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Asteroideae

(Subfamily)

Overview

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Asteroideae is a of the plant family Asteraceae. It is made of several tribes including Astereae, Calenduleae, Eupatorieae, Gnaphalieae, Heliantheae, Senecioneae and Tageteae.

Photos

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Taxonomy

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The Subfamily Asteroideae is a member of the Family Compositae. Here is the complete "parentage" of Asteroideae:

The Subfamily Asteroideae is further organized into finer groupings including:

Genera

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Abelia

A genus in the Kingdom Animalia. [more]

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]

Acantholimon

Shrublets, usually thorny, pulvinate, often subglobose, many-branched. Leaves borne on current year's branches, crowded, sessile, persistent on old branches after withering; spring leaves at base of current year's branches and similar or different from summer leaves; leaf blade linear, linear-needlelike, or linear subulate, usually very shallowly obdeltate to subcomplanate in cross section, apex usually pointed to awned. Inflorescences borne in axil of spring leaves at base of current year's branches, branched or unbranched; spikes pedunculate, with 2--8 spikelets, arranged in 2 rows, sometimes rachis undeveloped with spike or spikelets axillary; spikelets 1--5-flowered; bracts distinctly shorter than bractlet of first flower, margin membranous; first bractlet similar to bract, margin broadly membranous. Calyx funnelform or rarely subtubular; tube straight or occasionally basally oblique, inconspicuously herbaceous along ribs and scarious between ribs; limb purple, pink, or white, broad, scarious, 5- or 10-lobed. Corolla slightly exserted from calyx; petals basally slightly connate. Stamens adnate to corolla base. Ovary linear-cylindrical, apex attenuate. Styles 5, free, glabrous; stigmas depressed capitate. Capsules oblong-filiform.[2] [more]

Acanthus

Acer

[more]

Aceras

Xenophrys aceras is a species of in the Megophryidae family. It is found in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montanes, and rivers. It is threatened by habitat loss. [more]

Achillea

Perennials [subshrubs], 6-80 cm (usually rhizomatous, sometimes fibrous rooted or taprooted; usually aromatic). Stems 1(-4+, clustered), usually erect, branched mostly distally, glabrous or sparsely to densely lanate (hairs usually basifixed). Leaves basal (often withering before flowering) and cauline; alternate; petiolate or sessile (bases ± clasping) ; blades (cauline equaling basal or slightly smaller distally) linear to oblong-lanceolate, usually 1-2[-4]-pinnately lobed, ultimate margins entire, abaxial faces sparsely to densely lanate, adaxial faces glabrate to sparsely tomentose. Heads radiate [discoid], in compact to open (± flat-topped), simple or compound, corymbiform arrays [borne singly]. Involucres campanulate to hemispheric, mostly 2-3(-5+) mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, 10-30 in (1-) 2-3(-4) series, oblong, ovate, or oblanceolate to lanceolate (midribs conspicuous), unequal, margins and apices (pale to black) scarious. Receptacles usually flat to slightly convex, rarely conic, paleate; paleae membranous, ± folded (sometimes each with central resin duct). Ray florets [0] 3-5(-12+), usually pistillate and fertile; corollas usually white (laminae yellow at bases), sometimes pale yellow to pink or purple (tubes ± flattened), laminae orbiculate to suborbiculate (becoming reflexed). Disc florets usually (5-) 15-75+, rarely 0, bisexual, fertile; corollas white to grayish or yellowish [yellow, pink], tubes ± flattened (bases ± saccate, clasping apices of cypselae), throats ± campanulate, lobes 5, ± deltate. Cypselae obcompressed, oblong to obovate (margins sometimes winged, apices rounded) ; ribs usually 2, lateral (sometimes plus 1 adaxial), faces glabrous (pericarps with myxogenic cells, sometimes with resin sacs; embryo sac development monosporic). x = 9.[3] [more]

Achimenes

Achimenes is a of about 25 species of tropical and subtropical rhizomatous perennial herbs in the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae. They have a multitude of common names such as Magic Flowers, Widow's Tears, Cupid's Bower, or Hot Water Plant. The plant's name comes from the Greek word meaning "suffer from cold." [more]

Acineta

A Genus in the Kingdom Plantae. [more]

Acinos

Acinos is a of ten species of annual and short-lived evergreen perennial woody plants native to southern Europe and western Asia. Its name comes from the Greek word akinos, the name of a small aromatic plant. They are small, tufted, bushy or spreading plants growing to 10-45 cm tall. The 2-lipped, tubular flowers are borne on erect sprikes in mid-summer. [more]

Acourtia

A genus in the Kingdom Animalia. [more]

Adromischus

Adromischus is a genus of easily propagated leaf from the Crassulaceae family. Adromischus are endemic to southern Africa. The name comes from the ancient Greek "adros" (=thick) et "mischos" (=stem). [more]

Aeginetia

Herbs fleshy. Stems very short, branched or not. Flowers large, solitary or clustered at stem apex. Bractlets absent. Pedicel very long, erect. Calyx spathelike, apex acute or obtuse-rounded. Corolla tubular or campanulate, indistinctly bilabiate; upper lip 2-lobed; lower lip 3-lobed; lobes subrounded. Stamens 4, included; anthers adherent, 1 cell fertile, another reduced into a spur. Carpels 2; ovary usually 1-locular and parietal placentas 2 or 4, occasionally imperfectly 2-locular and placentas axile. Style slightly curved; stigma fleshy, peltate. Capsule dehiscing by 2 valves. Seeds numerous; testa reticulate.[4] [more]

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.[5] [more]

Aethionema

Perennial or annual herbs, often woody below, branched, erect or suberect, leafy, glabrous or rarely papillose. Leaves simple, usually sessile or subsessile, oblong or linear, glaucous. Racemes corymbose, usually many flowered, ebracteate. Flowers mediocre, rose, lilac or white, rarely yellowish; pedicls filiform, usually spreading in fruit. Sepals oblong, obtuse, rounded at apex; inner ±saccate at base; outer often somewhat hooded at apex. Petals obovate, cuneate or clawed, rarely oblong; claw 1-3-nerved. Stamens 6; filaments of longer stamens append-aged, dilated or linear; anthers often apiculate, ovate-orbicular. Lateral nectar glands in pairs, minute, semiglobose; middle usually absent. Ovary ± ellipsoid with narrowly flattened margin, 1-2-locular with 1-2 (rarely 3-4) ovules in each locule; stigma capitate, sub-sessile or on distinct short style. Siliculae ovate, elliptic or suborbicular, laterally flattened, usually winged, dehiscent, (rarely heterocarpic with dehiscent and indehiscent fruits), 1-4-seeded; apex generally deeply notched or emarginate; wing entire or variously dentate; seed ovate, brown, often minutely papillose; radicle incumbent, oblique or accumbent.[6] [more]

Agapanthus

Agapanthus , the "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 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]

