Curated category
Botanical taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
- MaizeMaize relies on humans to survive. Its kernels stay locked to the cob, unlike its wild ancestor teosinte, whose seeds scatter to the ground on their own.
- WheatWheat grows on more land than any other food crop on Earth. In 2024, farmers planted it across 219.5 million hectares, and the world harvested 799 million…
- FraxinusFraxinus, the genus we call ash, is one of the most quietly consequential trees on earth. Its wood bent into the handles of axes.
- GarlicGarlic, known to botanists as Allium sativum, was placed by ancient Greeks on piles of stones at crossroads as a supper for the goddess Hecate.
- RyeRye, known to botanists as Secale cereale, is a grass that has fed northern civilizations through climates that defeat nearly every other grain.
- OakThe oak has been alive on this planet for at least 44 million years. Fossil pollen from Austria places the genus Quercus at the boundary between the…
- OatOats, known scientifically as Avena sativa, may be the most underestimated grain on Earth. Samuel Johnson, writing his famous 1755 Dictionary of the English…
- PeaThe pea has fed civilisations for at least ten thousand years. Seeds showing domesticated characteristics have been unearthed at archaeological sites around…
- Phaseolus vulgarisPhaseolus vulgaris, the common bean, carries a remarkable secret in its raw form: eating just four or five uncooked, soaked kidney beans is enough to cause…
- Sweet potatoThe sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas, carries a name that is older than written history and a journey that crossed entire oceans before Europeans had any idea…
- CannabisCannabis is a genus of flowering plants with a history stretching back roughly 12,000 years, to the early Neolithic period in East Asia.
- MapleMaple trees have been spinning seeds through the air for roughly 60 million years. Those seeds, known as samaras, are shaped to rotate as they fall, carrying…
- BasilBasil carries a name that means "royal plant" in Greek, and for thousands of years, people have treated it accordingly. The ancient Egyptians and ancient…
- CitrusCitrus trees began as small berry-producing shrubs, and today they account for nearly half of all world fruit trade by value.
- Indigofera tinctoriaIndigofera tinctoria, the plant known as true indigo, once colored the robes of emperors and the canvas of European masters.
- FragariaFragaria carries more than 20 described species under its name, yet almost everyone who has ever eaten a strawberry has only tasted one of them.
- Gossypium hirsutumGossypium hirsutum, the plant known as upland cotton or Mexican cotton, quietly holds a grip on the global textile economy that most people never think about.
- Gossypium barbadenseLinnaeus described the species in 1753, naming it Gossypium barbadense after the island of Barbados. Modern botanists place this plant within the mallow…
- Hyoscyamus nigerHyoscyamus niger, the plant the medieval world called henbane, carries a name that dates back to AD 1265 and translates, essentially, to "thing that causes…
- Ficus religiosaFicus religiosa, the sacred fig, holds a distinction shared by almost no other plant on earth: it is venerated across four major religions simultaneously.
- CactusThe first cacti are thought to have been only slightly succulent shrubs or small trees whose leaves carried out photosynthesis.
- Juglans regiaJuglans regia goes by many names: common walnut, English walnut, Persian walnut. None of them quite captures what this tree actually is.
- FicusFicus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, and epiphytes found throughout the tropics and beyond.
- Angelica archangelicaDuring its first year, the plant grows only leaves. In the second year, a fluted stem reaches 2.5 meters in height. This is just over eight feet of vertical…