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Nightshade
Solanaceae (), commonly known as the nightshades, is a family of flowering plants in the order Solanales. It contains approximately 2,700 species, several of which are used as agricultural crops, medicinal plants, and ornamental plants. Many members of the family have high alkaloid contents, making some highly toxic, but many—such as tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, and peppers—are commonly used in food. Originating in South America, Solanaceae now inhabits every continent on Earth except Antarctica. After the K—Pg extinction event they rapidly diversified and have adapted to live in deserts, tundras, rainforests, plains, and highlands, and taken on wide range of forms including trees, vines, shrubs, and epiphytes. Nearly 80% of all nightshades are included in the subfamily Solanoideae, most of which are members of the type genus ''Solanum''. Most taxonomists recognize six other subfamilies: Cestroideae, Goetzeoideae, Nicotianoideae, Petunioideae, Schizanthoideae, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solanum
''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae, comprising around 1,500 species. It also contains the so-called horse nettles (unrelated to the genus of true nettles, ''Urtica''), as well as numerous plants cultivated for their ornamental flowers and fruit. ''Solanum'' species show a wide range of growth habits, such as annuals and perennials, vines, subshrubs, shrubs, and small trees. Many formerly independent genera like '' Lycopersicon'' (the tomatoes) and '' Cyphomandra'' are now included in ''Solanum'' as subgenera or sections. Thus, the genus today contains roughly 1,500–2,000 species. Name The generic name was first used by Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) for a plant also known as , most likely ''S. nigrum''. Its derivation is uncertain, possibly stemming from the Latin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tomato
The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originated from and was domesticated in western South America. It was introduced to the Old World by the Spanish in the Columbian exchange in the 16th century. Tomato plants are vines, largely Annual plant, annual and vulnerable to frost, though sometimes living longer in greenhouses. The flowers are able to self-fertilise. Modern varieties have been bred to ripen uniformly red, in a process that has impaired the fruit's sweetness and flavor. There are thousands of cultivars, varying in size, color, shape, and flavor. Tomatoes are attacked by many insect pests and nematodes, and are subject to diseases caused by viruses and by mildew and blight fungi. The tomato has a strong savoury umami flavor, and is an important ingredient in cuisines around ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Potato
The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United States to southern Chile. Genetic studies show that the cultivated potato has a single origin, in the area of present-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia. Potatoes were domesticated there about 7,000–10,000 years ago from a species in the '' S. brevicaule'' complex. Many varieties of the potato are cultivated in the Andes region of South America, where the species is indigenous. The Spanish introduced potatoes to Europe in the second half of the 16th century from the Americas. They are a staple food in many parts of the world and an integral part of much of the world's food supply. Following millennia of selective breeding, there are now over 5 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eggplant
Eggplant (American English, US, Canadian English, CA, Australian English, AU, Philippine English, PH), aubergine (British English, UK, Hiberno English, IE, New Zealand English, NZ), brinjal (Indian English, IN, Singapore English, SG, Malaysian English, MY, South African English, ZA, Sri Lankan English, SLE), or baigan (Languages of India, IN, Caribbean English, GY) is a plant species in the Solanaceae, nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit, typically used as a vegetable in cooking. Most commonly purple, the spongy, absorbent fruit is used in List of cuisines, several cuisines. It is a berry (botany), berry by botany, botanical definition. As a member of the genus ''Solanum'', it is related to the tomato, chili pepper, and potato, although those are of the Americas region while the eggplant is of the Eurasia region. Like the tomato, its skin and seeds can be eaten, but it is usually eaten cooked. Eggplant is nutritionally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medicinal Plants
Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including Plant defense against herbivory, defense and protection against insects, fungi, Plant disease resistance, diseases, against parasites and herbivorous mammals. The earliest historical records of herbs are found from the Sumerian civilization, where hundreds of medicinal plants including opium are listed on clay tablets, . The Ebers Papyrus from ancient Egypt, , describes over 850 plant medicines. The Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides, Dioscorides, who worked in the Roman army, documented over 1000 recipes for medicines using over 600 medicinal plants in , ; this formed the basis of pharmacopoeias for some 1500 years. Drug research sometimes makes use of ethnobotany to search for pharmacologically active substances, and this approach has yielded hundreds of use ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solanales
The Solanales are an order of flowering plants, included in the asterid group of the eudicots. Well-known members of Solanales include potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes, chili peppers, tobacco, petunias, nightshades, morning glory, and sweet potato. Some older sources used the name Polemoniales for this order. __TOC__ Taxonomy The following families are included here in newer systems such as that of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG): * Family Solanaceae (nightshade family; includes Nolanaceae as well as potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes, chili peppers, tobacco, and petunias) * Family Convolvulaceae (morning glory and sweet potato) * Family Montiniaceae * Family Sphenocleaceae * Family Hydroleaceae The APG II classification treats the Solanales in the group Euasterids I. Under the older Cronquist system, the latter three families were placed elsewhere, and a number of others were included: * Family Duckeodendraceae (now treated as a synonym of Solanaceae) * Family Nolanaceae ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brugmansia Suaveolens