Ageratum

Annuals and perennials, mostly 20-120 cm. Stems often decumbent (rooting at proximal nodes), sparsely to densely branched. Leaves cauline; all or mostly opposite; petiolate; blades mostly 1-nerved, deltate to ovate, or elliptic to lanceolate, margins entire or toothed, faces glabrous or ± pilose, puberulent, or strigoso-hispid, sometimes gland-dotted. Heads discoid, in dense to open, cymiform to corymbiform arrays. Involucres campanulate, 3-6 mm. Phyllaries persistent, 30-40 in 2-3 series, usually 2-nerved, lanceolate, ± equal (often indurate, margins scarious). Receptacles conic, epaleate [paleate]. Florets 20-125; corollas white or bluish to lavender, throats ± campanulate (lengths 2 times diams.) ; styles: bases not enlarged, glabrous, branches ± linear to clavate (usually papillose and dilated distally). Cypselae prismatic, 4-5-ribbed, glabrous or sparsely strigoso-hispidulous; pappi persistent, of 5-6 aristate scales, or coroniform, or 0. x = 10.[7] [more]

Ajuga

Plants annual, biennial or perennial, herbaceous, rarely shrubs. Leaves simple; leaf blade papery, margin dentate to incised, rarely subentire. Verticillasters 2- to many flowered, in false spikes; floral leaves similar to stem leaves or gradually reduced to bracts, rarely dissimilar, larger than stem leaves. Flowers subsessile. Calyx ovoid to globose, campanulate to funnelform, 10-veined, sometimes with inconspicuous accessory veins; teeth 5, slightly irregular. Corolla purple to blue, rarely yellow or white, 2-lipped, often persistent in fruit; tube straight to slightly curved, base slightly bent/swollen; throat slightly dilated, villous annulate, rarely glabrous inside; upper lip straight, entire to 2-lobed; lower lip elongate, 3-lobed, with middle lobe obcordate to nearly flabellate and lateral lobes oblong. Stamens 4, didynamous, exserted from upper lip, involute in bud, anterior 2 longer; filaments straight to slightly curved; anther cells 2, apically confluent. Style subequally 2-cleft, lobes subulate. Nutlets obovoid, triquetrous, netted on back, lateral-ventral side with an areole 1/2-2/3 its length, with an elaiosome.[8] [more]

Alchemilla

Herbs perennial (rarely annual), with woody rhizome. Stems decumbent to erect. Leaves stipulate, long petiolate; stipules adnate to sheathing petiole; leaf blade simple, ± orbicular, margin lobed, digitate, or palmately parted. Inflorescences usually dense corymbs, rarely lax cymes or a solitary flower, ebracteate. Flowers very small, bisexual. Hypanthium urceolate, persistent, with constricted throat. Sepals 4(or 5), valvate; epicalyx segments 4(or 5), alternating with sepals. Petals absent. Disk lining hypanthium, margin thickened. Stamens (1-) 4; filaments free, short. Carpel 1(-4), sessile or substipitate, free; ovule ascending from base of locule; style basal or adaxial, filiform, glabrous; stigma capitellate. Achene 1(-4), enclosed in membranous hypanthium. Seed basal; testa membranous; cotyledons cylindric-obovoid. x = 8.[9] [more]

Allium

Herbs, perennial, scapose, from tunicate bulbs, with onion odor and taste. Bulbs solitary or clustered, dividing at base, or on rhizomes, reforming annually; outer coats generally brown or gray, smooth, fibrous, or with cellular reticulation (generally important in identification) ; inner coats membranous. Leaves generally withering from tip by anthesis, usually persistent, 1-12, basal; blade usually linear, terete, channeled, or flat (carinate in A. sativum, A. praecox, A. tuberosum, A. rotundum, A. neapolitanum, A. triquetrum, A. unifolium, and A. lacunosum), straight or ± falcate (coiled or circinate in A. nevadense and A. atrorubens), broader in A. victorialis and A. tricoccum, not petiolate (except in A. tricoccum and A. victorialis) . Scape usually persistent, terete or flattened. Inflorescences umbellate, flowering centripetally (centrifugally in A. schoenoprasum), sometimes replaced totally or partially by bulbils, subtended by spathe bracts; bracts conspicuous, ± fused, usually 3+-veined, equaling pedicel except in some introduced species, membranous. Flowers erect (pendent in A. triquetrum) ; tepals 6, in 2 similar whorls, ± distinct, petallike, usually becoming becoming dry and persisting; stamens 6, epipetalous; filaments in all but 1 native species broad at base, fused into ring (some introduced species and A. victorialis appendaged), linear, generally glabrous (A. rotundum and A. hoffmanii papillose to ciliate proximally) ; anthers and pollen variously colored; ovary superior, 3-lobed, sometimes crested with processes, 3-locular, usually 2 ovules per locule (6-8 in A. nigrum), crest processes 3 or 6, smooth except in A. haematochiton, A. sharsmithiae, and A. lacunosum; style 1; stigma capitate to ± 3-lobed; pedicel erect or spreading (lax in A. triquetrum) . Fruits capsular, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds black, obovoid, finely cellular-reticulate, cells smooth or minutely roughened, with 1-8 papillae, without caruncle except in A. triquetrum. x = 7, 8, 9.[10] [more]

Aloe

Plants succulent, shrubby or arborescent, scapose. Stems erect, clambering or ascending, branched or not. Leaves succulent, crowded, often rosulate or distichous; blade margins spiny-toothed or entire. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, paniculate to more often racemose, dense, bracteate. Flowers usually nodding; perianth red to yellow; tepals connate basally to almost entirely into tube; stamens 3 or 6; style slender; pedicel not articulate. Capsules papery to woody. x = 7.[11] [more]

Alstroemeria

Herbs, perennial, from fascicles of fusiform tubers. Stems mostly simple; fertile stems to 1 m or more; sterile stems shorter, more leafy. Leaves alternate; petiole often twisted so as to invert leaf; blade parallel-veined, linear to ovate, margins entire. Inflorescences terminal, umbellate [or 1-flowered]. Flowers slightly zygomorphic; tepals 6, distinct, red, orange, purple, green, or white, frequently spotted, to 5 cm; stamens 6, inserted on perianth base, declinate, usually unequal; ovary inferior; style slender; stigma 3-lobed, filiform. Fruits capsular, 3-valved, dehiscence loculicidal.[12] [more]

Ambrosia

A genus in the Kingdom Fungi. [more]

Ambrosinia

[more]

Ammobium

Ammobium alatum (Winged Everlasting) is a perennial native to Eastern Australia. [more]

Ammocharis

[more]

Amorphophallus

Amorphophallus (from amorphos, "without form, misshapen" + phallos, "penis", referring to the shape of the prominent spadix) is a large genus of some 170 tropical and subtropical tuberous herbaceous plants from the Arum family (Araceae). [more]

Ampelodesmos

Ampelodesmos is a monotypic genus of containing the single species Ampelodesmos mauritanicus, which is known by the common names stramma, Mauritania grass, rope grass, and dis grass. This is a clumping perennial grass which is native to the Mediterranean but has been introduced elsewhere and is cultivated as an ornamental. Its nodding flower panicles can be nearly two feet long. In its native area it is used as a fiber for making mats, brooms, and twine. The genus name comes from the Greek ampelos, "vine", and desmos, "bond", from its former use as a string to tie up grapevines. [more]

