In the 19th century, the edelweiss became a symbol of the rugged purity of the Alpine region and of its native inhabitants.
The passion for edelweiss, which had previously been neglected, began in the middle of the 19th century. The focus is on an incident from 1856, when the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I went on a mountain hike to the Pasterzen Glacier on the Großglockner with his wife Sisi. There the emperor picked his wife an edelweiss from the steep rock with the words "The first in my life that I picked myself". The affection for edelweiss was a common feature of the famous couple and this well-known story raised people's attention to this alpine plant.
The plant became known as a symbol of the Austrian Empress Elisabeth. A portrait by the painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter painted in 1865 shows Empress Elisabeth with nine artificial edelweiss stars braided in her hair. The jewelry made of precious metal and diamonds was designed in the years after 1850 by the then court and chamber jeweler Alexander Emanuel Köchert.
With the rise of mountain tourism at the end of the 19th century, the edelweiss became the badge and symbol of alpinists and mountaineers. In order to prevent the extinction of the often picked symbolic species, it was placed under nature protection early on. The edelweiss was soon adopted as a symbol in the logo of numerous alpine clubs and associations. In the Austro-Hungarian Army in particular, the symbolic relationship between defiant, frugal and resilient alpine plants or the required perseverance, agility and cutting edge of the alpine troops was recognized and emphasized and often promoted by badges and designations. The Alpen-Edelweiss was assigned as a badge by Emperor Franz Joseph to troops (three regiments) of the Austro-Hungarian Army intended for use in the mountains. It was worn on the collar of the uniform skirt.
In Berthold Auerbach's novel Edelweiss (1861), the difficulty for an alpinist to acquire an edelweiss flower was exaggerated to the point of claiming: "the possession of one is a proof of unusual daring." This idea at the time was becoming part of the popular mythology of early alpinism. Auerbach's novel appeared in English translation in 1869, prefaced with a quote attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson:
There is a flower known to botanists, one of the same genus with our summer plant called "Life-Everlasting", a Gnaphalium like that, which grows on the most inaccessible cliffs of the Tyrolese mountains, where the chamois dare hardly venture, and which the hunter, tempted by its beauty, and by his love (for it is immensely valued by the Swiss maidens), climbs the cliffs to gather, and is sometimes found dead at the foot, with the flower in his hand. It is called by botanists the Gnaphalium leontopodium, but by the Swiss Edelweisse, which signifies Noble Purity.
Together with the alpine gentian, the edelweiss is also a symbol of lonely peaks and pure air in the Alps today. These plants are celebrated with songs and many souvenirs related to them are sold.


The edelweiss was established in 1907 as the sign of the Imperial-Royal Mountain Troops by Emperor Franz Joseph I. These original three Regiments wore their edelweiss on the collar of their uniform. Before 1918 there were also innumerable edelweiss badges in the Habsburg army. These include, for example, the military mountain guide award (ice ax with edelweiss and winding mountain rope), edelweiss emblems on the collar and cap or badges from alpine patrol companies. Many alpine units, commandos and soldiers proudly wore unofficial edelweiss badges.
The edelweiss also played a role in the troop designation, which also reflected the special relationship with the mountains. In addition to the "Edelweiss Corps" (k.u.k. XIV. Corps) of Archduke Joseph Ferdinand, an "Edelweiss Division" was formed in the course of the First World War. It essentially consisted of Kaiserjäger of the 3rd and 4th regiments, the Salzburg infantry regiment "Archduke Rainer" No. 59 and the Upper Austrian infantry regiment "Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine" No. 14. In 1915,  World War I, the edelweiss was granted to the German alpine troops for their bravery. Today, it is still the insignia of the Austrian, French, Slovenian, Polish, Romanian, and German alpine troops.
In the Swiss Army, the highest ranks (brigadier general and higher) have badges in the form of edelweiss flowers, where other military branch badges would have stars.


The song Stelutis alpinis (Friulian for "alpine edelweiss"), written by Arturo Zardini when he was an evacuee due to World War I, is now considered the unofficial anthem of Friuli
The soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army named a position right next to the Valparola Pass as the "Edelweiss position" during World War I.
The song Es war ein Edelweiss was written by Herms Niel for soldiers during World War II
The edelweiss was a badge of the Edelweiss Pirates, anti-Nazi youth groups in the Third Reich, and was worn on clothes (such as a blouse or a suit).
The edelweiss was the symbol of Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS Gebirgsjäger, or mountain rangers worn as a metal pin on the left side of the mountain cap, on the band of the service dress cap, and as a patch on the right sleeve. It is still the symbol of the mountain brigade in the German Army.
The World War II Luftwaffe unit Kampfgeschwader 51 (51st Bomber Wing) was known as the Edelweiss Wing.
Operation "Edelweiss" was a project of the US Office of Strategic Services to get information about Hitler's Alpine Fortress in 1945.


The edelweiss is worn by troops in the 1st Battalion of the United States Army's 10th Special Forces Group, who adopted the symbol under the command of Colonel Aaron Bank after it had occupied a Waffen SS officer school (Junkerschule) at Flint Kaserne.
A song, "Edelweiss", was written for Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical The Sound of Music (1959).
Since 2002, the Austrian 2 euro cent coin has depicted an edelweiss. From 1959 to 2001, the one-schilling coin depicted a bunch of three flowers.
It is the symbol of the Bulgarian Tourist Union and the Bulgarian Mountain Control and Lifeguard Service.
It is also the symbol of the Swiss national tourism organisation.
It is featured on the Romanian fifty-lei note.
An Austrian brand of beer is Edelweiß.
The edelweiss is used in the logotypes of several alpine clubs such as the Deutscher Alpenverein (German Alpine Club), the Österreichischer Alpenverein (Austrian Alpine Club), the Societá Alpina Friulana (Friulian Alpine Club )  or the Alpenverein Südtirol (South Tyrol Alpine Club). The edelweiss is also used in the logotype of the Union of International Mountain Leader Associations (UIMLA).
The Südtiroler Volkspartei (South Tyrolean People's Party) uses the flower as its logo.
In Asterix in Switzerland (1970), the plot is driven by a quest to find edelweiss in the Swiss mountains and bring a bloom back to Gaul to cure a poisoned Roman quaestor.
Edelweiss Air, an international airline based in Switzerland, is named after the flower, which also appears in its logo.
The musician Moondog composed the song "High on a Rocky Ledge," inspired by the Edelweiss flower.
"Bring me Edelweiss" is the best-known song of the music group Edelweiss.
Polish professional ice hockey team MMKS Podhale Nowy Targ uses an edelweiss as its emblem.
Edelweiss Lodge and Resort is a military resort located in Garmisch, Germany.
The song La Belle Fleur Sauvage by Lord Huron has lyrics inspired by the tradition of presenting a loved one with an edelweiss.
In the 7th instalment of the Dark Parables franchise, the Snow Edelweiss flower is revealed to be the flower associated with the Snow Queen, Snow White, the counterpart to her fraternal twin brother, Prince Ross Red of the Fiery Rosa flower.
In HBO's 2001 mini series Band of Brothers, edelweiss is found on a dead German soldier's uniform. When asked about this, Captain Lewis Nixon replied, "That's edelweiss. It grows in the mountains, above the treeline. Which means he climbed up there to get it. Supposed to be the mark of a true soldier."
In the Korean drama Crash Landing on You, Ri Jyeong Hyuk gives Yoon Se-ri a potted edelweiss. He later asks her to meet him "where the edelweiss grows", referring to the Jungfrau region where they later meet again.
After Lithuania regained its independence, children of German descent living in Lithuania formed the Edelweiss community, later renamed the Edelweiss-Wolfskinder (Wolf children).


Leopoldia comosa (syn. Muscari comosum) is a perennial bulbous plant. Usually called the tassel hyacinth or tassel grape hyacinth, it is one of a number of species and genera also known as grape hyacinths. It is found in rocky ground and cultivated areas, such as cornfields and vineyards in the Mediterranean region, but has naturalized elsewhere. In southern Italy and Greece, its bulb is a culinary delicacy.


Described by Oleg Polunin as "a striking plant", it has a tuft of bright blue to violet-blue sterile flowers above brownish-green fertile flowers, which open from dark blue buds, reminiscent of a menorah candelabrum. This tuft gives rise to the name "tassel hyacinth". The flower stem is 20–60 cm tall; individual flowers are borne on long stalks, purple in the case of the sterile upper flowers. Mature fertile flowers are 5–10 mm long with stalks of this length or more and are bell-shaped, opening at the mouth, where there are paler lobes. The linear leaves are 5–15 mm wide, with a central channel.
Leopoldia comosa naturalizes easily and may become invasive. It has spread northwards from its original distribution, for example appearing in the British Isles in the 16th century.
In a cultivar called 'Monstrosum' or 'Plumosum', all the flowers have become branched purple stems.


During Roman times, Pliny noted that the bulbs were eaten with vinegar, oil, and garum. Today, it is still eaten in some Mediterranean countries. In Apulia and Basilicata, it is cultivated and known as lampagioni or lampascioni. In Greek it is called βολβός, βολβοί, βροβιοί volví, vrovií (ασκουρδαλάκοι in Crete). In Greece and especially on Crete, it is considered a delicacy and collected in the wild. The cleaned bulbs are boiled several times, pickled, and then kept in olive oil. The bulbs of the tassel hyacinth are mentioned in classical Hebrew literature under the name bulbūsīn.


Lepidium campestre, the field pepperwort or field pepperweed or field cress, is usually a biennial with some form of annual plant in the Brassicaceae or mustard family, native to Europe, but commonly found in North America as an invasive weed. The most notable characteristic of field pepperweed is the raceme of flowers which forks off of the stem.  These racemes are made up of first small white flowers and later green, flat and oval seedpods each about 6 mm long and 4 mm wide. Each seedpod contains two brown, 2.5 mm long seeds.
The stem of field pepperweed comes out of a basal rosette of toothed leaves. The stem is covered in leaves, which are sessile, alternate and arrow-shaped. The entire plant is generally between 20 and 60 cm tall and covered in small hairs.


Field pepperweed grows in disturbed land, crops, and waste places. It can tolerate most soils.
The plant is edible. The young leaves can be eaten as greens, added raw to salads or boiled for ten minutes.  The young fruits and seeds can be used as a spice, with a taste between black pepper and mustard. The leaves contain protein, vitamin A and vitamin C.


