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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 517 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 2,914 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Acacia.

More info about the Genus Acacia may be found here.

Acaena

Acaena is a genus of about 100 species of perennial herbs and subshrubs in the Rosaceae, native mainly to the Southern Hemisphere, notably New Zealand, Australia and South America, but with a few species extending into the Northern Hemisphere, north to Hawaii (A. exigua) and California (A. pinnatifida). [more]

At least 570 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Acaena.

More info about the Genus Acaena may be found here.

Acer

At least 2,630 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Acer.

More info about the Genus Acer may be found here.

Achlys

Herbs, perennial, deciduous, 2.5-5 dm, glabrous. Rhizomes extensive, branching, producing 1-few foliage leaves or flowering shoots per year. Aerial stems absent. Leaves basal, alternate, 3-foliolate; petiole long, slender. Leaf blade orbiculate in gross outline, 20-40 cm; leaflet blades fan-shaped, entire or lobed, lateral leaflet blades strongly asymmetric, margins entire to coarsely sinuate; venation palmate. Inflorescences terminal, dense scapose-pedunculate spikes of inconspicuous flowers. Flowers 3-merous, white to cream, 6 mm or less; bracteoles absent; sepals absent; petals absent; stamens 8-10(-13) ; anthers dehiscing by 2 apically hinged flaps; pollen exine striate; ovaries asymmetrically ellipsoid; placentation marginal, placenta developed only near base of ovary. Fruits follicles with transverse dehiscence, purplish red or brown, curved, furrowed. Seeds 1, brown; aril absent. x = 6.^[3] [more]

At least 6 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Achlys.

More info about the Genus Achlys 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.^[4] [more]

At least 1,259 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Aconitum.

More info about the Genus Aconitum may be found here.

Acradenia

At least 5 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Acradenia.

More info about the Genus Acradenia may be found here.

Actaea

Herbs perennial. Rhizome robust, creeping, with numerous fibrous roots. Stems simple, erect. Basal leaves scaly; cauline leaves alternate, 2 or 3 × ternate, long petiolate. Inflorescence racemose, simple or branched. Flowers small, actinomorphic. Sepals usually 4, petaloid, white, caducous. Petals 1--6, spatulate, yellow, smaller than sepals, without a nectary. Stamens numerous; filaments narrowly linear-filarious; anthers yellowish white, ovate-orbicular. Carpels 1; ovary ellipsoid, glabrous, stigma sessile, compressed, 2-lobed. Fruit a berry, purple-black, red, or white when ripe, subglobose. Seeds several, ovate, brown or black.^[5] [more]

At least 201 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Actaea.

More info about the Genus Actaea 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.^[6] [more]

At least 236 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 284 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.^[7] [more]

At least 968 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Adiantum.

More info about the Genus Adiantum may be found here.

Adonis

Herbs, annual, or perennial from stout rhizomes. Leaves basal and cauline (cauline often absent at flowering time), proximal leaves petiolate, distal leaves sessile; cauline leaves alternate. Leaf blade 1-3-pinnately dissected, segments narrowly linear, margins entire or with occasional tooth. Inflorescences terminal, flowers solitary; bracts absent. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; sepals not persistent in fruit, 5(-8), nearly colorless or green, plane, obovate, 6-22 mm, apex ± erose; petals 3-20, distinct, yellow to red [white], often striped or basally darkened with black, purple, or blue, plane, oblanceolate, 8-35 mm; nectary absent; stamens 15-80; filaments filiform; staminodes absent between stamens and pistils; pistils ca. 20-50, simple; ovule 1 per pistil; style present. Fruits achenes, aggregate, sessile, nearly globose, sides veined or rugose; beak terminal, straight or strongly curved, 0.5-1 mm. x =8.^[8] [more]

At least 168 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Adonis.

More info about the Genus Adonis may be found here.

Aeonium

Aeonium is a genus of about 35 species of succulent, subtropical plants of the family Crassulaceae. Most of them are native to the Canary Islands. Some species are found in Madeira, Morocco and in eastern Africa (for example in the Semien Mountains of Ethiopia). [more]

At least 215 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Aeonium.

More info about the Genus Aeonium may be found here.

Agapanthus

Agapanthus ("Lily of the Nile") is a genus of flower plants with six to ten species depending on how the different species are classified. They are all herbaceous perennial plants native to South Africa. They have been placed either in the family Alliaceae, or separated into their own monogeneric family Agapanthaceae (e.g. Indices Nominum Supragenericorum Plantarum Vascularium). [more]

At least 514 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Agapanthus.

More info about the Genus Agapanthus may be found here.

Agastache

Herbs tall perennials. Leaves petiolate, margin dentate. Verticillasters many flowered, in terminal spikes. Calyx tubular-obconical, straight, 15-veined, not hairy annulate inside, throat oblique. Corolla tube straight, gradually dilated to throat, as long as to slightly longer than calyx, not hairy annulate inside, 2-lipped; upper lip straight, 2-lobed; lower lip spreading, 3-lobed, middle lobe widest, spreading, base not clawed, margin undulate, lateral lobes straight. Stamens 4, fertile, much exserted, posterior 2 longer and inclined forward, anterior 2 erect-ascending; anther cells 2, initially almost parallel, later ± divergent. Style subequally 2-cleft. Nutlets smooth, apex hairy.^[9] [more]

At least 168 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Agastache.

More info about the Genus Agastache may be found here.

Agathosma

Agathosma is a genus of about 135 species of flowering plants in the family Rutaceae, native to the southern part of Africa. Common names include Bookoo, Buchu, Bucco, and Diosma. [more]

At least 315 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Agathosma.

More info about the Genus Agathosma 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,