''Brugmansia suaveolens'', Brazil's white angel trumpet, also known as angel's tears and snowy angel's trumpet, is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae, native to south eastern Brazil, but thought to be extinct in the wild. Like several other species of ''Brugmansia'', it exists as an introduced species in areas outside its native range. It is a tender shrub or small tree with large semi-evergreen leaves and fragrant yellow or white trumpet-shaped flowers. Description ''Brugmansia suaveolens'' is a semi-woody shrub or small tree, growing up to tall, often with a many-branched trunk. The leaves are oval, to long by wide, and even larger when grown in the shade. The flowers, which tend to be white in colour, are sweetly scented at night and early morning, about long and shaped like trumpets. The corolla body is slightly recurved to 5 main points, but the very peaks in the true species are always curved outwards, never rolled back, and these peaks ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capsicum
''Capsicum'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the Solanum, nightshade family Solanaceae, native to the Americas, cultivated worldwide for their edible fruit, which are generally known as "peppers" or "capsicum". Chili peppers grow on five species of ''Capsicum''. Bell peppers, Sweet or bell peppers and some chili peppers are ''Capsicum annuum'', making it the most cultivated species in the genus. History ''Capsicum'' is native to South America and Central America. These plants have been evolving for 17 million years. It was domesticated and Mesoamerican agriculture, cultivated at least since 3000 BC, as evidenced by remains of chili peppers found in pottery from Puebla and Oaxaca. Etymology and names The generic name may come from Latin , meaning 'box', presumably alluding to the pods; or possibly from the Greek language, Greek word , , 'to gulp'. The name ''pepper'' comes from the similarity of piquance (spiciness or "heat") of the flavor to that of black pepper, ''Piper ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cestroideae
Cestroideae (syn. Browallioideae) is a subfamily of the plant family Solanaceae, the nightshades. It currently contains the three tribes and seven genera, as follows: * Browallieae Hunz. ** ''Browallia'' L. ** '' Streptosolen'' (Benth.) Miers * Cestreae Don ** '' Cestrum'' L. ** ''Sessea'' Ruiz & Pav. ** '' Vestia'' Willd. * Salpiglossideae (Benth.) Hunz. ** '' Reyesia'' Gay ** '' Salpiglossis'' Ruiz & Pav. With the (current) exceptions of the genera ''Sessea'' and ''Reyesia'', the subfamily furnishes many colourful garden plants of considerable horticultural merit. RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. . Gallery File:IMG 7246-Browallia speciosa.jpg, '' Browallia speciosa'' File:Streptosolen closeup.jpg, '' Streptosolen jamesonii'' File:Cestrum aurantiacum 3.jpg, ''Cestrum aurantiacum'' File:Cestrum elegans (7).jpg, ''Cestrum elegans'' flowers in extreme close-up. File:Vestia foetida (14096215513).jpg, ''Vestia foetid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schizanthoideae
''Schizanthus'' , also called butterfly flower, fringeflower, poor-man's-orchid, is a genus of plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. They are annual or biennial herbaceous plants, with attractive flowers and they belong to the subfamily Schizanthoideae of the Solanaceae. The genus includes species native to Chile and Argentina, many species are adventitious in other parts of the world such as New Zealand and the United States.United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Plant Conservation Service. Schizanthus pinnatus' Ruiz & Pavón. Description Annual or biennial, glandulous-pubescent herbaceous plants, with alternate, pinnatilobate or bipinnatisect leaves and attractive flowers, arranged at the end of stems. The flowers are zygomorphic and hermaphrodite. The calyx has 5 parts, with linear or spatulate segments. The corolla is bilabiate; the superior labia is tripartite, with the central lobe complete and notched and the two laterals bifid. The inferior labia is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flowering Plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed within a fruit. The group was formerly called Magnoliophyta. Angiosperms are by far the most diverse group of Embryophyte, land plants with 64 Order (biology), orders, 416 Family (biology), families, approximately 13,000 known Genus, genera and 300,000 known species. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody Plant stem, stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of broad-leaved trees, shrubs and vines, and most aquatic plants. Angiosperms are distinguished from the other major seed plant clade, the gymnosperms, by having flowers, xylem consisting of vessel elements instead of tracheids, endosperm within their seeds, and fruits that completely envelop the seeds. The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from the commo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toxin
A toxin is a naturally occurring poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. They occur especially as proteins, often conjugated. The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919), derived from '' toxic''. Toxins can be small molecules, peptides, or proteins that are capable of causing disease on contact with or absorption by body tissues interacting with biological macromolecules such as enzymes or cellular receptors. They vary greatly in their toxicity, ranging from usually minor (such as a bee sting) to potentially fatal even at extremely low doses (such as botulinum toxin). Terminology Toxins are often distinguished from other chemical agents strictly based on their biological origin. Less strict understandings embrace naturally occurring inorganic toxins, such as arsenic. Other understandings embrace synthetic analogs of naturally occurring organic poisons as toxins, and may or may not embrace naturally oc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