Field cress has been targeted for domestication at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), because it holds high agronomic promise as a biennial/perennial oilseed crop as it has many good characteristics of a high-yielding winter-hardy crop. Unlike any other oilseed crop, field cress can be highly productive in the northern parts of temperate regions and has been successfully grown in Umeå, Sweden (40 km south of the Arctic circle) where it can yield correspondingly 3.3 tons/ha. In addition, field cress provides important ecosystem services as it functions as a cover crop during winter and can be undersown a spring cereal. The oil of field cress is suitable for different industrial applications such as production of hydrotreated vegetable oil diesel (HVO). The researchers at SLU have identified and mapped several genes in field cress that are known to be important for domestication related traits such as flowering time, pod shattering and seed dormancy.


Lepidium didymum,  the lesser swine-cress, is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae.


Lepidium didymum is an annual or biennial herb with decumbent or ascending and glabrous green stems, up to 40 centimetres (16 in) long, radiating from a central position. The leaves are pinnate and alternate, and can reach a length of 5 cm (2 in). It blooms between July and September. The flowers are inconspicuous, the four white petals very short or absent, with 2 (rarely 4), stamens and the fruits consist of two rounded valves, notched at the apex, with a very short style between. They are also wrinkled and contain orange or reddish brown seeds, that are 1–5 mm long.


It was first described and published by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 'Mant. Pl.' (Mantissa Plantarum) on page 92 in 1767.
The specific epithet didymum, refers to the Greek word δίδυμα for 'twin' or 'in pairs', referring to the seed capsule.


Lepidium didymum is of uncertain origin, but is often cited as native to South America, mainly Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. It has been introduced elsewhere as a weed of cultivation.
It has naturalised across the globe, from Africa, Europe, Asia, Australasia, North America and South America. In Britain, it had been recorded from the wild by 1778, chiefly in England and the south of Ireland, growing on cultivated and waste ground, in gardens and lawns, by paths and roadsides.


The leaves of this plant are edible, and have a salty, cress or mustard flavour.


Lepidium draba, the whitetop or hoary cress, or Thanet cress, is a rhizomatous perennial flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is native to western Asia and southeastern Europe and widely introduced elsewhere.


Whitetop is a perennial herb that reproduces by seeds and by horizontal creeping roots.  The stem is stoutish, erect or spreading, 10 to 80 cm tall, branched, covered sparsely with ash-colored soft hairs to heavily covered.  The leaves are alternating, simple, and mostly toothed.  The basal leaves are 4 to 10 cm, have a slight stem (petiole), and are long and flat, lance-shaped to egg-shaped, with the narrow end attached to the stalk. On the upper part of the stem the leaves are attached directly to the stalk (sessile), are 2 to 6.5 cm long, and are oblong or tapering the point, with broad bases that clasp the stalk.  Whitetop has slightly domed flower clusters in which the individual flower stalks grow upward from various points off the branch to approximately the same height (corymb-like).  The petals are white, clawed, and 3 to 5 mm long, about twice the length of the sepals.


It is native to western Asia and southeastern Europe and is an invasive species in North America, introduced by contaminated seeds in the early 1900s. Also known as Cardaria draba, hoary cress is a weed in much of south-east and south-west Australia as well.


Agriculture Research Service (1970) "Cardaria draba (L.) Deav." Selected Weeds of the United States Agriculture Research Service United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC, p. 200


Lepidium nitidum, known by the common name shining  pepperweed, is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family.
It is native to far western North America from Washington, through Nevada and California, into Baja California. It thrives in diverse habitat types.
It may be found elsewhere as an introduced species.


Lepidium nitidum is a mainly erect annual herb producing a slender stem up to about 40 centimeters tall. There are small leaves along the stem and larger ones at the base growing up to 10 centimeters long and divided into many narrow lobes.
At the top of the stem appear tiny flowers with spoon-shaped white petals only about a millimeter long.
The flowers give way to flattened, rounded to oval-shaped disclike fruits up to about half a centimeter long. Each green to pink shiny fruit is divided down the center into two chambers containing seeds.


Lepidospartum squamatum is a species of flowering shrub in the daisy family known by the common names California broomsage and scale broom.


Lepidospartum squamatum is native to the mountains, valleys, and deserts of central and southern California, and Baja California. It grows in sandy, gravelly soils in a number of habitat types, especially dry alluvial habitat such as arroyos. It is considered an indicator species for the alluvial scrub habitat type in this region. It is also commonly found in neighboring Arizona.


Lepidospartum squamatum is a large shrub often exceeding two meters in height which takes a spreading, rounded form, its branches are coated in woolly fibers and stubby leaves no more than 3 millimeters long.
The inflorescence is a single flower head or small cluster of up to 5 heads at the ends of branches. The heads are discoid, bearing many yellow tubular disc florets and no ray florets. The fruit is a narrow achene a few millimeters long with a dull white to light brown pappus on top.  While in bloom, scale broom will attract a wide variety of pollinators, including bees, butterflies, moths, and tarantula hawk wasps.
As the fruits mature and the flower parts fall away the inflorescence takes on a cottony look due to all the pappi.


The silverfish is a nocturnal insect typically 13–25 mm (0.5–1.0 in) long. Its abdomen tapers at the end, giving it a fish-like appearance. The newly hatched are whitish, but develop a greyish hue and metallic shine as they get older. It has two long cerci and one terminal filament at the tip of the abdomen between the cerci. It also has two small compound eyes, although other members of Zygentoma are completely eyeless, such as the family Nicoletiidae.
Like other species in Apterygota, the silverfish is completely wingless. It has long antennae, and moves in a wiggling motion that resembles the movement of a fish. This, coupled with its appearance and silvery scales, inspires its common name. Silverfish can regenerate terminal filaments and antennae, if lost, in two to four weeks. Silverfish typically live for up to three years.
The silverfish is an agile runner. It avoids light.


Silverfish are a cosmopolitan species, found in Africa, the Americas, Australia, Eurasia, and parts of the Pacific. They inhabit moist areas, requiring a relative humidity between 75% and 95%. In urban areas, they can be found in attics, basements, bathtubs, sinks, kitchens, old books, classrooms, and showers.


Silverfish are able to digest cellulose by themselves, thanks to the cellulase that is produced by its midgut. They  consume matter that contains polysaccharides, such as starches and dextrin in adhesives. These include book bindings, carpet, clothing, coffee, dandruff, glue, hair, some paints, paper, photos, plaster, and sugar. They will damage wallpaper in order to consume the paste. Silverfish can also cause damage to tapestries. Other substances they may eat include cotton, dead insects, linen, silk, leftover crumbs, or even their own exuviae (moulted exoskeleton). During famine, a silverfish may even consume leather and synthetic fabrics. Silverfish can live for a year or more without eating if water is available.
Silverfish are considered household pests, due to their consumption and destruction of property. However, although they are responsible for the contamination of food and other types of damage, they do not transmit disease. Earwigs, house centipedes, and spiders such as the spitting spider Scytodes thoracica are known to be predators of silverfish.
The essential oil of the Japanese cedar Cryptomeria japonica has been investigated as a repellent and insecticide against L. saccharinum, with promising results: filter paper impregnated with a concentration of 0.01 mg/cm³ of essential oil repelled 80% of silverfish, and an exposure to vapours of 0.16 mg/cm³ for 10 hours caused a 100% mortality rate.


The scientific name for the species is Lepisma saccharinum (originally saccharina; Linnaeus' 1758 description here), due to its tendency to eat starchy foods high in carbohydrates and protein, such as dextrin. However, the insect's more common name comes from its distinctive metallic appearance and fish-like shape. While the scientific name was established by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, the common name has been in use since at least 1855. Most authors have historically treated the nomenclatural gender of Lepisma as feminine (also as specified in ICZN Direction 71 issued in 1957), but in 2018 the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature issued a formal ruling (ICZN Opinion 2427) stating the gender of Lepisma (and all genera with that ending) is neuter, following ICZN Article 30, which resulted in changes to the spelling of several well-known species, including Lepisma saccharinum.


Together with jumping bristletails, the predecessors of silverfish are considered the earliest, most primitive insects. They evolved at the latest in mid-Devonian and possibly as early as late Silurian more than 400 million years ago. Some fossilized arthropod trackways from the Paleozoic Era, known as Stiaria intermedia and often attributed to jumping bristletails, may have been produced by silverfish.


Other similar insect species are also known as silverfish. Two other silverfish are common in North America, Ctenolepisma longicaudatum and Ctenolepisma quadriseriatum. Ctenolepisma urbanum is known as the urban silverfish.

The Australian species most commonly referred to as silverfish is a different lepismatid, Acrotelsella devriesiana. The firebrat (Thermobia domestica) is like a silverfish, but with a mottled gray and brown body.


Leptecophylla juniperina is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae. The species is native to New Zealand and the Australian states of Tasmania and Victoria. The plant's fruit is edible, raw or cooked. Plants grow best in areas with moderate winters and cool moist summers.
Three subspecies are recognised as follows:
Leptecophylla juniperina (J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.) C.M.Weiller subsp. juniperina (New Zealand and Tasmania)
Leptecophylla juniperina subsp. oxycedrus (Labill.) C.M.Weiller (Tasmania and Victoria)
Leptecophylla juniperina subsp. parvifolia (R.Br.) C.M.Weiller (Tasmania)
An example occurrence of L. juniperina is in the red and silver beech forests admixed with rimu and miro podocarps on northern South Island, New Zealand; associate understory species in this South Island forest include Blechnum discolor.


Common names in New Zealand include prickly heath and  prickly mingimingi. Maori names for this plant include hukihuki, hukihukiraho, inakapōriro, inangapōriro, kūkuku, miki, mikimiki, mingi, mingimingi ngohungohu, pā tōtara, taumingi, tūmingi.
In Australia, the subspecies parvifolia (syn. Cyathodes parviflora) is known as pink mountain berry.


The purple-rumped sunbird (Leptocoma zeylonica) is a sunbird endemic to the Indian Subcontinent. Like other sunbirds, they are small in size, feeding mainly on nectar but sometimes take insects, particularly when feeding young. They can hover for short durations but usually perch to suck nectar from flowers. They build a hanging pouch nest made up of cobwebs, lichens and plant material. Males are brightly coloured but females are olive above and yellow to buff below. Males are easily distinguished from the purple sunbird by the light coloured underside while females can be told apart by their whitish throats.