Ampelopsis

Lianas, woody, hermaphroditic or polygamo-monoecious. Tendrils 2- or 3-branched. Leaves simple, 1- or 2-pinnately or palmately compound. Inflorescence a corymbose cyme, leaf-opposed or pseudoterminal, often at tips of tendrils. Flowers 5-merous. Calyx saucer-shaped. Petals 5, free. Disk well developed, margin undulately lobed. Stamens 5. Style conspicuous; stigma inconspicuously expanded. Berry spherical, 1-4-seeded. Seed obovoid, base rostrate, apex rounded; cross-section of endosperm M-shaped.[13] [more]

Amyema

Amyema is a of semi-parasitic shrubs (mistletoes) which occur in Malesia and Australia. [more]

Anacamptis

Anacamptis is a from the orchid family (Orchidaceae); it is often abbreviated as Ant in horticulture. This genus was established by Louis Claude Richard in 1817; the type species is the Pyramidal Orchid (A. pyramidalis) and it nowadays contains about one-third of the species placed in the "wastebin genus" Orchis before this was split up at the end of the 20th century, among them many that are of hybrid origin. The genus' scientific name is derived from the Greek word anakamptein, meaning "to bend backwards". [more]

Anaphalis

Perennials [subshrubs] (dioecious or subdioecious), 20-80(-120+) cm; fibrous-rooted (rhizomatous, not stoloniferous). Stems usually 1, usually erect. Leaves basal and cauline; alternate; petiolate or sessile; blades oblanceolate or lanceolate to linear, bases ± cuneate, margins entire, faces usually bicolor [concolor], abaxial usually white to gray and tomentose (sometimes glandular as well, proximal leaves sometimes ± glabrate), adaxial usually greenish and glabrate or glabrous, sometimes grayish and sparsely arachnose. Heads usually discoid (unisexual or nearly so) or disciform, in glomerules in corymbiform or paniculiform arrays. Involucres subglobose, 6-8(-10) mm. Phyllaries in 8-12 series, bright white (opaque, at least toward tips, often proximally woolly; stereomes not glandular), unequal, ± papery (at least toward tips). Peripheral (pistillate) florets 50-150 (more numerous than staminate; sometimes a few pistillate florets peripheral in predominantly staminate heads or 1-9 staminate florets central in predominantly pistillate heads) ; corollas yellowish. Inner (functionally staminate) florets 30-55; corollas yellowish. Cypselae oblong [obclavate, ovoid, or cylindric] (2-nerved), faces ± scabrous (hairs clavate, not myxogenic) ; pappi usually readily falling, of 10-20 distinct or basally connate, barbellate bristles (tips of bristles ± clavate in bisexual or functionally staminate florets). x = 14.[14] [more]

Anarrhinum

[more]

Anarthrophyllum

[more]

Anarthropteris

[more]

Anchusa

Herbs annual or perennial, sparsely strigose or hispid, rarely soft appressed pubescent. Stems erect or spreading. Leaves alternate. Cymes terminal, widely spaced in fruit, scorpioid; bracts lanceolate. Calyx 5-parted nearly to base or less; lobes equal or unequal, linear to triangular, often slightly enlarged in fruit. Corolla blue-purple or yellowish, regular or slightly zygomorphic; tube usually longer than calyx, straight or arcuate or geniculate curved; throat appendages scaly or tuberculate and short pubescent; limb campanulate; lobes 5, equal or unequal, apex obtuse. Stamens inserted at or below middle of corolla tube, included; filaments short, filiform; anthers ovate-oblong, apex obtuse. Ovary 4-divided. Style included in corolla tube; stigma capitate, 2-cleft. Gynobase flat. Nutlets straight, reniform, or oblique-ovoid, reticulate-wrinkled; attachment scar at or near base, margin ringlike, thickened, hardened.[15] [more]

Ancistrochilus

Ancistrochilus is a genus of the orchid (Orchidaceae), comprising only 2 species. The name is derived from the Greek words ankistron ("hook") and cheilos ("lip"), referring to the form of the lip. [more]

Ancistrorhynchus

[more]

Ancylostemon

Herbs, perennial, epipetric or rarely terrestrial, rhizomatous, stemless. Leaves many, basal; leaf blade puberulent to villous, rarely glabrescent, base cuneate to subcordate. Inflorescences lax, axillary, 1-10-flowered cymes; bracts 2, opposite. Calyx actinomorphic, 5-sect from base to 5-lobed from above middle; segments equal to subequal. Corolla orange to yellow or white, rarely pink, zygomorphic, inside glabrous to puberulent, rarely pilose near base; tube narrowly funnelform to cylindric, slightly gibbous abaxially, longer than limb, 3-8 mm in diam.; limb 2-lipped to slightly 2-lipped; adaxial lip 2-lobed, emarginate, or rarely undivided, shorter than abaxial lip; abaxial lip 3-sect from base, lobes equal or central longer than laterals, apex rounded or rarely acute. Stamens 4, adnate to corolla tube above or rarely below middle, included or rarely exserted; anthers basifixed, coherent in pairs, thecae divergent, not confluent, dehiscing longitudinally; connective not projecting; staminode 1, adnate to adaxial side of corolla tube. Disc ringlike or rarely cupular. Ovary narrowly oblong, 1-loculed; placentas 2, parietal, projecting inward, 2-cleft. Stigmas 2, equal, 2-lipped, undivided. Capsule straight in relation to pedicel, oblong lanceolate to oblanceolate, much longer than calyx, dehiscing loculicidally to base; valves 2, straight, not twisted. Seeds unappendaged.[16] [more]

Andersonia

A Genus in the Kingdom Animalia. [more]

Andrachne

Andrachne is a genus of the family Phyllanthaceae and the sole genus comprised in the subtribe Andrachinae. [more]

Androsace

Herbs perennial, annual, or biennial, acaulescent, rarely caulescent with ascending or decumbent shoots from a caudex. Leaves forming a rosette, rarely alternate; rosettes solitary or clustered, forming lax mats or compact cushions. Inflorescences umbellate, rarely a solitary flower, with bracts. Flowers 5-merous, homostylous. Calyx campanulate to subglobose, shallowly to deeply lobed. Corolla white, pink, purple, or dark red, rarely yellow; tube usually ± inflated, ca. as long as to shorter than calyx; throat constricted; lobes entire or emarginate. Stamens included, inserted on corolla tube; filaments very short; anthers ovate, apex obtuse. Style not longer than corolla tube. Capsule subglobose, dehiscing nearly to base. Seeds few to many.[17] [more]

Anemanthele

Anemanthele is a monotypic of grass indigenous to New Zealand. Its only species is Anemanthele lessoniana, often called gossamer grass or New Zealand wind grass. This is a naturally rare grass in the wild but it is widely cultivated for use as an attractive ornamental garden plant. It is marginal in zone 8, going dormant and deciduous in cold winters, but usually an evergreen to semi-evergreen. Good green arching foliage to 3 feet in USDA 8, with highlights of orange, copper, and gold, especially in drier soils. Excellent backlit. [more]

