistoric times; linked to lower cardiovascular and all-cause mortality; main hazard is aflatoxin.
Nut (fruit)
A nut is, in strict botany, a dry, one-seeded fruit with a hard pericarp that does not open at maturity, though in cooking the word covers almost any edible oily kernel in a shell.
Nutmeg
Nutmeg, the dried seed kernel of Myristica fragrans (mace is its red aril), a tropical spice native to the Banda Islands of Indonesia, once a Dutch VOC monopoly, traded for Manhattan in 1667, and toxic via myristicin in large doses.
Nyctaginaceae
Nyctaginaceae, the four o'clock family, is a Caryophyllales family of about 30-32 genera and 400 species, mostly New World tropics, with anthocarp fruits, Mirabilis jalapa, Bougainvillea, bird-catcher Pisonia trees, and two independent C4 origins.
Nyctanthes arbor-tristis
Nyctanthes arbor-tristis (Parijat, night jasmine, tree of sadness) is an Oleaceae shrub or small tree to 10 m, native Himalaya to Jawa, with fragrant night-opening white flowers, orange dye tubes, and Ayurvedic medicinal use.
Nymphaea
Nymphaea (water lilies) is a cosmopolitan genus of about 50 aquatic flowering plants in Nymphaeaceae, with floating cordate leaves, showy flowers, five subgenera, an Early Cretaceous family fossil record, and major ornamental and edible uses.
Nymphaea alba
Nymphaea alba, the European white water lily (weiße Seerose), is a rhizomatous aquatic herb native from Europe to the W. Himalaya and NW. Africa, with floating cordate leaves, white 70–140 mm flowers, and close affinity to N. candida.
Nymphaea lotus
Nymphaea lotus, the white Egyptian lotus or white water lily, is an African tuberous water lily (Nymphaeaceae) with white night-opening flowers, edible and medicinal uses, and IUCN Least Concern status.
Nymphaeaceae
Nymphaeaceae, commonly called the water-lily family, is a family of perennial aquatic flowering plants with floating leaves and showy flowers, comprising about 70 species in five genera including Nymphaea and Victoria.
Nymphoides
Nymphoides (floatinghearts, water snowflakes) is a cosmopolitan genus of about 50 floating-leaved aquatic herbs in Menyanthaceae that resemble water lilies but are unrelated, with white or yellow fringed flowers and invasive tendencies.
Nymphoides indica
Nymphoides indica, the water snowflake, is a floating aquatic plant with round green leaves and white fringed flowers, native to tropical Asia and the Pacific.
Nypa fruticans
Nypa fruticans (nipa palm, mangrove palm, golpata), the sole species of genus Nypa and the only monocot true mangrove, a stemless clumping palm of Indo-West Pacific brackish shores, Least Concern natively but invasive in the Niger Delta.