Purple-rumped sunbirds are tiny at less than 10 cm long. They have medium-length thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues, both adaptations for nectar feeding. Purple-rumped sunbirds are sexually dimorphic. The males have a dark maroon upperside with a blue-green crown that glistens at some angles, bright green shoulder patch and violet/purple rump patch which is generally hidden under the wings. The underparts are whitish with dark throat, maroon breast band and purple/violet patch in the throat which is visible in some angles. The iris is generally reddish in color. In the Western Ghats, it can overlap in some areas with the crimson-backed sunbird but the male of that species has reddish upperparts, a broader breast band and generally darker eyes. The female has a white throat followed by yellowish breast. The upperside is olive or brownish. The uppertail coverts are black and a weak supercilium may be visible. The nominate subspecies from Sri Lanka has a more bluish violet throat whereas the Indian form flaviventris (two other proposed populations whistleri from Maddur in Karnataka and  sola from Pondicherry are subsumed) has a more pinkish tinge.
Their call is ptsiee ptsit, ptsiee ptsswit or a sharp twittering tityou, titou, trrrtit, tityou....


The purple-rumped sunbird is a common resident breeder in southern India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It is found in Gujarat to the west (possibly a recent expansion) and extending into Assam (Hailakandi) or Meghalaya in the east. Records from Myanmar are not certain. This species is found in a variety of habitats with trees, including scrub and cultivation and is usually absent from dense forest.


They breed through the year and may have two broods, but mainly during the monsoons. The nest is made up of fine plant fibres, cobwebs and is studded on the exterior with lichens, bark pieces, flying seeds and other materials. The nest is constructed by the female alone although the male may fly alongside her. The nest is lined with soft fibres such as from the fuzz covering the seeds of Calotropis. The nest is placed on the end of branch and the entrance usually faces a bush. Nests may sometimes be built close to buildings or under open porches. The female stays in the nest at night a couple of day before laying the eggs. The clutch consists of two eggs which are generally oval, pale greenish and white with spots and streaks, becoming more dense at the broad end. Sometimes, eggs may be plain grey without markings as well. When collecting cobwebs they are often seen at windows of homes, a time when they also sometimes end up tapping the window, possibly at their own reflection. The eggs are usually laid in the morning. The eggs are incubated by both the male and female. The incubation period varies from 14 to 16 days. The chicks fledge in about 17 days and continue to be fed by the male for a few days. Helpers, females or possibly juveniles from the previous brood may sometimes assist the parents in feeding the young. Old nests are sometimes reused. Cases of nests being parasitised by the grey-bellied cuckoo are known. In one case the cuckoo was fed by an adult sunbird as well as an adult common tailorbird.
They pollinate the flowers of many plant species such as Bruguiera, Woodfordia, Hamelia and Sterculia. They tend to perch while foraging for nectar and do not hover as much as the syntopic Loten's sunbird. It has been noted that they maintain special scratching posts, where they get rid of pollen and nectar sticking to their head. When the flowers are too deep to probe, they sometimes pierce the base of the flower and rob the nectar, an action termed as "nectar theft" since the flower's primary purpose of attracting pollinators is foiled. They sometimes visit open crop fields and take honeydew exuded by leafhoppers.
Sunbird may indulge in dew-bathing, or bathing by sliding over drops of rain collected on large leaves.
They are generally bold and, although they are spooked by fast movements, casually approach people who are staying mostly still.
Like most birds they harbour specific protozoa species in their blood.  A species Haemoproteus raymundi has been described from a specimen from Goa but the identification and taxonomic placement of this malaria-like protozoan is disputed.


The western conifer seed bug (Leptoglossus occidentalis), sometimes abbreviated as WCSB, is a species of true bug (Hemiptera) in the family Coreidae. It is native to North America west of the Rocky Mountains (California to British Columbia, east to Idaho and Nevada) but has in recent times expanded its range to eastern North America, to include Ontario, Nova Scotia, Maine, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and has become an accidental introduced species in parts of Europe.
This species is a member of the insect family Coreidae, or leaf-footed bugs, which also includes the similar Leptoglossus phyllopus and Acanthocephala femorata, both known as the "Florida leaf-footed bug". Western conifer seed bugs are sometimes colloquially called stink bugs. While they do use a foul-smelling spray as a defense, they are not classified in the stink bug family Pentatomidae. In Chile, it has been confused with kissing bugs (Triatominae), causing unjustified alarm.


The average length is 16–20 millimetres (0.63–0.79 in) with males being smaller than females. They are able to fly, making a buzzing noise when airborne. Western conifer seed bugs are somewhat similar in appearance to the wheel bug Arilus cristatus and other Reduviidae (assassin bugs). These, being Cimicomorpha, are not very closely related to leaf-footed bugs as Heteroptera go; though both have a proboscis, but only the assassin bugs bite even if unprovoked, and L. occidentalis like its closest relatives can be most easily recognized by the expanded hindleg tibiae and by the alternating light and dark bands which run along the outer wing edges on the flaring sides of the abdomen. Their primary defense is to emit an unpleasant-smelling alarm pheromone; however, if handled roughly they will stab with their proboscis, though they are hardly able to cause injury to humans as it is adapted only to suck plant sap and not, as in the assassin bugs, to inject poison.


This insect is common in its native range along the temperate and warmer regions of the Pacific coast of North America and has steadily expanded eastwards. On its native continent, L. occidentalis has been located as far northeast as Nova Scotia.
In Europe, this species was first reported in 1999 from northern Italy; it had probably been accidentally imported with timber and, as it seems, more than once, as its presence was subsequently reported from that country almost simultaneously from locations a considerable distance apart. By 2007, it had established itself in the northern Balkans (Slovenia and Croatia), the Alps (Austria, Switzerland), and parts of the Czech Republic, France, Germany and Hungary; in 2003, it was found to occur in Spain, though this population probably derives from a separate introduction. The 2007 records from Weymouth College (England) and Ostend (Belgium) might also represent one or two further independent introductions. In late 2007, it was found at Wrocław and Miechów (Poland); these animals probably represent a further range expansion out of the Czech Republic. During the autumn of 2008, a large influx of this species arrived on the south coast of England, indicating natural immigration from continental Europe. In late 2009, a large group of western conifer seed bugs invaded Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey. The same thing happened in October 2012 in most of the cities of the French Alps, like Moûtiers. In 2017 it appears for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere, with several records from Chile.
It was also first recorded from Tokyo, Japan in 2008, and some additional records from Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture have been added until 2009.
In 2010 the first detection was made in Ukraine, in Dniprorudne, and the next year in Russia, in Rostov-on-Don.
In 2020 it was first reported in Finland.
On October 21, 2020 the first sighting in Andorra was posted to iNaturalist, and in September this species was found in Kozhukhovka in Kyiv region, Ukraine.
In June 2021 Agence France Presse carried a report into devastation caused by the bug in the Qsaybeh pine forest east of Beirut, Lebanon, resulting in the collapse of pine nut production.


Leptoglossus phyllopus or Eastern leaf-footed bug is a species of leaf-footed bugs in the same genus as the western conifer seed bug (L. occidentalis. The Eastern leaf-footed bug is found throughout the southern United States, from Florida to California, through Mexico, and as far south as Costa Rica.
These bugs are a common garden insect which may damage a wide variety of crops including cotton, peaches and tomatoes, and seeds such as beans, black-eyed peas and sorghum. Like other bugs L. phyllopus suck juices from plants by puncturing them with their sucking mouth parts, making them resistant to ingested pesticides. A toxin is injected into the plant when piercing its skin, causing discoloration and hard spots on fruits. The adult bugs are highly resistant to pesticides; however, they are vulnerable in their bright orange nymph stage. Trap crops can be used to lure them away from desired plants and to encourage predator populations, and in small garden plots handpicking, the use of trap crops, and bug traps baited with methyl (E, Z)-2,4-decadienoate can be effective controls.
Acetosyringone is produced by the male leaffooted bug and used in its communication system. Leptoglossus phyllopus emits a foul odor when it is handled


The speckled bush-cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima) is a flightless species of bush-cricket belonging to the family Tettigoniidae. The species was originally described as Locusta punctatissima in 1792.


The speckled bush-cricket is common across much of Europe. It ranges from the British Isles, France, Poland and Belgium in the west to the European parts of Russia in the east, and from southern Scandinavia in the north to southern Italy, Bulgaria and Greece. It has been recorded as far south as Israel. It is also present in the Nearctic realm.


Leptophyes punctatissima can reach a body length of about 10–15 mm (0.39–0.59 in). These bush-crickets are mainly grass-green with minute black speckles (more evident in the nymphs), as reflected in the common and Latin name of the species. Its colouring and secretive lifestyle, hidden away in the undergrowth, mean that it often passes unnoticed. The dorsal surface of the abdomen features an orangey-brown stripe; this is more pronounced in the male than the female. A yellow-white stripe extends backwards from the eyes. The lower legs and feet are brownish. The antennae are twice as long as the body. The species is brachypterous: the male's forewings are reduced to small flaps, and those of the female are even more reduced. The hindwings are completely absent, and both males and females are flightless. The female's ovipositor is laterally compressed and curves sharply upwards.


Leptosiphon bicolor (syn. Linanthus bicolor), known as true babystars, is a low annual flowering plant with clumps of needle-like leaves. Populations often contain both white-flowered and pink-flowered plants. It is native to the west coast of North America from northern Baja California to southern British Columbia.


Leptosiphon ciliatus (syn. Linanthus ciliatus) is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name whiskerbrush.


It is native to California, Baja California (México), Nevada, and Oregon, growing below 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) in elevation.
It is a common plant in many types of habitats, including chaparral, oak woodland, grassland, yellow pine forest, red fir forest, lodgepole forest, and subalpine forest.


Leptosiphon ciliatus is a hairy annual herb producing a thin stem up to about 30 centimeters tall. The leaves are each divided into needle-like lobes up to 2 centimeters long, with leaf pairs appearing as a cluster of narrow lobes.
The tip of the stem has an inflorescence of one or more flowers each with a long, hairy tube up to 2.5 centimeters long emerging from the leaf-like sepals. The face of the flower is less than a centimeter wide and pale to bright pink with white and yellow coloring and reddish spots on the throat.  The bloom period is March to July, depending on altitude and latitude.