Angelica

Herbs, biennial or perennial. Root often stout, conic or cylindric. Leaves petiolate, petiole sheaths conspicuously inflated; blade 1-4-pinnate or 1-3-ternate-pinnate. Umbels compound, terminal and lateral; bracts many or a few, rarely absent; rays many to several; bracteoles many or a few, entire. Calyx teeth obsolete or ovate-triangular. Petals white, rarely pink or dark purple, ovate to obovate, apex incurved. Stylopodium short-conic. Fruit ovoid to orbicular, dorsally compressed; dorsal ribs filiform, lateral ribs broad- or narrow-winged, separated when mature; vittae often 1-2 in each furrow, 2-4 on commissure. Seed face plane or slightly concave. Carpophore 2-cleft to base.[18] [more]

Angraecum

The Angraecum, abbreviated as Angcm in horticultural trade, common name Angrec or Comet Orchid, contains about 220 species, some of them among most magnificent of all orchids. They are quite varied vegetatively and florally and are adapted to dry tropical woodland habitat and have quite fleshy leaves as a consequence. Most are epiphytes, but a few are lithophytes. [more]

Anguloa

Anguloa, commonly known as tulip orchids, is a small genus closely related to Lycaste. Its abbreviation in horticulture is Ang. This genus was described by José Antonio Pavón and Hipólito Ruiz López in 1798. They named it in honor of Francisco de Angulo, a contemporary Peruvian who collected orchids as a hobby and by this way had become quite knowledgeable about these plants, assisting the botanists in their work. [more]

Antennaria

Antennaria is a of about 45 species of herbaceous perennial plants in the family Asteraceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with one species (A. chilensis) in temperate southern South America; the highest species diversity is in North America. Common names include catsfoot or cat's-foot, pussytoes and everlasting. [more]

Anthemis

Annuals (biennials) [perennials, subshrubs], mostly 5-90 cm (often aromatic). Stems 1-5+, erect to decumbent, usually branched, strigillose or strigoso-sericeous to villous (hairs medifixed), glabrescent [glabrous or sericeous to lanate]. Leaves mostly cauline; alternate; petiolate or sessile; blades ± obovate to spatulate, 1-3-pinnately lobed, ultimate margins dentate to lobed, faces glabrous or strigillose to villous [glabrous or sericeous to lanate]. Heads radiate [discoid], borne singly or in lax, corymbiform arrays (peduncles sometimes clavate and/or curved in fruit). Involucres obconic to hemispheric or broader, 5-13[-20] mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, mostly 21-35+ in 3-5 series, distinct, deltate to lanceolate, oblong, or elliptic, unequal, margins and apices (hyaline and colorless or brownish [black]) scarious. Receptacles hemispheric to narrowly conic, paleate (wholly or only distally) ; paleae ± flat, scarious to indurate (subulate or elliptic to obovate with mucronate to acuminate-spinose tips). Ray florets [0 or 2-]5-20[-30+], pistillate and fertile or styliferous and sterile; corollas usually white, rarely yellow or pink, laminae mostly oblong (tubes sometimes hairy). Disc florets (60-) 100-300+, bisexual, fertile; corollas usually yellow, rarely pink, tubes ± cylindric (usually proximally dilated, ± spongy in fruit, sometimes hairy, not saccate), throats funnelform, lobes 5, ± triangular (abaxially minutely crested). Cypselae obovoid to obconic or turbinate (circular or 4-angled in cross section), ribs usually 9-10 (0) and smooth or tuberculate, faces glabrous (pericarps with myxogenic cells) ; pappi 0 or coroniform. x = 9.[19] [more]

Anthericum

Anthericum is a of about 300 species, rhizomatous perennial plants in the family Agavaceae. The species have rhizomatous or tuberous roots, long narrow leaves and branched stems carrying starry white flowers. The members of this genus occurs mainly in the tropical and southern Africa and Madagascar, but also represented in Europe. [more]

Arabis

Herbs annual, biennial, or perennial, rarely subshrubs or shrubs. Trichomes stellate, dendritic, or stalked forked, sometimes mixed with fewer simple ones, rarely primarily simple. Stems simple or branched apically. Basal leaves petiolate, rosulate, simple, often entire, sometimes dentate, rarely lyrate-pinnatifid. Cauline leaves sessile and auriculate, sagittate, or amplexicaul, very rarely petiolate, entire or dentate. Racemes ebracteate or rarely bracteate throughout or only basally, sometimes in panicles, elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels erect, ascending, divaricate, or reflexed. Sepals ovate or oblong, base of lateral pair saccate or not, margin membranous. Petals white, pink, or purple; blade spatulate, oblong, or oblanceolate, rarely obovate, apex obtuse or emarginate; claw shorter than sepals. Stamens 6, tetradynamous; filaments usually not dilated at base; anthers ovate, oblong, or linear, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands confluent, subtending bases of all stamens; median glands sometimes toothlike and free, rarely absent; lateral glands semiannular or annular. Ovules 12-110 per ovary. Fruit dehiscent siliques, linear, latiseptate, sessile or rarely shortly stipitate; valves papery, with an obscure or prominent midvein, smooth or torulose; replum rounded; septum complete, membranous, translucent, veinless; style obsolete or distinct; stigma capitate, entire or slightly 2-lobed. Seeds uniseriate or biseriate, winged or margined, oblong or orbicular, flattened; seed coat smooth or minutely reticulate, not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent.[20] [more]

Ardisia

Trees, shrubs, suffrutescent [or rarely herbs]. Leaves alternate or pseudoverticillate, usually punctate or punctate-lineate. Inflorescences paniculate, cymose, corymbose, or umbellate, rarely racemose. Flowers bisexual, often punctate, 5- or rarely 4-merous. Calyx campanulate or cupular; sepals free or barely united at base, imbricate or quincuncial, usually punctate or punctate-lineate. Corolla campanulate, often punctate; lobes united at base, overlapping to right or very rarely to left, imbricate, or quincuncial, often conical in bud. Stamens attached at base or middle of corolla tube; filaments very short, broad at base; anthers dehiscing longitudinally or by apical pores. Ovary ovoid or subglobose, as long as or longer than petals; ovules 3 to many. Style base persistent; stigma minute, apiculate. Fruit drupaceous, 1-seeded, punctate, sometimes longitudinally ribbed, with somewhat fleshy exocarp and crusty or slightly bony endocarp. Seeds covered by membranous remnants of placenta.[21] [more]

Arecastrum

Syagrus is a of 30 to 42 species of Arecaceae (palms), native to South America, with one species endemic to the Lesser Antilles. The genus is closely related to the Cocos, or coconut genus, and many Syagrus species produce edible seeds similar to the coconut. [more]

Arenaria

A genus in the Kingdom Animalia. [more]

Argylia

[more]

