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Taxonomy

Genera

Abelia

At least 120 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Abelia.

More info about the Genus Abelia may be found here.

Abies

Trees evergreen, crown usually spirelike to conic, sometimes flat to round topped in age. Bark initially thin, smooth, bearing resin blisters, in age furrowed and/or flaking in plates. Branches whorled, irregular internodal branches occasionally produced by epicormic sprouting (growing from a dormant bud) ; short (spur) shoots absent; leaf scars prominent, ± circular to broadly elliptic, flush with twig surface, slightly depressed, or slightly raised evenly all around. Buds ovate or oblong, resinous or not, apex rounded or pointed. Leaves borne singly, persisting 5 or more years, spirally arranged but often proximally twisted so as to appear either 1-ranked (pointing up like toothbrush bristles) or 2-ranked, sessile, typically constricted and often twisted above the somewhat broadened base, sheath absent; leaves on vegetative branches flattened, frequently grooved adaxially, usually notched to rounded at apex; leaves on fertile branches sometimes appearing 4-sided, upright, sharp-pointed to rounded at apex; resin canals 2. Cones borne on year-old twigs. Pollen cones grouped, ovate or oblong-cylindric, leaving gall-like protuberances after falling, yellow to red, green, blue, or purple. Seed cones maturing in 1 season, erect, ovoid to oblong-cylindric or cylindric, not falling whole but scale by scale, cone axis persisting as an erect "spike" on branch; scales shed individually, fan-shaped, lacking apophysis and umbo; bracts included to exserted. Seeds winged, the wing-seed juncture bearing resin sac; cotyledons 4--10. x =12.^[1] [more]

At least 527 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Abies.

More info about the Genus Abies may be found here.

Acacia

Trees, shrubs, rarely herbs, often prickly or spinose. Leaves bipinnate; leaflets small and numerous or leaves reduced to phyllodes; petiolar glands often present; stipules generally spinescent. Inflorescence cylindric spike or globose head; peduncle solitary axillary or fasciculate or paniculate at the end of branches; bracts often two, scale like, situated on the peduncle at various levels. Flowers small, 3-5-merous, bisexual or plants polygamous. Calyx campanulate, dentate, lobed or polysepalous. Petals usually more or less united, rarely absent. Stamens indefinite, free or shortly and irregularly connate at the base; anthers small, eglandular. Ovary sessile or stipitate, with 2 or more ovules. Fruit ovate to linear, straight, arcuate or contorted, membranous to woody, rarely articulated or moniliform. Seed large, with a filiform funicle or fleshy aril.^[2] [more]

At least 2,930 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Acacia.

More info about the Genus Acacia may be found here.

Acalles

The genus Acalles belongs to the weevil family Curculionidae. It contains the following species : [more]

At least 471 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Acalles.

More info about the Genus Acalles may be found here.

Acanthus

At least 129 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Acanthus.

More info about the Genus Acanthus may be found here.

Acer

At least 2,652 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Acer.

More info about the Genus Acer may be found here.

Aconitum

Herbs, perennial, from tubers or elongate, fascicled roots. Leaves basal and cauline, proximal leaves petiolate, distal leaves sessile or nearly so; cauline leaves alternate. Leaf blade palmately divided into 3-7 segments, ultimate segments narrowly elliptic or lanceolate to linear, margins incised and toothed. Inflorescences terminal, sometimes also axillary, 1-32(-more) racemes or panicles, to 28 cm; bracts leaflike, not forming involucre. Flowers bisexual, bilaterally symmetric; sepals not persistent in fruit; lower sepals (pendents) 2, plane, 6-20 mm; lateral sepals 2, round-reniform; upper sepal (hood) 1, saccate, arched, crescent-shaped or hemispheric to rounded-conic or tall and cylindric, usually beaked, 10-50 mm; petals 2, distinct, bearing near apex a capitate to coiled spur, concealed in hood, long-clawed; nectary present, on spur; stamens 25-50; filaments with base expanded; staminodes absent between stamens and pistils; pistils 3(-5), simple; ovules 10-20 per pistil; style present. Fruits follicles, aggregate, sessile, oblong, sides prominently transversely veined; beak terminal, straight, 2-3 mm. Seeds deltoid, usually with small, transverse, membranous lamellae. x =8.^[3] [more]

At least 1,276 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Aconitum.