Leptosiphon nuttallii is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name Nuttall's linanthus.
It is native to much of western North America, including the Western United States from California to New Mexico and Montana, and Northwestern Mexico. It is known from many types of habitat.
It is native to the Klamath Mountains, Northern California Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada in Northern California; and the Inyo Mountains, Peninsular Ranges, Transverse Ranges, and White Mountains in Southern California.


Leptosiphon nuttallii is a perennial herb producing a patch of small, hairy stems up to about 20 centimeters tall. Each leaf is divided into usually five very narrow, needlelike lobes.
The inflorescence is a cluster of flowers, each with white corolla lobes about half a centimeter long each joined at a yellowish throat.


Subspecies include:
Leptosiphon nuttallii ssp. howellii, Mt. Tedoc linanthus — a rare subspecies known from just a few populations deep within the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness in the Klamath Mountains, Northern California. It is California Department of Fish and Wildlife and IUCN listed Endangered species, and is on the California Native Plant Society Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants.
Leptosiphon nuttallii ssp. nuttallii — the most widespread subspecies, including in the Cascade Range and Rocky Mountains.
Leptosiphon nuttallii ssp. pubescens — endemic to the Eastern Sierra Nevada and Great Basin region in California and Nevada.
Leptosiphon nuttallii ssp. tenuilobus — native to Arizona and New Mexico.


Leptosiphon parviflorus (syn. Linanthus parviflorus) is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name variable linanthus.


The plant is endemic to California, growing from sea level to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) in elevation. It is widespread and common in many types of habitats, including chaparral, oak woodlands, mixed evergreen forests, and montane coniferous forests.
Mountain ranges it is found in include the Sierra Nevada, California Coast Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, southern Cascade Range, and Transverse Ranges. It is also native to four of the Channel Islands of California.


Leptosiphon parviflorus is an annual herb. As its common name suggests, the plant is variable in appearance. The stem may be just a few centimeters long or up to 25 centimeters in erect height. The leaves are divided into several lobes, often linear in shape, and 1 to 2.5 centimeters long.
The inflorescence is a cluster of several flowers which may be nearly any color, often shades of yellow, pink, or white. Each flower has a long, very narrow tube which may exceed 3 centimeters. It expands into a yellowish throat and a flat corolla with purplish markings at the base of each lobe. The bloom period is March to June.


Leptospermum scoparium, commonly called mānuka, ([maːnʉka]) mānuka myrtle, New Zealand teatree, broom tea-tree, or just tea tree, is a species of flowering plant in the myrtle family Myrtaceae, native to New Zealand (including the Chatham Islands) and south-east Australia. Its nectar produces Mānuka honey.


Mānuka is a prolific shrub-type tree and is often one of the first species to regenerate on cleared land. It is typically a shrub growing to 2–5 m (7–16 ft) tall, but can grow into a moderately sized tree, up to 15 m (49 ft) or so in height. It is evergreen, with dense branching and small leaves 7–20 mm (0.28–0.79 in) long and 2–6 mm (0.079–0.24 in) broad, with a short spine tip. The flowers are white, occasionally pink, 8–15 mm (0.31–0.59 in) – rarely up to 25 mm (0.98 in) – in diameter, with five petals. The wood is tough and hard.
Mānuka is often confused with the related species kānuka (Kunzea ericoides) – the easiest way to tell the difference between the two species in the field is to feel their foliage – mānuka leaves are prickly, while kānuka leaves are soft. Alternatively, the seed capsules of mānuka are large (5–7 mm or 0.20–0.28 inches in diameter) and often remain on the plant year round, whereas the seed capsules of kānuka are much smaller (2.2–4.6 mm or 0.087–0.18 inches in diameter) and are not present for much of the year.
The Latin specific epithet scoparium means "like broom", referring to Northern Hemisphere genera such as Genista and Cytisus which it superficially resembles, but to which it is only distantly related.


Evidence suggests that L. scoparium originated in Australia before the onset of the Miocene aridity, and moved as a result of long-distance dispersal events to New Zealand from eastern Australia sometime during the last 20 million years. Cyclones and other wind activity are most likely responsible for transporting seeds long distances. Supporters of this claim cite evidence that the genus Leptospermum arose under conditions where frequent forest fires were common (i.e. in Australia, and not temperate New Zealand), because they possess fire-adaptive traits like serotiny and storage lignotubers. It has been postulated that on arrival in New Zealand, L. scoparium became established in limited edaphically suitable areas until the arrival of the Polynesian people, whose fire and forest-clearing brought about the low-nutrient-status soils for which it was preadapted in its homeland. It is now more common in New Zealand than it is in Australia. It is found throughout New Zealand, but is particularly common on the drier east coasts of the North and South Islands, and in Australia in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.


The adult mānuka beetle (Pyronota festiva) and its larvae feed on L. scoparium in New Zealand.


Various pollinators are known to visit L. scoparium, some examples include Melangyna novaezelandiae, Hylaeus, and Honeybees.


Leptospermum scoparium is in the process of evolutionary differentiation as a result of its isolation from fellow members of the Leptospermum genus. New studies demonstrate a loss of lignotubers among populations of Leptospermum scoparium located in relatively fire-free zones of New Zealand's South Island, while Australian and Tasmanian populations retain their lignotubers along with stronger manifestations of serotiny. Australian populations of Leptospermum scoparium are shown to be chemically distinct from their New Zealand counterparts, with significantly higher levels of cinteole and monoterpines. Chemotypical variations also exist between different populations within New Zealand, leading some to suggest that L. scoparium be divided into three subspecies: those with high pinenes, high triketones, and high sesquiterpenes. Recently, however, new research suggests that plant-to-plant variation far outstrips the variation seen between geographically isolated manuka sites, at least with regard to nectar chemistry.


Mānuka, tea tree and kāhikatoa are common names for this species. "Jelly bush" is also used in Australia to describe similar honey from Leptospermum polygalifolium. Tea tree arose because Captain Cook used the leaves to make a 'tea' drink.
Mānuka is a Māori word from New Zealand.


Numerous cultivars have been developed for garden use, of which the following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:
(Nanum Group) 'Kiwi'
'Nichollsii Nanum'
'Red Damask'
'Silver Sheen'
Many more cultivars are available in New Zealand but often the plant performs better in cultivation overseas. This is because in its homeland it is subject to attack by scale insects that secrete a honeydew on which grows a sooty mould that eventually debilitates the plant. Because of this, attempts have been made, with limited commercial success, to cross the showy New Zealand cultivars with mould-resistant Australian Leptospermum species.


The wood was often used for tool handles. Mānuka sawdust imparts a delicious flavour when used for smoking meats and fish. It is cultivated in Australia and New Zealand for mānuka honey, produced when honeybees gather the nectar from its flowers, and for the pharmaceutical industry. It is also used for carving. An essential oil, for which many medicinal claims are made, is produced by steam distillation of its leaves. Mānuka, as it is called by most New Zealanders, was used in pre-European times by Māori, and still is. A decoction of the leaves was drunk for urinary complaints and as a febrifuge (an agent for reducing fever). The steam from leaves boiled in water was inhaled for head colds. A decoction was prepared from the leaves and bark and the warm liquid was rubbed on stiff muscles and aching joints. The emollient white gum, called pai mānuka, was given to nursing babies and also used to treat scalds and burns. Chewing the bark is said to have a relaxing effect and it enhances sleep.


Kākāriki parakeets (Cyanoramphus) use the leaves and bark of mānuka and kānuka to rid themselves of parasites. Apart from ingesting the material, they also chew it, mix it with preen gland oil and apply it to their feathers.


Leptostales pannaria, the pannaria wave moth, is a species of geometrid moth in the family Geometridae.
The MONA or Hodges number for Leptostales pannaria is 7173.


Coreopsis gigantea, known by the common name giant coreopsis, is a woody perennial plant native to coastal regions of central and southern California and also to northern Baja California.


The stem of Coreopsis gigantea is a trunk up to 1 metre (3+1⁄2 feet) tall, and 4–10 centimetres (1+1⁄2–4 inches) in diameter. The plant can reach 3 m (10 ft) high by 0.61 m (2 ft) wide. It is summer deciduous, leaving a sculptural bare trunk and branches during the dry season.
Bright green leaves and flowers are on the top of the trunk, while the rest of the trunk is bare. The leaves are up to 30 cm (12 in) long.
The numerous flowers are yellow, daisy-like, 6–20 cm (2+1⁄2–8 in) in diameter. It blooms from the spring to early summer.
The related C. maritima is found in similar areas.


The plant is found in California coastal sage and chaparral habitats, from 14–55 m (45–180 ft) in elevation. It is found in coastal dunes, chaparral hillsides, and exposed sea bluff habitats.
It is distributed on the coasts of: Southern California and the Channel Islands; the Central Coast region; San Francisco Bay Area; and in Mexico on the northwestern Baja California Peninsula and Guadalupe Island.
It is restricted to nearly frost-free habitats because its stem is succulent, being cold tolerant to around 25 °F (−4 °C). Storing water in this way makes the plants tolerant of drought but especially susceptible to frost.


Leptotes plinius, the zebra blue or plumbago blue, is a species of blue butterfly (Lycaenidae) found in Sri Lanka, India to Australia. The species was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1793.