Argyranthemum

Subshrubs or shrubs, 10-80+[-150] cm. Stems usually 1, procumbent to erect, usually branched, glabrous [hairy]. Leaves mostly cauline; alternate; petiolate or sessile; blades ± obovate [oblong to lanceolate or linear] (bases sometimes ± clasping), [0](1-) 2-3-pinnately lobed (lobes cuneate to linear), ultimate margins dentate [entire], faces glabrous [hairy]. Heads radiate [discoid], borne singly or in open, corymbiform arrays. Involucres hemispheric or broader, [6-]10-18[-22+] mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, 28-45+ in 3-4 series, distinct, oblanceolate or ovate to lance-deltate or lanceolate (not keeled abaxially), unequal, margins and apices (stramineous to brown) scarious (tips of inner often ± dilated). Receptacles convex to conic, epaleate. Ray florets 12-35+, pistillate, fertile; corollas usually white, sometimes yellow or pink, laminae ± ovate to linear. Disc florets [50-]80-150+, bisexual, fertile; corollas yellow [red, purple], tubes ± cylindric (not basally dilated, ± gland-dotted), throats campanulate, lobes 5, deltate (without resin sacs). Cypselae dimorphic: outer (ray) 3-angled, each angle usually ± winged (wings not spine-tipped) ; inner (disc) compressed-prismatic (± quadrate, sometimes 2 angles winged, wings not spine-tipped) ; all ± ribbed or nerved, faces usually glabrous, sometimes gland-dotted between ribs (pericarps without myxogenic cells or resin sacs; embryo sac development bisporic) ; pappi 0 (cypselar wall tissue sometimes produced as teeth, crowns, or oblique tubes similar in texture to cypselar wings). x = 9.[22] [more]

Argyreia

Shrubs, scandent or lianas. Stems woody. Leaves petiolate, entire, sometimes silvery sericeous abaxially. Inflorescences axillary, rarely terminal, in cymes, or loose or compact capitula, few to many flowered; bracts persistent or early deciduous, small or large. Sepals persistent, herbaceous or ± leathery, pubescent abaxially, glabrous and often red adaxially, ± enlarged and reflexed in fruit. Corolla purple, red, pink, or white, campanulate, funnelform, or tubular; limb subentire to deeply 5-lobed, with 5 distinct, mostly pubescent midpetaline bands. Stamens inserted near base of corolla, included or exserted; filaments filiform, base dilated, often pubescent or glandular; pollen globular, pantoporate, finely spiny. Disc ringlike or cupular, margin entire or shallowly 5-lobed. Ovary 2- or 4-loculed, 4-ovuled, pubescent or glabrous. Style 1, filiform, included or exserted; stigma capitate, 2-lobed or 2-globular. Berry red, purplish, orange, or yellowish, globose or ellipsoid, fleshy, mealy, or leathery. Seeds 4 or fewer, rarely pilose at hilum.[23] [more]

Argyroderma

[more]

Argyroxiphium

Argyroxiphium is a small genus of five species in the sunflower family (). Its members are known by the common name of silversword or greensword due to their long, narrow leaves and the silvery hairs on some species. It belongs to a larger radiation of over 50 species, including the physically different genera Dubautia and Wilkesia. This grouping is often referred to as the silversword alliance. [more]

Arisaema

Herbs, terrestrial or wetland. Corms [rhizomes] nearly globose. Leaves usually appearing with flowers, 1--2(--3), erect; petiole longer than blade; blade medium to dark green, sometimes glaucous adaxially, palmately or pedately [radiately] divided, not peltate, leaflet elliptic to broadly ovate or oblanceolate, base rounded to obtuse or attenuate, apex obtuse or acute to acuminate; primary lateral veins of each leaflet pinnate. Inflorescences: peduncle erect, nearly equal to leaves [to very short], apex not swollen; spathe variously colored or striped, distal part open at maturity, exposing tip to 1/2 or more of spadix appendage; spadix ± cylindric, surmounted by sterile appendage of variable shape. Flowers unisexual, staminate and pistillate on same or different spadix; pistillate flowers congested; staminate flowers usually scattered, distal to pistillate flowers when both are present; perianth absent. Fruits not embedded in spadix, glossy orange to bright red. Seeds 1--6, mucilage sometimes present (not present in Arisaema triphyllum). x = 13, 14.[24] [more]

Aristolochia

Herbs or lianas, perennial. Stems erect, twining, or procumbent. Leaves alternate, 2-ranked (evident on young growth, becoming obscure with age in some species) ; true stipules absent; pseudostipules absent [present]; petiole sometimes very short. Leaf blade membranous to leathery. Inflorescences on new growth or on older stems, axillary, racemes or solitary flowers; bracts present. Flowers: calyx usually mixture of purple, brown, green, or red, bilaterally symmetric, tubular, usually bent or curved, 1- or 3-lobed, not fleshy, base with utricle (basal, inflated portion of calyx surrounding or containing gynostemium) ; tube narrowed, sometimes extended proximally as cylindric syrinx (tubular or ringlike structure at juncture of tube and utricle, projecting into utricle cavity) and distally as annulus (circular flange at juncture of tube and limb) on limb; corolla absent; stamens 5-6, adnate to styles and stigmas, forming gynostemium; ovary inferior, 3-, 5-, or 6-locular; styles 3, 5, or 6, connate in column. Capsule dry, dehiscent. Seeds flattened or rounded, sometimes winged. x = 6, 7, 8.[25] [more]

Arnica

Perennials, 5-100 cm (rhizomes relatively long and thin; caudices woody, relatively short and thick). Stems erect, simple or branched. Leaves basal (sterile basal rosettes often present) and/or cauline; mostly opposite (usually 1-10 pairs, distalmost sometimes alternate and usually smaller) ; petiolate or sessile; blades mostly cordate, deltate, elliptic, lanceolate, linear, oblanceolate, oblong, obovate, ovate, or spatulate, margins entire or toothed (usually dentate, denticulate, or serrate, sometimes crenate or slightly lobed), faces glabrous, hirsute, hispidulous, pilose, puberulent, scabrous, tomentose, villous, or woolly, often stipitate-glandular as well. Heads radiate or discoid, borne singly or in cymiform or corymbiform arrays. Involucres campanulate, hemispheric, or turbinate, mostly 6-20+ mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, 5-23 in (1-) 2 series. Receptacles convex, smooth or pitted, epaleate. Ray florets 0, or 5-22, pistillate, fertile; corollas yellow to orange. Disc florets 10-120, usually bisexual and fertile (functionally staminate in A. dealbata) ; corollas usually yellow, rarely cream, tubes shorter than funnelform throats, lobes 5, ± deltate (anthers usually yellow, purple in A. lessingii and A. unalaschcensis). Cypselae (gray or brown to black) ± conic, fusiform, or obovoid-cylindric, nerves 5-10(-20), faces hairy, glandular, or glabrous; pappi usually persistent, of 10-50 white or stramineous to tawny, fine, barbellate or subplumose to plumose bristles (0 in A. dealbata). x = 19.[26] [more]