More info about the Genus Aconitum may be found here.

Actinidia

Climbing shrubs, glabrous or hairy, indumentum of stellate or simple hairs; pith solid or lamellate. Branches usually with linear, lengthwise lenticels; winter buds small, enclosed in swollen base of petiole or exposed. Leaves often long petiolate; stipules minute, obsolete, or absent; leaf blade membranous, papery, or leathery, venation penniveined, veinlets reticulate, usually in cross-bars, margin serrate or dentate, rarely entire. Inflorescences cymose, axillary, often pseudo-umbellate, few- or many flowered, or flowers solitary; bracts present, minute. Flowers white, pink, red, yellow, or green, bisexual, plants polygamous or functionally dioecious. Sepals (2-) 5(or 6), distinct or connate at base, imbricate, rarely valvate, persistent or not. Petals (4 or) 5(or more than 5), imbricate. Stamens numerous, in functionally female flowers often with shorter filaments and smaller sterile anthers; filaments slender; anthers yellow, brown, purple, or black, versatile, attached at middle, 2-celled, dehiscing lengthwise, usually divaricate at base. Disk absent. Ovary ovoid, cylindrical, or bottle-shaped, glabrous or hairy, many loculed; ovules numerous per locule; styles as many as carpels (15-30), usually reflexed, persistent, radiating, in functionally female flower elongating after anthesis; rudimentary ovary in functionally male flower very small, with minute styles. Fruit a berry, globose, ovoid, or oblong, spotted with lenticels or not, glabrous or hairy. Seeds numerous, oblong, small, immersed in pulp; testa cartilaginous, reticulate-pitted; albumen copious and abundant; embryo comparatively large, cylindrical, straight, at center of albumen; cotyledons short.^[4] [more]

At least 241 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Actinidia.

More info about the Genus Actinidia may be found here.

Adenophora

Adenophora is a genus of flowering plant within the family Campanulaceae. [more]

At least 288 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Adenophora.

More info about the Genus Adenophora may be found here.

Adiantum

Plants terrestrial or on rock. Stems short- to long-creeping or suberect, branched; scales deep tawny yellow to dark reddish brown [black], concolored or bicolored, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, margins entire, erose-ciliate, or minutely dentate. Leaves monomorphic to somewhat dimorphic, densely clustered to closely spaced [distant], 15--110 cm. Petiole chestnut brown to dark purple or blackish, with single groove adaxially, glabrous, hispid, or strigose, with 1 or 2 vascular bundles. Blade lanceolate, ovate, trowel-shaped, or fan-shaped, 1--4(--9) -pinnate proximally, membranaceous to papery, both surfaces commonly glabrous (2 species with scattered hairs), adaxially dull or shiny, not striate; rachis straight or flexuous. Ultimate segments subsessile to short-stalked (stalks terminating in cupulelike swelling at base of pinna in A. tenerum ), round, fan-shaped, rhombic, or oblong, 3--29 mm wide; base truncate to cuneate, free from costa; stalk dark, often lustrous; fertile segments with marginal lobes recurved to form false indusia. Veins of ultimate segments conspicuous, free, ± dichotomously forking near base and well above segment base [anastomosing in a few tropical species], parallel distally. False indusia light gray-green or brown to dark brown, narrow, 0.6--1 mm wide, marginal, concealing sporangia until sporangia dehisce. Sporangia submarginal, borne along or sometimes also between veins on abaxial surface of false indusium, paraphyses and glands absent. Spores yellow or yellowish brown, tetrahedral-globose, trilete, rugulate to rugose or tuberculate, equatorial ridge absent. x = 29, 30.^[5] [more]

At least 976 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Adiantum.

More info about the Genus Adiantum may be found here.

Aegle

At least 34 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Aegle.

More info about the Genus Aegle may be found here.

Aerides

Aerides or the Cat's-tail Orchid or the Fox Brush Orchid, is a genus belonging to the Orchid family (Orchidaceae) (subfamily Epidendroideae, tribe Vandeae, subtribe Sarcanthinae). This genus is abbreviated Aer in horticultural trade. [more]

At least 176 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Aerides.