This form closely resembles, in both sexes, on the upperside of Tarucus theophrastus, but the character and disposition of the markings on the underside are completely different.
Male upperside: dark violet with, in certain lights, a rich blue suffusion. Forewing: no discocellular black spot so conspicuous as in T. theophrastus; terminal margin with a narrow edging of fuscous black, widest at the apex, gradually decreasing to the tornus, followed by an inconspicuous anteciliary jet-black line. Hindwing: costal margin slightly but broadly shaded with fuscous, which is continued as a slender anteciliary black line to the tornus. Underside: white. Forewing: with the following brownish-black markings: an irregular edging along the costa to near the apex from which extends downwards a subbasal band, broadened across the cell and below it; an irregular band that extends along the discocellulars and below them to interspace 1 where it ends in a point; an upper discal curved band of more even width but dislocated below vein 4, the lower portion of it shifted inwards forms a large quadrate spot in interspace 3, below vein 3 the band is continued downwards by two small inconspicuous spots, beyond this is a very short acutely pointed comma-shaped mark; a very regular evenly curved complete transverse lunular line, a transverse series of subterminal spots and an anteciliary slender line. Close to the base of the wing extended obliquely upwards and outwards from the dorsum is a triangular mark, the edging of white colour left near the base forms above the apex of this mark an acute angle; between the band that crosses the middle of the cell and the transverse discocellular band is a more or less slender, irregular, similarly coloured line; and between the discocellular and upper discal bands another much shorter line that extends from the costa downwards but does not reach vein 4, this is slightly clavate anteriorly and posteriorly. Hindwing: mottled with brownish black that leaves only basal, subbasal, medial and discal transverse lines or bands of the ground colour; the medial and discal bands, which are highly irregular, enclose here and there small brownish markings, the bands themselves coalescing above a very irregularly shaped brown mark that is placed on the posterior half of the middle of the wing; terminal markings as on the forewing but the subterminal spots larger, the apical one especially so, the tornal two spots jet-black and each encircled by a glittering slender ring of metallic green scales. Cilia of both forewings and hindwings, the antennae, head, thorax and abdomen much as in T. theophrastus.
Female. Upperside very closely resembles that of female T. theophrastus, but the extent of white on the forewing is greater so that there is a greater area of white to be seen between the brown markings superposed on it, these markings have the appearance of an irregularly formed V on a white background. Hindwing much as in T. theophrastus. Underside: similar to that of its own male but the brown bands less broken, more regular. Cilia, antennae, head, thorax and abdomen as in the male.
It is found in the Ethiopian region, the north-western Himalayas to Kumaon, the plains of northern India; central and western India, Sri Lanka, Assam, Myanmar, Tenasserim in the low hot valleys of the north; extending to China and in the Malayan subregion to Java.
The description given above is taken from males and females of wet-season broods. Specimens of the dry-season broods are paler on the upperside with, in the male only anteciliary black lines to the wings. On the underside the markings on the wings will, on careful examination, be found very similar but paler brown and all very much reduced in width so that a greater extent of the white ground colour is visible.


Plants of the legume family, Plumbaginaceae and some of the citrus family Rutaceae. Species include Glycine tomentella, Dyerophytum indicum, Indigofera suffruticosa, Lablab purpureus, Plumbago zeylanica, Rhynchosia tomentosa, Sesbania bispinosa, Tephrosia obovata, Ziziphus mauritiana, Indigofera argentea, Indigofera erecta, Medicago sativa and Toddalia asiatica.


"Pale greenish yellow above, sides lilacine, a narrow brownish median line, followed by eight diagonal short streaks and six brownish-red spots. Before pupating the colouring gets much more diffused. Feeds among the flower-buds of Plumbago."


"Dull yellowish profusely mottled with brown spots." (E. E. Green as quoted by Lionel de Nicéville.)


Leptotes plinius hyrcanus (Felder, 1860)
Leptotes plinius juvenal (Fruhstorfer, 1922)
Leptotes plinius leopardus (Schultze, 1910)
Leptotes plinius lybas (Godart, [1824])
Leptotes plinius manusi (Rothschild, 1915)
Leptotes plinius pseudocassius (Murray, 1873)


The white-tipped dove (Leptotila verreauxi) is a large New World tropical dove. Its scientific name commemorates the French naturalists Jules and Edouard Verreaux.


The dove is about 28 cm (11 in) long and weighs 155 g (5.5 oz). Adult birds of most races have a grey tinge from the crown to the nape, a pale grey or whitish forehead and a whitish throat. The eye-ring is typically red in most of its range, but blue in most of the Amazon and northern South America. The upperparts and wings are grey-brown, and the underparts are whitish shading to pinkish, dull grey or buff on the chest. The underwing coverts are rufous. The tail is broadly tipped with white, but this is best visible from below or in flight. The bill is black, the legs are red and the iris is yellow.
The white-tipped dove resembles the closely related grey-fronted dove (Leptotila rufaxilla), which prefers humid forest habitats. The best distinctions are the greyer forehead and crown, which contrast less with the hindcrown than in the grey-fronted dove. In the area of overlap, the white-tipped dove usually has a blue (not red) eye-ring, but this is not reliable in some parts of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, where it typically is red in both species.


The white-tipped dove is usually seen singly or in pairs, and is rather wary. Its flight is fast and direct, with the regular beats and clattering of the wings which are characteristic of pigeons in general. The call is a deep hollow ooo-wooooo.


Leptysma marginicollis, the cattail toothpick grasshopper or slender locust, is a grasshopper. It has a very pointed head and flattened, sword-shaped antennae. Thus, it superficially resembles grasshoppers in the subfamily Gomphocerinae, but is easily distinguished by the presence of a spur, or spine, between the front legs. They are usually brownish with a white, yellow, or brown stripe from the eye to the base of the front legs. The head is as long as, or longer than, the prothorax. On top, the body may also be red or pink. The front wings are sharply pointed, extending 3-5mm beyond the tip of the abdomen.


This species is found throughout the U.S., Mexico, in the neotropics, and the Caribbean. It inhabits wet areas, and is usually found on emergent vegetation such as cattails and sedges.


The mating season for Leptysma marginicollis begins around April, after which eggs are laid inside the stem of a plant.


Lerema accius, the clouded skipper, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found in the United States from Georgia west to Texas, south to Florida, and south through Mexico and Central America to Venezuela and Colombia.
The wingspan is 32–45 mm. Adults are on wing year round in Florida and southern Texas.
The larvae feed on various grasses including Stenotaphrum secundatum, Erianthus alopecturoides and Echinochloa povietianum. Adults feed on the nectar of various pink, purple, or white flowers, including shepherd's needle, selfheal, vervain, buttonbush and lantana.


Lerodea eufala, the Eufala skipper or rice leaffolder, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found from the coast of Georgia, south through Florida and west across the southern United States to southern California, south through Mexico and Central America to Patagonia. In the summer, it expands its range north to central California, North Dakota, southern Wisconsin, northern Michigan and Washington, D.C.
The wingspan is 25–32 mm. There are two generations, with adults on wing from February to October in the deep south. There are multiple generations throughout the year in Florida, southern Texas and Arizona.
The larvae feed on various grasses including Sorghum halepense, Cynodon dactylon and Saccharum officinarum. Adults feed on the nectar from various flowers including croton, alfalfa, composites and lippia.


Lespedeza virginica, known as slender bush clover or slender lespedeza, is a species of flowering plant native to much of the United States, as well as Ontario, Canada. It is a member of the bean family, Fabaceae, and is listed as threatened in Wisconsin and New Hampshire.


Lespedeza virginica is an herbaceous, perennial legume. It can grow to be up to 2.5 feet tall. Slender bush clover has trifoliate compound leaves and slender primary petioles, with the stem covered in small white hairs. Its alternate leaves are dark green, though sometimes appear pale. The flowers are pink in color and have a broad upper petal with two side petals. Flowers produced are either cleistogamous or chasmogamous. Slender bush clover flowers from July to September and sets seed from September to October. L. virginica grows well in environments with full to partial sun and can grow successfully in rocky or sandy soils. It produces a taproot to assist in establishment.


Lespedeza virginica is found from Maine south to Florida, west to Texas and north to Michigan as well as in Eastern Canada. L. virginica prefers drier habitats, but can be found in prairies, rocky and sandy forests, savannas and environments with high drainage such as roadsides.


Lespedeza virginica is eaten by a wide variety of wildlife. It is a large part of the bobwhite quail's diet as well as deer and other ground birds. The seeds are eaten as well as the leaves. Nectar and pollen are eaten by various long-tongued insects such as butterflies and bees.


Lespedeza virginica is listed as threatened in Wisconsin and New Hampshire.


Lestes alacer, the plateau spreadwing, is a species of spreadwing in the damselfly family Lestidae. It is found in Central America and North America.
The IUCN conservation status of Lestes alacer is "LC", least concern, with no immediate threat to the species' survival. The population is stable. The IUCN status was reviewed in 2017.


Lestes congener is a species of damselfly in the family Lestidae, the spreadwings. It is known by the common name spotted spreadwing.


Lestes congener can reach a length of 35–42 millimetres (1.4–1.7 in) in males, while females are smaller, reaching a length of 32–38 millimetres (1.3–1.5 in). In the western part of their range, these dragonflies are somewhat larger than in the eastern part.
The thorax is slaty gray dorsally, with two dark elongated spots (hence the common name) on the latero-ventral surface. The eyes are blue in males, while in the females they are always brown. The abdomen is greyish to blackish with bronze reflections, the last two segments of the abdomen are pale gray. The wings are clear and transparent. Like other damselflies of the family Lestidae they hold their wings at about 45 degrees to the body when resting. The larvae are light brown and up to 25 millimeters long. The time of flight of the adults ranges from late July to mid-September.


The sweetflag spreadwing (Lestes forcipatus) is a species of damselfly in the family Lestidae, the spreadwings. It is native to North America, especially eastern parts of Canada and the United States.


Lestes inaequalis is a species of damselfly in the family Lestidae, the spreadwings. This species is known commonly as the elegant spreadwing. It is native to eastern North America, including eastern Canada and the United States.


This species lives near freshwater bodies such as streams, lakes, ponds, and marshes. It may live under the canopy in wooded areas.
The elegant spreadwing is known to feed on smaller damselflies.


Lestes sponsa, is a damselfly, with a wide Palaearctic distribution. It is known commonly as the emerald damselfly or common spreadwing. Both males and females have a metallic green colour and when resting its wings are usually half opened.


One of the larger damselflies, this species is most common in July and August. It is often found by ponds and lakes, and is very rarely seen along flowing water. Emerald Damselflies like to perch among reeds, their colour providing good camouflage. They are not as strong fliers when compared to other common damselflies such as the common blue or large red damselflies, but they are more likely to be seen on misty, rainy days then those species. When disturbed they usually do not fly very far away, landing on another perch a few yards away. Their habit of perching with their wings half open is characteristic of the family Lestidae and gives rise to their other common name of spreadwings. A population can consist of several hundred insects.
L. sponsa mate in the usual dragonfly manner and will form tandem pairs away from water. Copulation lasts from 30–60 minutes and after mating they stay paired for egg-laying. The female usually lays eggs in submerged vegetation and whilst egg-laying the female can remain submerged for 30 min. The female pierces the tissue of aquatic plants and inserts her eggs. Occasionally females lay their eggs in vegetation above the water surface in places that will become submerged when the water level rises. The eggs start to develop and will continue to develop for the next few weeks. Then due to changing environmental conditions the development of the eggs slows down. In this state of slow development, called diapause the eggs overwinter. L. sponsa is an obligatory univoltine species.
The prolarva stage hatches from the egg in spring. This is a specialised short lived stage often lasting only minutes. The prolarva has no limbs and cannot feed but it can move by jumping or wriggling and if a prolarva is not in water when it hatches it will move about until water is found. Once in water the prolarva molt to the second stadia stage. The larvae are active and actively hunt prey leading to rapid larval growth. The larvae molt from one stadia to the next until growth is complete; in dragonflies the larval stages are the only stages where growth occurs. The number of stadia is not fixed and in good conditions the last larval stage, called F-0 can be reached in as little as 8 weeks.
The adults emerge in July and are on the wing until September. Adults are not sexually mature when they emerge and need a week or more, depending on conditions, before they can breed. In L.sponsa in Japan the length of the summer maturation period is correlated with temperature and lasts on average 20 days in the north where it is cooler up to 120 days in the hotter south. This stops egg laying early in summer, which could lead to egg not entering diapause and hatching in autumn. This would disrupt the normal cycle as larva hatched in autumn would not survive the winter.