Artemisia

Annuals, biennials, perennials, subshrubs, or shrubs, 3-350 cm (usually, rarely not, aromatic) . Stems 1-10+, usually erect, usually branched, glabrous or hairy (hairs basi- or medifixed) . Leaves basal or basal and cauline; alternate; petiolate or sessile; blades filiform, linear, lanceolate, ovate, elliptic, oblong, oblanceolate, obovate, cuneate, flabellate, or spatulate, usually pinnately and/or palmately lobed, sometimes apically ± 3-lobed or -toothed, or entire, faces glabrous or hairy (hairs multicelled and filled with aromatic terpenoids and/or 1-celled and hollow, dolabriform, T-shaped) . Heads usually discoid, sometimes disciform (subradiate in A. bigelovii), in relatively broad, paniculiform arrays, or in relatively narrow, racemiform or spiciform arrays. Involucres campanulate, globose, ovoid, or turbinate, 1.5-8 mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, 2-20+ in 4-7 series, distinct, (usually green to whitish green, rarely stramineous) ovate to lanceolate, unequal, margins and apices (usually green or white, rarely dark brown or black) ± scarious (abaxial faces glabrous or hairy) . Receptacles flat, convex, or conic (glabrous or hairy), epaleate (except paleate in A. palmeri) . Ray florets 0 (peripheral pistillate florets in disciform heads usually 1-20, their corollas filiform; corollas of 1-3 pistillate florets in heads of A. bigelovii sometimes ± 2-lobed, weakly raylike) . Disc florets 2-20(-30+), bisexual and fertile, or functionally staminate; corollas (glabrous or ± hirtellous) usually pale yellow, rarely red, tubes ± cylindric, throats subglobose or funnelform, lobes 5, ± deltate. Cypselae (brown) fusiform, ribs 0 (and faces finely striate) or 2-5, faces glabrous or hairy (not villous), often gland-dotted (pericarps sometimes with myxogenic cells, without resin sacs; embryo sac development monosporic) ; pappi usually 0 (coroniform in A. californica and A. papposa, sometimes on outer in A. rothrockii) . x = 9.[27] [more]

Arthropodium

Arthropodium is a of herbaceous perennial plants native to the Southern Hemisphere. It is sometimes placed in the family Asphodelaceae. [more]

Artocarpus

Trees, evergreen or deciduous, with latex; monoecious. Stipules free, intrapetiolar or lateral, amplexicaul or not. Leaves spirally arranged or distichous; leaf blade simple to pinnatifid, rarely pinnate, leathery, margin entire. Inflorescences sometimes borne on main branches or trunk, unisexual, capitate, many-flowered. Male flowers: free, surrounded by peltate to clavate interfloral bracts; calyx tubular, slightly 2-lobed or 2-4-lobed; lobes imbricate or valvate; stamen 1, straight in bud, slightly to conspicuously exserted from calyx; anthers globose to oblong, 2-loculed; pistillode absent. Female flowers: at least partially adnate to each other and/or to interfloral bracts; calyx tubular, basally thin walled, apically thick walled and either completely fused or not; ovary free; style central or ± lateral; stigmas 1 or 2, equal or unequal. Flowers and bracts fused laterally to form a syncarp. Syncarp fleshy throughout or at least at basal portions of calyx, sometimes very large, flowers and bracts fused at their tips to form an areolate surface or free and forming variously shaped processes on surface. Seed without endosperm; cotyledons fleshy, equal or unequal.[28] [more]

Arum

A genus in the Kingdom Animalia. [more]

Arundinaria

Small to arborescent bamboos, spreading or loosely clumped. Rhizomes leptomorph. Culms diffuse to pluricaespitose, suberect to drooping, 1-7(-13) m tall, 0.5-4(-6) cm thick; internodes terete to flattened on one side above branches. Branch buds tall, with or without promontory, within 2-keeled prophyll, always open at front. Branches (1 or) 2-5(-7), subequal. Lateral branch axes always subtended by sheaths, without replication of lateral branches. Culm sheaths deciduous to persistent, blade usually recurved or reflexed, lanceolate, articulate. Leaf sheaths persistent; blade oblong-lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, small to medium-sized, without marginal necrosis in winter, arrangement random, transverse veins distinct. Inflorescence an open panicle or raceme, flowering branches usually subtended by tiny bracts. Spikelets several to many flowered, slender; rachilla internodes extended, disarticulating. Glumes 1 or 2, mucronate; lemma similar to glumes; palea 2-keeled, apex obtuse; lodicules 3. Stamens 3; filaments free, slender; anthers yellow. Style usually very short; stigmas 2 or 3, plumose. Caryopsis dry, oblong. New shoots May-Jun.[29] [more]

Arundo

Arundo is a genus of two or three species of : stout, perennial grasses from the family Poaceae, native to the Mediterranean region east to India, China and Japan. They grow to 3-6 m tall, occasionally to 10 m, with leaves 30-60 cm long and 3-6 cm broad. [more]

Asarina

[more]

Asperula

Asperula () is a genus of the family Rubiaceae. Sometimes, certain species of Galium (such as the woodruff) are included herein. [more]

Asphodeline

[more]

Aspidistra

Herbs perennial, rhizomatous. Rhizome creeping, elongate; nodes dense. Leaves solitary or 2--4-tufted, basal, erect, long petiolate; leaf blade many veined. Scape usually very short, with 2--8 scales, 1(or 2) -flowered. Flowers bisexual, terminal, generally embraced by 1 or 2 bracts at perianth base. Perianth campanulate, urceolate, or cupular, fleshy, apically (4--) 6--8(--10) -lobed. Stamens as many as and opposite perianth lobes, usually inserted in proximal part of perianth tube; filaments very short or absent; anthers dorsifixed. Ovary 3- or 4-loculed; ovules several per locule. Style short, sometimes articulate; stigma usually peltate or mushroom-shaped, large, entire or lobed at margin. Fruit a berry, globose to ovoid-ellipsoid, usually 1-seeded.[30] [more]

Asplenium

Roots fibrous, not proliferous or proliferous and producing tiny plantlets. Stems erect, rarely long-creeping; scales basally attached, clathrate. Petioles not articulate. Blades 1--4-pinnate, of diverse size and shape. Indusia present. x = 36.[31] [more]

Aster

Perennials [subshrubs, shrubs], 3-300 cm (rhizomatous, rhizomes long or short, plants sometimes with branched caudices) . Stems ascending to erect, simple, ± densely hairy [glabrous], sometimes stipitate-glandular. Leaves basal and/or cauline; sessile or petiolate; blades 1-nerved, spatulate, obovate (mainly basal), oblanceolate, lance-oblong, lanceolate, or linear, distal often reduced, margins entire or serrate [lobed], faces hairy. Heads radiate, borne singly or in corymbiform [paniculiform] arrays. Involucres broadly campanulate or hemispheric [cylindro-campanulate], 15-25 mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, 25-50 in 2-4 series, 1-nerved (flat), ovate to lanceolate, unequal to subequal, bases ± scarious, herbaceous distally or not, green zones along midnerves, margins scarious to hyaline, densely villous, strigillose, or glabrous, sometimes ± short-stipitate-glandular. Receptacles flat or convex, pitted, epaleate. Ray florets 14-55(-100) [-150] in 1 series, pistillate, fertile; corollas white, pink, purple, blue, or violet. Disc florets 20-100+, bisexual, fertile; corollas usually yellow (sometimes reddening), slightly ampliate [tubular], tubes shorter than to equaling funnelform or campanulate throats, lobes 5, usually erect to spreading, rarely reflexed, lanceolate; style-branch appendages lanceolate. Cypselae obconic, compressed, 2 marginal ribs, faces ± densely strigillose [glabrous], sometimes short-stipitate-glandular; pappi persistent, of 20-30 white to tawny, ± equal, barbellate, apically usually attenuate, sometimes ± clavate bristles in 1-2 series. x = 9.[32] [more]

Asteranthera

[more]

Asteriscus

Asteriscus may refer to: [more]