More info about the Genus Aerides may be found here.

Aeschynanthus

Shrubs or climbers, epiphytic or epipetric, not rhizomatous. Stems often pendent, branched or unbranched. Leaves usually many, along stem, opposite, sometimes whorled, equal to subequal in a pair; leaf blade glabrous, rarely puberulent or pubescent, base cuneate to rounded or attenuate. Inflorescences umbel-like, lax or sometimes dense, axillary or pseudoterminal, 1-10-flowered cymes; bracts 2, opposite. Calyx actinomorphic, 5-sect from base to 5-lobed; segments equal, rarely unequal. Corolla red to orange, seldom greenish, yellow, or white, zygomorphic, inside sparsely puberulent, sparsely glandular puberulent, glabrous, or with a hair ring; tube narrowly tubular to funnelform-tubular, often curved, not swollen, much longer than limb, 0.4-1.5 cm in diam.; limb indistinctly or distinctly 2-lipped; adaxial lip 2-lobed; usually equalling, occasionally to 1/2 X length of abaxial lip; abaxial lip 3-lobed, lobes equal or subequal, apex rounded to acute. Stamens 4, adnate to corolla tube near or above middle, usually exserted; anthers basifixed, usually coherent in pairs at apex, thecae parallel, not confluent, dehiscing longitudinally; connective not projecting; staminode 1 or absent, adnate to adaxial side of corolla tube. Disc ringlike. Ovary linear, 1-loculed; placentas 2, parietal, projecting inward, 2-cleft. Stigma 1, terminal, capitate to depressed-globose, undivided. Capsule straight in relation to pedicel, linear, much longer than calyx, dehiscing loculicidally to base; valves 2 or 4, straight, not twisted. Seeds with 1(or 2-50) hairlike appendages, opposite end with 1 hairlike appendage, seldom 1 linear appendage at each end.^[6] [more]

At least 334 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Aeschynanthus.

More info about the Genus Aeschynanthus may be found here.

Aesculus

Trees or shrubs, deciduous. Winter buds large, viscid resinous or not, with several pairs of imbricate scales; scales abaxially glabrous or sparsely puberulent. Leaf blade 5-11-foliolate; leaflet blades without scattered, conspicuous glands, margin crenate to serrate or compoundly so. Thyrse cylindric or conic; branches simple; bracts absent. Flowers often large and showy. Sepals connate to form a tubular to campanulate calyx tube. Petals often unequal, base clawed, limb obovate, oblong, oblanceolate, or spatulate. Ovary without a gynophore; style long, slender; stigma depressed globose, entire or obscurely lobed. Capsule depressed globose to pyriform, without a long gynophore, often 1-seeded; pericarp usually smooth, often dotted, rarely verrucose or prickly. Seeds depressed globose to pyriform, large (2-7 cm) ; testa brown; hilum large, pale, occupying 1/3-1/2 of seed. x = 20.^[7] [more]

At least 224 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Aesculus.

More info about the Genus Aesculus may be found here.

Agave

Plants short-stemmed pachycauls, perennial, often flowering after 8-20+ years, monocarpic or polycarpic, acaulescent or caulescent, scapose, forming succulent rosettes on thick, fibrous-rooted crowns, often rhizomatous. Stems aboveground, unbranched or, less often, branched. Leaves evergreen in rosette; blade light green to green and occasionally with lighter patterns of white (€œcross-zoned€�) or imprinted with white (€œbud-prints€�), linear-lanceolate to ovate, firm to rigid, often thick and fleshy, margins entire, filiferous, or armed with marginal teeth and short to long, sharp-pointed apical spine. Scapes, with inflorescences, much exceeding foliage. Inflorescences terminal atop a semiwoody stalk, spicate, racemose, or paniculate, open to dense, bracteate, occasionally bulbiferous, with flowers borne singly, in pairs, or in umbellike clusters of 2-40+ on peduncles or the lateral branches borne by the peduncle. Flowers protandrous, erect or recurved, showy; perianth mostly yellow, infrequently whitish or reddish, funnelform to tubular; tepals 6, connate basally into tube atop a typically constricted neck; limb lobes erect or curved, equal to unequal in length and/or width, linear to oblong or deltate, often papillate at recurved or hooded