All species in the genus Lestes are very similar and are hard to separate in the field. The shapes of the anal appendages are characteristic. In L. sponsa the anal appendage is black with the superior appendage (which are the ones on the outside) with two internal teeth. The inferior appendage is elongated and cylindrical. In northern Europe five species of Lestes occur whilst in Europe as a whole there are six species, so identification can be problematical and it is best to look at as many features as possible.
L. sponsa is a typical member of the genus with a green metallic body and wings held away from the body at rest. The abdomen is 26-33mm long and the wings are 19-23mm long. Mature males have a powder blue colour on the prothorax and on segments 1–2 and 9–10 of the abdomen. Mature males have blue eyes.  Females lacks the blue colour. Immature males also lack the blue pruinescence and have greeny brown eyes. The pterostigmata of immature males are almost white.


Preferred habitats of this species are pools, ponds and moorlands, it is a species of still or very slow flowing water. The emerald damselfly has a large Palaeartic distribution, and is found in a band across central Europe and Asia from Spain to the Pacific. It is not found in the far north in Europe and Asia or in the extreme south, being absent from southern Spain, southern Italy and Greece. It probably occurs in some areas of north Africa; where it occurs around the Mediterranean it is found at altitude. In Great Britain it is the only Lestes species that is common.


Leucadendron salignum, also known as the common sunshine conebush, is an evergreen, dioecious shrub that produces several stems from the ground of up to 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) high; forming part of the genus Leucadendron from the family Proteaceae. It survives the wildfires that occur every one or two decades in the fynbos where it occurs by regrowing from an underground rootstock. Pollinated by beetles, it flowers from April to November. The winged seeds remain in the woody cones until they are released after a fire, and are distributed by the wind. It is possibly the most common Proteaceae species in South Africa, and can be found in the Northern Cape, Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces. Its current conservation status is Least Concern.


Leucadendron salignum is an evergreen, stiff, upright shrub of up to 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) high, with soft, silky hairs pressed against the branches, with variable leaf sizes and bract colour.. Its rigid but rather thin leathery leaves are oblong linear or lance-shaped linear, 2+1⁄2–7+1⁄2 cm (0.98–2.95 in)  long, 3+1⁄4–6+1⁄2 mm (0.13–0.26 in) wide, gradually pointy or with the midrib extended in a pointy tip, with soft, silky hairs pressed against the leaf surface. Like in all species of Leucadendron, the male and female flower heads are on different plants.
The male flower head may be yellow or burgundy red, is cone- or egg-shaped, 8–19 cm (3.1–7.5 in) long, hardly about 1+1⁄4 cm (0.49 in) across, subtended by an involucre of several leaves of about 1.9 cm (0.75 in) long that are often covered in rusty-coloured soft hairs. The bract subtending the individual male flower is covered with long soft hairs, about 1⁄2 mm (0.020 in) long, oblong in shape and the tip almost pointed. The lower part of the 4-merous perianth of the male flower that remains merged upon opening called tube is 1+1⁄2 mm (0.059 in) long, somewhat compressed and covered with long soft hairs. The middle part that consists of four free segments ones the flower opens (called claws) are linear to spade-shaped, about 2 mm (0.079 in) long, and covered with long soft hairs. The higher part consists of four segments (called limbs) that are about 1⁄2 mm (0.020 in) long, elliptic with a somewhat blunt tip, and softly hairy, and are directly merged with the anthers without a filament, 1⁄2 mm (0.020 in) long, oblong in shape. The rudimentary style in the male flower is about 3 mm (0.12 in) long, thread-shaped, hairless with an egg-shaped stigma of 1⁄2 mm (0.020 in) long. At the base of the style are four line-shaped scales of 1⁄2 mm (0.020 in) long.
The young female flower head is oblong to cylinder-shaped and about 1+1⁄4 cm (0.49 in) long. The involucral leaves are often ivory in colour and may conceal the head. Inflorescences can be either yellow or red. The bract subtending the individual female flower is softly hairy, transversely oblong, about 2 mm (0.079 in) long and 4 mm (0.16 in) broad. The perianth tube of the female flower is covered with long soft hairs, about 2 mm (0.079 in) long, and compressed. The segments in the middle part are about 1 mm (0.039 in) long, line-shaped, and covered with long soft hairs. The four segments in the higher part are 1⁄3 mm (0.013 in) long, oblong, and covered with long soft hairs. The staminodes are 1⁄4 mm (0.0098 in) long and line-shaped. The style is hairless, about 3 mm (0.12 in) long, line-shaped but broadening towards the cut-off stigma. The ovary is covered with long soft hairs, compressed oblong in shape, and about 1 mm (0.039 in) long. It is subtended by four line-shaped scales of 1+1⁄2 mm (0.059 in) long. The mature female head is egg-shaped, 2+1⁄2–3+1⁄4 cm (0.98–1.28 in) long, and nearly 2+1⁄2 cm (0.98 in) across. The mature bracts are covered with densely matted woolly hairs on the outside. The fruits are elliptic, about 4 mm (0.16 in) long, compressed, with a hairless and wrinkled surface.


The common sunshine conebush was first described by Swedish botanist Peter Jonas Bergius in 1766, who named it Leucadendron salignum. The species name is the Latin adjective salignus "made of willow-wood". Scottish botanist Robert Brown called the species L. adscendens in his 1810 work On the natural order of plants called Proteaceae. Carl Meisner gave it the name L. involucratum in 1856.
A comparison of homologous DNA indicates that L. salignum may be most closely related to L. lanigerum, followed by a clade consisting of L. flexuosum and L. discolor.
It is called common sunshine conebush in English and knoppiesgeelbos in Afrikaans.


The common sunshine conebush is a widespread and common species found from Nieuwoudtville in the north to the Cape Peninsula in the southwest and Grahamstown in the east. It copes with a wide range of soil types, and can be found from sea level to about 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) altitude.
Like all Leucadendron species, L. salignum has separate male and female plants. This species is pollinated by small beetles, including the sap beetle species Pria cinerascens and the Adonis ladybird (Hippodamia variegata).  The winged seeds remain in the cone on the female plant for many years on end, until they are released after a fire kills the above ground biomass. The mature plants usually do not die, but regrow from the underground rootstock.


Leucadendron salignum can readily adapt to different soil types in gardens and is frost tolerant to −9 °C (16 °F). The common sunshine conebush has a very long flowering season, that stretches from May to December and a colourful involucre that surrounds the flower heads. It also regrows well in response to deep pruning, and this species and several of its hybrids and cultivars are widely used for  cut foliage production.
Leucadendron ‘Safari Sunset' is a hybrid bred from a red form of L. salignum and L. laureolum. First bred in New Zealand in the 1960s, it is grown commercially in Israel and exported worldwide as a cut flower.


Leucanthemum vulgare, commonly known as the ox-eye daisy, oxeye daisy, dog daisy, marguerite (French: Marguerite commune, "common marguerite") and other common names, is a widespread flowering plant native to Europe and the temperate regions of Asia, and an introduced plant to North America, Australia and New Zealand.


L. vulgare is a perennial herb that grows to a height of 80 centimetres (31 inches) and has a creeping underground rhizome. The lower parts of the stem are hairy, sometimes densely hairy but more or less glabrous in the upper parts. The largest leaves are at the base of the plant and are 4–15 cm (1+1⁄2–6 in) long, about 5 cm (2 in) wide and have a petiole. These leaves have up to 15 teeth, or lobes or both on the edges. The leaves decrease in size up the stem, the upper leaves up to 7.5 cm (3 in) long, lack a petiole and are deeply toothed.
The plant bears up to three "flowers" like those of a typical daisy. Each is a "head" or capitulum 2–7.5 cm (3⁄4–3 in) wide. Each head has between fifteen and forty white "petals" (ray florets) 1–2 centimetres (3⁄8–3⁄4 in) long surrounding the yellow disc florets. Below the head is an involucre of glabrous green bracts 7–10 millimetres (1⁄4–3⁄8 inch) long with brownish edges. Flowering occurs from May to October. The seed-like achenes are 1–3 mm (1⁄16–1⁄8 in) long and have ten "ribs" along their edges but lack a pappus.
Ox-eye daisy is similar to shasta daisy (Leucanthemum × superbum) which has larger flower heads (5–12 cm or 2–4+3⁄4 in wide) and to stinking chamomile (Anthemis cotula) which has smaller heads (1.5–3 cm or 5⁄8–1+1⁄8 in wide). L. maximum is also similar, usually with rays 2–3 cm (3⁄4–1+1⁄8 in) in length.


L. vulgare was first formally described in 1778 by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who published the description in Flore françoise. It is also known by the common names ox-eye daisy, dog daisy, field daisy, Marguerite, moon daisy, moon-penny, poor-land penny, poverty daisy and white daisy.
The species was formerly described as part of the Chrysanthemum genus.


The species is native to Europe, and to Turkey and Georgia in Western Asia. It is a typical grassland perennial wildflower, growing in a variety of plant communities including meadows and fields, under scrub and open-canopy forests, and in disturbed areas. The species is widely naturalised in many parts of the world, including North America, and is considered to be an invasive species in more than forty countries. It grows in temperate regions where average annual rainfall exceeds 750 mm (30 in), and often where soils are heavy and damp. It is often a weed of degraded pastures and roadsides.