Astilbe

erbs perennial. Rhizomes thick. Stems brown paleaceous hairy or long pilose. Leaves alternate, long petiolate, 2-4 × ternately compound, rarely simple; stipules membranous; leaflets lanceolate, ovate, or broadly ovate to elliptic, margin dentate. Inflorescence a terminal panicle, bracteate. Flowers white, lilac, or purple, bisexual or unisexual, rarely plants polygamous or dioecious. Sepals (4 or) 5. Petals usually 1-5, sometimes more or absent. Stamens usually (5 or) 8-10. Carpels 2(or 3), ± connate or free; ovary subsuperior or semi-inferior, 2(or 3) -loculed with axile placentation or 1-loculed with marginal placentation; ovules many. Fruit a capsule or follicle. Seeds small.[33] [more]

Astrantia

Astrantia is a of herbaceous plants in the family Apiaceae, endemic to Central, Eastern and Southern Europe and the Caucasus. There are 8 or 9 species, which have aromatic roots, palmate leaves, and decorative flowers. They are commonly known as great masterwort, which may be confused with masterwort, Peucedanum ostruthium. [more]

Asyneuma

[more]

Athamanta

[more]

Athyrium

Plants generally terrestrial. Stems short-creeping or ascending, stolons absent. Leaves monomorphic, usually dying back in winter. Petiole ± 0.5 times length of blade or less, base swollen and dentate, persisting as trophopod over winter or not; vascular bundles 2, lateral, lunate in cross section. Blade lanceolate to elliptic or oblanceolate, 1--3-pinnate-pinnatifid, gradually reduced distally to confluent, pinnatifid apex, herbaceous. Pinnae not articulate to rachis, segment margins serrulate or crenate; proximal pinnae often reduced, sessile to short-petiolulate, ± equilateral; costae adaxially grooved, grooves continuous from rachis to costae to costules; indument absent or of linear to lanceolate scales or 1-celled glands abaxially. Veins free, simple or forked. Sori in 1 row between midrib and margin, round to elongate, straight or hooked at distal end, or horseshoe-shaped; indusia shaped like sori, persistent, attached laterally or with narrow sinus, or indusia absent. Spores brownish, rugose. x = 40.[34] [more]

Aubrieta

Aubrieta is a of about 12 species of flowering plants in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. The genus is named after Claude Aubriet, a French flower-painter. It originates from southern Europe east to central Asia but is now a common garden escape throughout Europe. It is a low, spreading plant, hardy, evergreen and perennial, with small violet, pink or white flowers, and inhabits rocks and banks. It prefers light, well-drained soil, is tolerant of a wide pH range, and can grow in partial shade or full sun. [more]

Avena

Annuals. Culms erect, fairly robust. Leaf blades linear, flat; ligule membranous. Inflorescence a large loose panicle. Spikelets large, pendulous, oblong to gaping, florets 2 to several, the uppermost reduced; rachilla pilose or glabrous, disarticulating below each floret or only below the lowest, or not disarticulating (cultivated species) ; glumes lanceolate to elliptic, usually subequal and as long as spikelet, rarely strongly unequal or shorter than spikelet, herbaceous to membranous, 7-11-veined, back rounded, smooth, apex acuminate; floret callus acute to pungent, bearded; lemmas lanceolate-oblong, usually leathery, occasionally papery, back rounded, 5-9-veined, glabrous to hispid, awned usually from near middle of back, apex papery, 2-toothed to 2-fid, lobes sometimes extended into fine bristles, awn geniculate with twisted column, sometimes reduced or absent (cultivated species) ; palea usually shorter than lemma, keels ciliate. Ovary densely hairy. Caryopsis with long linear hilum.[35] [more]

Baccharis

Perennials, subshrubs, shrubs, or trees, 10-600 cm (dioecious [rarely monoecious], usually glabrous, often resinous; bases woody, rarely rhizomatous). Stems (1-20+) usually erect or ascending, rarely prostrate (usually striate-angled, rarely terete and smooth; usually green), glabrous, glabrate, hispidulous, or villous, often resinous. Leaves cauline (sometimes withering and sparse or absent at flowering) ; alternate; sessile or petiolate; blades 1- or 3-nerved, linear, lanceolate, ovate, oblong, obovate, or rhombic (usually reduced distally), margins entire or coarsely serrate, faces usually glabrous, rarely hispidulous or villous, often gland-dotted and resinous. Heads (sessile or pedicellate, unisexual) discoid, usually in paniculiform or corymbiform, sometimes racemiform arrays or borne singly. Involucres cylindric to campanulate or hemispheric, 3-9 mm diam. Phyllaries 20-40 in 2-5 series (mid usually green, sometimes red or purple), 1-nerved, ovate to lanceolate, unequal, margins usually scarious, often erose or ciliate, sometimes keeled (midribs evident or not, apices obtuse to acute or acuminate, sometimes keeled), usually glabrous, rarely hispid. Receptacles flat, tholiform, or conic, pitted or smooth (glabrous, tomentose, or glandular), usually epaleate. Functionally staminate florets 10-50 ; corollas white to pale yellow, tubes about equal to narrowly funnelform throats, lobes 5, spreading-reflexed, deltate to lance-ovate (pappi of 20-40 equal, often crisped and minutely barbellate or distally plumose bristles). Pistillate florets 20-150; corollas whitish, filiform-tubular, lobes 5, spreading-reflexed, ± deltate to lance-ovate; style branches (glabrate, flattened), appendages lacking. Cypselae light brown, obovoid to cylindric, ± compressed, 5-10-nerved, glabrous or hispid; pappi persistent or falling, of 25-50 whitish to tawny, rarely brownish (elongating and usually surpassing phyllaries in fruit), minutely barbellate, apically attenuate bristles in 1-3 series. x = 9.[36] [more]

Baeria

Lasthenia, commonly known as goldfields, is a of the botanical family Asteraceae. The genus is named after Lasthenia, a cross-dressing female pupil of the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato. [more]

Balbisia

[more]

Basutica

[more]

Bauhinia

Trees, shrubs or climbers. Leaves alternate, simple, usually consisting of two lobes or almost bifoliolate with midrib between the two leaflets produced as a small spur. Flowers are showy, arranged in simple or panicled, terminal or axillary racemes. Hypanthium sometimes long and cylindrical, sometimes short and turbinate. Calyx entire or spathaceous, or cleft into two or five teeth. Petals 5, slightly unequal, narrowed at the base into a claw, variously coloured. Stamens 10, or reduced to 5 or there, filaments free or shortly connate, filiform, anthers versatile, Dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary seated on a stalk (gynophore), ovules many, style long or short and usually curved, stigma capitate, fruit a linear pod, dehiscent or indehiscent.[37] [more]

Beallara

A Genus in the Kingdom Plantae. [more]

Beaucarnea

Beaucarnea is a genus of four species of in the family Ruscaceae, native to Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. The genus has been included in Nolina by some botanists and has previously been variously classified in Nolinaceae or Agavaceae. [more]

Beesia

Herbs perennial. Rhizome robust, creeping or ascending. Leaves 2--4, basal, long petiolate, simple, cordate or cordate-triangular, dentate. Scape simple, with membranous sheath at base. Cyme compound, with 1--3 sessile fascicled flowers at several nodes. Bracts and bracteoles subulate or lanceolate. Flower actinomorphic, opening flat. Sepals 5, petaloid, white, elliptic. Petals absent. Stamens numerous; filaments subfiliform; anthers subglobose. Follicle solitary, long, narrow, flat, with transverse veins. Seeds several, ovoid-globose, rugose.[38] [more]

