4,295 articles
Parasitic plant
Parasitic plants, also called hemiparasites and holoparasites, are flowering plants that steal water and nutrients from hosts via a haustorium; about 4,750 species, 12 independent origins, including Striga, Orobanche, Cuscuta, and Rafflesia.
Parboiled rice
Parboiled rice, also called converted rice, is paddy rice soaked, steamed, and dried in the husk before milling. The process moves B vitamins into the endosperm, hardens the grain, lowers glycemic index, and is preferred in South Asia and West Africa.
Parietaria
Parietaria (pellitory, pellitory-of-the-wall) is a genus of about 26 Urticaceae herbs in Rosales that grows in old walls and cracks; its long-season, wind-dispersed pollen is a leading cause of allergic rhinitis and asthma in the Mediterranean.
Parinari
Parinari is a pantropical genus of about 40 accepted species of trees and shrubs in Chrysobalanaceae, described by Aublet in 1775, marked by bilocular ovaries and hair-filled stomatal crypts, and known for the African mobola plum (P. curatellifolia).
Parkia
Parkia R.Br. is a pantropical genus of about 37 leguminous tree species (Fabaceae), including petai (Parkia speciosa) and African locust bean (P. biglobosa), bat-pollinated trees with edible seeds, timber, and medicinal uses.
Parkia biglobosa
Parkia biglobosa, the African locust bean or néré, is a Fabaceae savanna tree from Senegal to South Sudan whose fermented seeds (soumbala, dawadawa, iru) are a staple West African condiment; IUCN least concern.
Parnassia
Parnassia, the grass of Parnassus genus, is a group of about 56–61 species of glabrous perennial herbs in Celastraceae, Pan-Himalayan center, solitary white flowers with five nectar-mimicking staminodes.
Parodia
Parodia (Spegazzini, 1923), including the old genus Notocactus, is a South American globular cactus genus in Cactaceae with 33-76 accepted species, funnel-shaped yellow to red flowers, and many threatened species.
Parrot tulip
Parrot tulip, Parrot Group, Division 10 of garden tulips: single cup-shaped flowers with laciniate, curled, twisted, often striped tepals, opening mid to late spring; stable virus-free mutations celebrated since the early 17th century.
Parsley
Parsley (Petroselinum crispum, garden parsley) is a biennial Apiaceae herb native to the Mediterranean region, grown as curly-leaf, flat-leaf Italian, and Hamburg root types; rich in vitamin K, C, and A, with apiol and myristicin oils.
Parsnip
Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa), a biennial Apiaceae root vegetable native to Eurasia, grown for its sweet cream-yellow taproot harvested after frost; furanocoumarins in foliage cause photodermatitis; feral in North America.
Parthenium
Parthenium is a New World genus of 19 Asteraceae species, best known for P. hysterophorus (Santa Maria feverfew, Congress grass), an allelopathic annual invasive weed in over 30 countries.
Parthenium argentatum
Parthenium argentatum, guayule, a Chihuahuan Desert aster shrub storing 8–12% natural rubber in bark parenchyma; hypoallergenic latex source, once 10% of world rubber in 1910, now a US domestic rubber crop.
Parthenium hysterophorus
Parthenium hysterophorus (congress grass, famine weed), an Asteraceae annual herb native to tropical America, is a noxious invasive weed in 46 countries, causing dermatitis, asthma, allelopathic crop damage, and managed mainly by biocontrol beetles and rust fungi.
Parthenocissus
Parthenocissus, a genus of 16 climbing vine species in Vitaceae published in 1887, native from Asia to North America; includes Virginia creeper (P. quinquefolia) and Boston ivy (P. tricuspidata), which climb via adhesive tendril pads.
Parthenocissus quinquefolia
Parthenocissus quinquefolia, known as Virginia creeper or five-leaved ivy, is a deciduous woody vine of the grape family, native to eastern and central North America.
Pascopyrum smithii
Pascopyrum smithii, western wheatgrass (syn. Agropyron smithii), a native rhizomatous cool-season sod-forming North American prairie grass, allo-octoploid 2n=56, valued for forage, salinity tolerance, and erosion-control revegetation.
Paspalum dilatatum
Paspalum dilatatum, dallisgrass or common paspalum, is a South American warm-season perennial pasture grass introduced worldwide, valued as forage from Texas to North Carolina but toxic via Claviceps paspali ergot and a major invasive weed in Australia and turf.
Paspalum notatum
Paspalum notatum, bahiagrass (grama forquilha), a mat-forming perennial South American pasture grass of Poaceae with sexual diploids and apomictic tetraploids, grown in the US Southeast; cultivars Pensacola, Tifton 9, Argentine; low seed yield.
Passiflora
Passiflora (passionflower) is a genus of over 500 Passifloraceae vines and lianas native to the Americas, tropical Asia, and the SW Pacific, known for intricate crucifixion-symbolic flowers, four subgenera, and fruits like passionfruit (P. edulis).
Passiflora caerulea
Passiflora caerulea, blue passion flower or bluecrown passionflower, is a hardy South American passion vine climber with white flowers and blue-purple coronas, orange ornamental fruit, and wide use in hybrids and as rootstock.
Passiflora edulis
Passiflora edulis, the passion fruit vine (maracujá, lilikoi), a Passifloraceae liana native to Brazil to NE Argentina; purple and yellow forms, self-incompatible yellow type pollinated by Xylocopa bees, about 1.5 million metric tons produced yearly, Brazil leading.
Passiflora incarnata
Passiflora incarnata (purple passionflower, maypop) is a Passifloraceae vine native to central and eastern USA and Bermuda, used traditionally as a sedative; EU-registered for mild stress and sleep, with limited clinical evidence.
Passion fruit (fruit)
Passion fruit is the edible berry of Passiflora edulis vines native to South America, grown in purple and yellow forms and valued fresh and for juice; Brazil leads production.
Pastinaca
Pastinaca is a genus of 8-16 Apiaceae herbs native from Europe to Mongolia and Lebanon, containing the cultivated parsnip Pastinaca sativa, whose edible taproot and furanocoumarin sap toxicity distinguish it.
Patchouli
Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin, 广藿香), Lamiaceae herb of Sri Lanka and Malesia; leaves steam-distilled into earthy patchouli oil rich in patchoulol, dominated by Indonesian production and used as a perfumery fixative.
Paubrasilia echinata
Paubrasilia echinata (pau-brasil, brazilwood, pernambuco), formerly Caesalpinia echinata, is a critically endangered Fabaceae tree endemic to Brazil's Atlantic Forest coast; its red dye wood named the country and makes violin bows.
Paullinia
Paullinia (genus, Sapindaceae) is a group of about 185-220 Neotropical lianas including P. cupana, the caffeine-rich guaraná, and P. yoco; native to tropical America, Africa, and Madagascar.
Paulownia
Paulownia (empress tree, kiri) is a genus of fast-growing East Asian hardwood trees in Paulowniaceae with seven accepted species, very light wood (220–350 kg/m³), hybrid plantations for timber and biomass, and invasive P. tomentosa.
Paulownia tomentosa
Paulownia tomentosa, the princess or empress tree (kiri), is a fast-growing Paulowniaceae tree native to central and eastern China and South Korea, grown for fire-resistant timber and spring lilac flowers, but invasive in the US, Europe, and Colombia.