The species spreads by seeds and by shallow, creeping rhizomes. A mature plant can produce up to 26,000 seeds that are spread by animals, vehicles, water and contaminated agricultural produce, and some seeds remain viable for up to nearly forty years. It is not palatable to cattle and reduces the amount of quality pasture available for grazing. In native landscapes such as the Kosciuszko National Park in Australia, dense infestation can exclude native plants, causing soil erosion and loss of soil organic matter.
This plant was top-ranked for pollen production per floral unit sampled at the level of the entire capitulum, with a value of 15.9 ± 2 μL, in a UK study of meadow flowers.


L. vulgare is one of the most widespread weeds in the Anthemideae. It became an introduced species via gardens into natural areas in parts of Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. In some habitats it forms dense colonies displacing native plants and modifying existing communities.
The plant commonly invades lawns, and is difficult to control or eradicate, since a new plant can regenerate from rhizome fragments and is a problem in pastures where beef and dairy cattle graze, as usually they will not eat it, thus enabling it to spread; cows who do eat it produce milk with an undesirable flavor. It has been shown to carry several crop diseases.
This species has been declared an environmental weed in New South Wales and Victoria. In New South Wales it grows from Glen Innes on the Northern Tablelands to Bombala in the far southeast of the state, and there are significant populations in the Kosciuszko National Park where it has invaded subalpine grassland, snowgum (Eucalyptus pauciflora) woodland and wetlands. In Victoria it is a prohibited species and must be eradicated or controlled.


The unopened flower buds can be marinated and used in a similar way to capers.
Maud Grieve's Modern Herbal (1931) states that "The taste of the dried herb is bitter and tingling, and the odour faintly resembles that of valerian."


Oxeye grows wild in the Arava Desert in Southern Israel, where the flowers are picked and dried and traditionally used by Jewish Israelis to make a local variety of herbal tea.


L. vulgare is widely cultivated and available as a perennial flowering ornamental plant for gardens and designed meadow landscapes. It thrives in a wide range of conditions but prefers a sunny or part-sun location of average soil that is damp (like many in the daisy family). The plant does well in raised and mulched garden beds that retain moisture and prevent weeds. It is a mesophyte and therefore requires more or less a continuous water supply.  The heads of faded and old blooms are often deadheaded to promote further blooming and to maintain the appearance of the plant. There are cultivars, such as 'May Queen', that begin blooming in early spring.


Leucocrinum montanum, commonly known as the sand lily, common starlily or mountain lily, is the only species in the monotypic genus Leucocrinum, placed in the family Asparagaceae, and subfamily Agavoideae. It is native to the western United States, primarily in the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin.
This species is a perennial plant growing from a deep system of fleshy roots. It is stemless, growing no more than about 10 cm (4 in) tall. It produces tufts of long, narrow leaves sheathed together at the bases. The inflorescence is an umbel-shaped cluster of flowers amidst the foliage. The fragrant flower has six white tepals atop a narrow tube 2–3 cm long. The species is dimorphic in its pollen production, with two distinct pollen forms occurring in separate populations.


Leucojum vernum, called the spring snowflake, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae. It is native to central and southern Europe from Belgium to Ukraine. It is considered naturalized in north-western Europe, including Great Britain and parts of Scandinavia, and in the US states of Georgia and Florida. This spring flowering bulbous herbaceous perennial is cultivated as an ornamental for a sunny position. The plant multiplies in favourable conditions to form clumps. Each plant bears a single white flower with greenish marks near the tip of the tepal, on a stem about 10–20 cm (3.9–7.9 in) tall, occasionally more.
The Latin specific epithet vernum means "relating to Spring". Its close relative, Leucojum aestivum, flowers in summer.


Leucojum vernum is 12–35 cm (4.7–13.8 in) tall in flower. Its leaves, which appear at the same time as the flowers and continue to elongate during flowering, are 5–25 mm wide and 10–25 cm (3.9–9.8 in) long, generally reaching to below the level of the flowers. The flowering stem (scape) has a small central cavity and two narrow wings. The pendant flowers appear in spring and are usually solitary, rarely in an umbel of two. The flowers have six white tepals, each with a greenish or yellowish mark just below the tip. Each tepal is 15–25 mm long. The whitish seeds are about 7 mm long.


Leucojum vernum was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The epithet vernum means "of the spring".


Two varieties are accepted by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families:
Leucojum vernum var. carpathicum Sweet – Carpathian Mountains (Czech Republic, Romania, Ukraine)
Leucojum vernum var. vernum
A third variety is recognized by some sources, but not by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families:
Leucojum vernum var. vagneri Stapf
Leucojum vernum var. carpathicum is distinguished by the presence of yellow rather than greenish markings at the tip of each tepal. Sources that distinguish var. vagneri from var. vernum describe it as more vigorous and flowering earlier, with two flowers per scape. It comes true from seed as it does not cross with var. vernum.


Leucojum vernum is native to central Europe and parts of southern and western Europe, including
Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, France, Italy, Romania, former Yugoslavia and Ukraine. It has become naturalized in other parts of Europe, including Great Britain, the Netherlands and parts of Scandinavia, and in Georgia and Florida in the United States. It is found in damp and shady habitats, including woods, up to elevations of 1600 m.


Leucojum vernum is cultivated as an ornamental plant for its white flowers in spring. It is described as "easy to grow", either in sun or partial shade, particularly in moist soil and in grass. The species  has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


Many cultivars are available, including:
'Butter-churn' (L. vernum) – large yellowish flowers, one or two per stem, sometimes two fused together
'Eva Habermeier' (L. vernum) – yellow apical marks
'Gertrude Wister' (L. v. var. carpathicum) – semi-double
'Golden Bell' (L. v. var. carpathicum) – yellow ovary and tepal markings
'Green Lantern' (L. v. var. vernum) – vigorous, tepals about one-third green with a sharp apex
'Greengotts' (L. v. var. vagneri) – second earliest to flower, large apical green markings
'Hoch die Tassen' (L. v. var. vernum) – flowers face upwards (hoch die Tassen means 'raise your glasses')
'Janus' (L. v. var. vagneri) – flowers early, in the first week of January
'Klara' (L. v. var. carpathicum) – smaller stature, open, funnel-like flowers
'Lothar' (L. vernum) – long pedicels, up to three flowers per bulb
'Milly' (L. v. var. vernum) – one to six extra long, narrow, completely green tepals; comes true from seed
'Null Punkte' (L. v. var. vernum) – markings small or absent
'Podpolozje' (L. v. var. carpathicum) – large flowers with a large apical mark, mostly two flowers per stem
'Tentacular' (L. vernum) – double, green markings


Leucolepis acanthoneura is a species of moss in the family Mniaceae. It is known as leucolepis umbrella moss or Menzies' tree moss (from its synonym, Leucolepis menziesii). It is endemic to the Pacific Coast in Canada and the United States.
Leucolepis acanthoneura is found frequently in moist lowland rainforests, where it can form large populations on logs, boulders, wet organic soil, compacted soil and humus. It occasionally extends upwards onto the lower portions of tree trunks.
The plants are light green, glossy, tree-shaped, and about 4–8 cm (1.6–3.1 in) high. The stems are upright with a circle of branches at their tips.
The Saanich people used this moss to make yellow dye for baskets.


L. frutescens is a host plant for the caterpillars of the theona checkerspot (Chlosyne theona) and calleta silkmoth
(Eupackardia calleta).


Leucopogon fasciculatus, the tall mingimingi, is a species of shrub within the family Ericaceae. It is endemic to New Zealand.  This species is found in the North Island north of the Bay of Plenty and Taranaki. In the South Island it is found in north west Nelson. It is present in the red and silver beech forests admixed with rimu and miro podocarps on northern South Island.
Leucopogon fasciculatus is the host plant for the New Zealand endemic moth species Pyrgotis pyramidias .


Leucopogon fraseri is a small plant in the family Ericaceae native to New Zealand and to Australia, where it is found in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.


Leucopogon fraseri is a prickly, low-growing shrub  (growing up to 15 cm high). It has white tubular flowers which are bearded inside and about 5 mm long. The fruit are orange. The leaves are 4–9 mm by 1–2 mm wide, with a sharp tip. The  leaf blades are pale-edged and their underside is striped.


In New South Wales it is found growing  in shallow sandy soils, or among rocks in dry sclerophyll forests, shrublands and heaths and usually  at altitudes above about 500 metres.


In New Zealand its conservation status was declared to be "Not Threatened" in 2004, 2009 and 2012 under the New Zealand Threat Classification System, and this New Zealand classification was reaffirmed in 2018, with the further comment that it was safe overseas.


The fleshy fruits are dispersed by frugivory.


This plant was first described by Allan Cunningham in 1838 from a specimen found "among ferns on the hills near the Bay of Islands" by Charles Fraser  in 1820 (after whom the plant is named), and another specimen found by Richard Cunningham in 1834.


Leucorrhinia glacialis, the crimson-ringed whiteface, is a species of skimmer in the dragonfly family Libellulidae. It is found in North America.
The IUCN conservation status of Leucorrhinia glacialis is "LC", least concern, with no immediate threat to the species' survival. The population is stable. The IUCN status was reviewed in 2017.


Leucorrhinia proxima, the belted whiteface or red-waisted whiteface, is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. It is found across Canada as far north as Alaska and south to northern parts of the United States.


Leucospermum conocarpodendron is the largest species of the genus Leucospermum, reaching almost tree-like proportions of 5–6 m (16–20 ft) high with a firm trunk that is covered in a thick layer of cork that protects it from most fires. It has greyish or green narrow or broad inverted egg-shaped leaves with three to ten teeth near the tip and large yellow flowerheads, with firm, bent, yellow styles that stick far beyond the rest of the flower and give the impression of a pincushion. It is commonly known as the tree pincushion in English or goudsboom in Afrikaans. They naturally occur near Cape Town, South Africa.
Two subspecies are distinguished. L. conocarpodendron subsp. conocarpodendron, that has greyish leaves because they have a covering of felty hairs. L. conocarpodendron subsp. viridum, has green leaves that lack felty hairs. Flowers can be found between August and December.