Begonia

Perennial succulent herbs, rarely subshrubs. Stem erect, frequently rhizomatous, or plants tuberous and either acaulescent or shortly stemmed, rarely lianoid or climbing with adventitious roots, or stoloniferous. Leaves simple, rarely palmately compound, alternate or all basal; blade often oblique and asymmetric, rarely symmetric, margin often irregularly serrate and divided, occasionally entire, venation usually palmate; petiole long, weak; stipules membranous, usually deciduous. Flowers unisexual, plants monoecious, rarely dioecious, (1 or) 2-4 to several, rarely numerous, in dichotomous cymes, sometimes in panicle, with pedicels and bracts. Staminate flower: tepals 2 or 4 and decussate, usually outer ones larger, inner ones smaller; stamens usually numerous; filaments free or connate at base; anthers 2-celled, apical or lateral; connectives extended at apex, sometimes apiculate. Pistillate flower: tepals 2-5(-10) ; pistil composed of 2-5(-7) carpels; ovary inferior, 1-3(-7) -loculed; placentae axile or parietal; styles 2 or 3(or more), free or fused at base, forked once or more; stigma turgid, spirally twisted-tortuous or U-shaped, capitate or reniform, setose-papillose. Capsule dry, sometimes berrylike, unequally or subequally 3-winged, rarely wingless and 3- or 4-horned; seeds very numerous, pale brown, oblong, minute, testa reticulate.[39] [more]

Bellis

Perennials [annuals], 5-20 cm (scapiform; rhizomes herbaceous [roots fibrous]). Stems erect, simple, strigose. Leaves basal (mostly) [sometimes cauline, reduced]; alternate; petiolate; blades 1-nerved, obovate-spatulate to rounded, margins crenate-serrate, strigose. Heads radiate, borne singly. Involucres hemispheric, [3-]4-6[-8] × 9-13 mm. Phyllaries 13-14+ in (1-) 2(-3) series 1-nerved, oblong, subequal, herbaceous, margins entire, abaxial faces strigose. Receptacles conic [hemispheric or nearly flat] (± elongating with age), pitted, epaleate. Ray florets 35-90 (in [1-]3-4 series), pistillate, fertile; corollas abaxially often pink- or purplish-tinged, adaxially white (closing at night). Disc florets 60-80+, bisexual, fertile; corollas pale yellow, tubes much shorter than funnelform [tubular] throats, lobes 5, erect or incurved, deltate; style-branch appendages deltate. Cypselae obconic, compressed, marginally 2-ribbed, eglandular [gland-dotted (sessile) ], faces short-strigose [glabrous or ciliate-margined]; pappi 0 [bristles]. x = 9.[40] [more]

Berardia

[more]

Berberis

Shrubs or subshrubs, evergreen or deciduous, 0.1-4.5(-8) m, glabrous or with tomentose stems. Rhizomes present or absent, short or long, not nodose. Stems branched or unbranched, monomorphic or dimorphic, i.e., all elongate or with elongate primary stems and short axillary spur shoots. Leaves alternate, sometimes leaves of elongate shoots reduced to spines and foliage leaves borne only on short shoots; foliage leaves simple or 1-odd-pinnately compound; petioles usually present. Simple leaves: blade narrowly elliptic, oblanceolate, or obovate, 1.2-7.5 cm. Compound leaves: rachis, when present, with or without swollen articulations; leaflet blades lanceolate to orbiculate, margins entire, toothed, spinose, or spinose-lobed; venation pinnate or leaflets 3-6-veined from base. Inflorescences terminal, usually racemes, rarely umbels or flowers solitary. Flowers 3-merous, 3-8 mm; bracteoles caducous, 3, scalelike; sepals falling immediately after anthesis, 6, yellow; petals 6, yellow, nectariferous; stamens 6; anthers dehiscing by valves; pollen exine punctate; ovary symmetrically club-shaped; placentation subbasal; style central. Fruits berries, spheric to cylindric-ovoid or ellipsoid, usually juicy, sometimes dry, at maturity. Seeds 1-10, tan to red-brown or black; aril absent. x = 14.[41] [more]

Bergenia

Herbs perennial, forming large clumps. Rhizomes creeping, large, thick, scaly. Leaves all basal, ± persistent, simple, waxy, often leathery; petiole short, broad, sheathing at base; leaf blade thick, margin entire, crenate, or dentate. Infloresences cymose, bracteate. Flowers showy, large. Sepals 5. Petals 5, white, pink, red, or purple. Stamens 10. Carpels 2, basally connate; ovary 1/4 subsuperior, proximally 2-loculed with axile placentation and distally 1-loculed with marginal placentation; styles 2; ovules many. Fruit a capsule. Seeds numerous, dark brown, small.[42] [more]

Besleria

Besleria is a of ca. 200 species of large herbs and soft-stemmed subshrubs or shrubs in the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae. They occur in Central America, South America, and the West Indies. [more]

Besseya

Veronica is the largest genus in the family Plantaginaceae, with about 500 species; it was formerly classified in the family Scrophulariaceae. Taxonomy for this genus is currently being reanalysed, with the genus Hebe and the related Australasian genera Derwentia, Detzneria, Chionohebe, Heliohebe, Leonohebe and Parahebe included by many botanists. Common names include speedwell, bird's eye, and gypsyweed. [more]

Beta

Herbs, annual, biennial, or perennial, often with fleshy, thickened roots, glabrous throughout. Stems erect or procumbent, not jointed, not armed, not fleshy. Leaves alternate, petiolate or sessile; blade ovate-cordate to rhombic-cuneate, margins ± entire, apex obtuse . Inflorescences spikelike cymes or glomerules, ebracteate at least in distal 1/2. Flowers bisexual, bracteate; perianth segments 3-5, distinct, sometimes petaloid, rounded or keeled abaxially, wings and spines absent; stamens 5; ovary semi-inferior; stigmas usually 2-3(-5), connate basally. Fruiting structures achenes, connate with receptacle, often enclosed by swollen perianth. Seeds horizontal, orbicular or reniform; seed coat dark brown, smooth; embryo ± annular, perisperm copious. x = 9.[43] [more]

Betula

Trees or shrubs, to 30 m; trunks often several, branching excurrent, becoming deliquescent. Bark of trunks and branches dark brown to chalky white, smooth, often exfoliating; lenticels dark, prominent, sometimes horizontally expanded. Wood nearly white to reddish brown, light and soft to moderately heavy and hard, texture fine. Branches, branchlets, and twigs nearly 2-ranked; young twigs differentiated into long and short shoots, sometimes with taste and odor of wintergreen. Winter buds sessile, slender, terete, apex acute; scales several, imbricate, smooth. Leaves mostly on short shoots, nearly 2-ranked. Leaf blade ovate to deltate, elliptic, or nearly orbiculate, 0.5--10(--14) × 0.5--8 cm, thin, margins doubly serrate or serrate (or crenate to shallowly round-lobed in dwarf northern