L. conocarpodendron is an evergreen large shrub of 3–5 m (9.8–16.4 ft) high and 3–6 m (9.8–19.7 ft) in diameter with a rounded crown, which is rigid because of the thick branching at approximately right angles, and with a firm trunk of 15–40 cm (5.9–15.7 in) in diameter that is covered by 3–5 cm (1.2–2.0 in) thick greyish, reddish or blackish bark with a netting of fissures. The flowering branches are rigid, 1–1½ cm (0.4–0.6 in) thick and covered with a dense layer of white or greyish crinkly hairs or long soft silky hairs. The leaves lack a leaf stalk and stipules, ovate to lance-shaped with the greater width often beyond midlength 6–11½ cm (2.4–4.6 in) long and 2½–5 cm (1–2 in) wide, with a blunt or pointy tip, shallow or deeply incised with three to ten teeth. Dependent on the subspecies, the surface og=f the leaves is either hairless or has a dense covering of soft, greyish, convoluted hairs, occasionally with a fringe of fine hairs.
The flower heads sit atop a stalk of about 1½ cm (0.6 in) long, are globe- to egg-shaped, and 7–9 cm (2.8–3.5 in) in diameter. They can be found individually or mostly with two or three together near the tip of the branch, regularly partly enclosed by leaves. The common base of the flowers of the same head is narrowly cone-shaped with a pointy tip, 2½–3 cm (1–1.2 in) long and 1–1½ cm (0.4–0.6 in) in diameter. The bracts that subtend the flower head are oval in shape with a point tip, 1¼–1½ cm (0.5–0.6 in) long and approximately 1 cm (0.39 in) wide, tightly overlapping, with a rubbery consistency and softly hairy. The bracts supporting the individual flowers enclose them at their base, have a suddenly pointed tip, and are about 2 cm (0.79 in) long, and about 1 cm (0.39 in) wide, rubbery in consistency, woolly at the base and less so near the top. The perianth is 3½–5 cm (1.4–2.0 in) long and yellow in colour. The lower 1 cm (0.4 in) is fused, cylindric, and hairless. The free parts of the four perianth claws curl back when the flower opens, those to the sides and facing the rim of the flower head densely set with long hairs. The one facing the center of the head minutely powdery or very shortly softly hairy. The perianth limbs are lance-shaped with a pointy tip, 6–8 mm (0.24–0.31 in) long, and have long hairs pressed to the surface, except for the one facing the center that is minutely powdery. The style is stout, 1–1½ mm (0.04–0.06 in) thick and 4½–5½ cm (1.8-2.2 in) long, at first bent towards the center of the flower head but getting more straight with age. It is topped by a slight thickening that is called the pollen presenter, which has a broad conical shape with a pointy tip, is 4–5 mm (0.16–0.20 in) long and about 2 mm (0.079 in) wide. Subtending the ovary are four lance-shaped scales with a pointy tip of about 2 mm (0.079 in) long.
The subtribe Proteinae, to which the genus Leucospermum has been assigned, consistently has a basic chromosome number of twelve (2n=24).


The grey tree pincushion or vaalkreupelhout in Afrikaans (subsp. conocarpodendron) has felty hairy leaves due to a dense cover of fine crisped hairs, while the green tree pincushion or groenkreupelhout (subsp. viridum) has green hairless adult leaves, sometimes with a fringe of hairs around the edge. At one location, on the east side of Little Lion's Head near Mount Rhodes, a hybrid swarm between both subspecies is found, where individual plants may have hairiness anywhere between that of both parents. Elsewhere, the populations are uniform and can easily be assigned to either of the subspecies.


L. conocarpodendron differs from its nearest relatives by its tree-like habit, the narrowly cone-shaped common base of the flower heads, the oval involucral bracts with a pointy tip, and the
broad cone-shaped pollen presenter.


The earliest known description of the species we now know as Leucospermum conocarpodendron was by Paul Hermann in Paradisus Batavus, a book describing the plants of the Hortus Botanicus Leiden (botanical garden of the Leyden university), that was published in 1689, three years after his death. He called it Salix conophora Africana (African cone-bearing willow), based on his observation of Leucospermum conocarpodendron on the lower slopes of the Table Mountain. In the following six decades, several other descriptions were published, such as by Leonard Plukenet, James Petiver, John Ray and Herman Boerhaave. Names published before 1753, the year that was chosen as a starting point for the binominal nomenclature proposed by Carl Linnaeus, are not valid however.
The tree pincushion was first validly described in the first edition of Species Plantarum as Leucadendron conocarpodendron by Linnaeus in 1753. Johann Jacob Reichard in 1779 reassigned the species to Protea, creating the new combination P. conocarpodendron. In 1781, Carl Peter Thunberg simplified the species name and created P. conocarpa, but because he used the same type as Linnaeus, he should have used the unchanged name. Richard Anthony Salisbury created two superfluous names, Protea tortuosa in 1796 and Leucadendrum crassicaule in 1809. In his book On the natural order of plants called Proteaceae that Robert Brown published in 1810, the species was reassigned to the new genus Leucospermum, but he combined it with Brown's invalid simplified species name to Leucospermum conocarpum. In 1874, Heinrich Wilhelm Buek made the correct combination Leucospermum conocarpodendron. Another form was described by Michael Gandoger in 1901, and he called it Leucospermum macowanii. In 1970, John Patrick Rourke proposed to distinguish between the typical subspecies (L. conocarpodendron subsp. conocarpodendron) and L. conocarpodendron subsp. viridum.
L. conocarpodendron is the type species of the section conocarpodendron. The species and subspecies name conocarpodendron means "tree bearing cone-shaped fruits". The subspecies name viridum means "green" and is a reference to the leaves' colour. It was called kreupelhout in Dutch (cripple wood) already before 1680, a reference to the twisted branches that together give the tree a "crippled" appearance.


L. conocarpodendron subsp. conocarpodendron is an endemic of the Cape Peninsula where it is limited to the eastern slopes of Devils Peak, the northern and western slopes of Table Mountain and the Black Table, to Llandudno. It grows mainly on heavy clay derived from the weathering of Cape Granite but also weathered Table Mountain Sandstone. It prefers north and west exposures that are well drained.
L. conocarpodendron subsp. viridum has a much wider distribution that borders on that of the typical subspecies. It occupies the remainder of the Cape Peninsula from Kirstenbosch to the Cape of Good Hope. In addition, it occurs from the upper Berg River Valley, via Pringle Bay and Hermanus to Stanford. Isolated populations can also be found at Helderberg, Simonsberg, and Kogelberg near Durbanville. It occurs on such different soil types as Malmesbury gravel, sand from weathered Table Mountain Sandstone, dune sands, permanently soggy peat, and sometimes on the heavy clay that remains if Cape Granite is decomposed. It mostly grows between sea level and 150 m (490 ft), sometimes 300 m altitude. At some locations this pincushion is dominant and develops dense stands.
Both subspecies have some resistance for the wildfires that occur in the fynbos every one or two decades, because the trunk is covered by a thick bark. After the fire has burnt away the soft parts, regrowth takes place from the tip of the higher branches. Repeated mild burning results in an umbrella shaped growth habit.
Seed dispersal and survival greatly depends on the symbiosis of many Proteaceae with native ant species, in particular Anoplolepis steingroeveri and Pheidole capensis, that carry the fruits to their underground nests, where the elaiosome is eaten, leaving a slick and hard seed underground, safe from consumption by rodents and birds and overhead fires. The seeds would germinate after a fire, due to the larger temperature variations after the overhead vegetation has vanished and chemicals from the charcoal seep with the winter rains and soak the seeds. Seed dispersal is only limited. In an experiment, seeds on average were moved about 2 m (6½ ft) and at most about 10 m. The absence or presence of the elaiosome did not effect the germination rate, but a field trial showed that seeds without elaiosome almost never survive a fire, whereas those with elaiosome all germinated, implying that the burial of the seed by the ants is essential.


Leucospermum conocarpodendron subsp. conocarpodendron is well protected in the Table Mountain National Park, where it is locally abundant. The subspecies is nonetheless regarded a vulnerable species as a significant part of its range was lost due to urbanization and land conversion to gum plantations and invasive plant species. Further housing developments of the Cape Town agglomerations could threaten remaining habitat. Alien ant species have driven back native ants. The alien ants eat the elaiosome on the spot, so that the seed is not protected against consumption or fire. Due to the proximity of housing areas, wildfires in its range are suppressed and so allow the fynbos to develop into a thicket less suitable for the grey tree pincushion, causing the fires when they eventually occur to be hotter because of more biomass, which results in more plants dying. Finally, subsp. viridum is planted in gardens within the range of subsp. conocarpodendron, which will lead to hybridization between the subspies. This occurs even when the plants are quite far apart as both subspecies are bird pollinated. This could eventually lead to the extinction of subsp. conocarpodendron.


Leucospermum cuneiforme is an upright evergreen shrub with many pustules growing on the lower branches, wedge-shaped leaves, and oval, initially yellow flower heads that later turn orange, with long styles sticking far beyond the perianths, jointly giving the impression of a pincushion. It is called wart-stemmed pincushion in English and luisiesbos (lice-bush) in Afrikaans. The species is common in the southern mountains of South Africa.


Leucospermum cuneiforme is an upright, evergreen shrub, often of only ½–1 m (1½–3 ft) high, that has branches that originate from a woody rootstock in the ground, and if protected against fire will develop a main stem and grows up to 3 m (9.8 ft) high. The stem and lower branches are covered in pustules, a unique feature for this species. The upright flowering branches are 3–7 mm (0.12–0.28 in) in diameter and appear to be grey due to soft, crinkly hairs. The leaves are hairless, narrow to broadly wedge-shaped 4½–11 cm (1.8–4.4 in) long and 0.6–3 cm (0.24–1.18 in) wide, with three to ten teeth with bony tips near the far end of the leaf.
The flower heads sitting usually solitary or grouped with two or three near the end of the branches, are egg-shaped, 5–9 cm (2.0–3.5 in) in diameter each on a stalk of up to 1½ cm (0.6 in) long. The common base of the flowers within the same head is cylindric with a blunt tip, 2½–4½ cm (1.0–1.8 in) long and 6 mm (0.24 in) wide. The bracts that subtend the flower head are broadly oval with a pointy tip, about 0.8–1.0 cm (0.31–0.39 in) long and 6 mm (0.24 in) wide, closely overlapping, rubbery in consistency, grey due to the dense soft hair. The bracts that subtend the individual flower are oval with a pointy tip,  1.0–1.2 cm (0.39–0.47 in) long and about 7 mm (0.28 in) wide, rubbery in consistency, embracing the foot of the perianth, densely woolly at the base, less dense nearer the tip and with a dense row of hairs around the fringes. The perianth is 2½–4 cm (1.0–1.6 in) long, curved towards the center of the flower head in bud. It is initially yellow, but later changes to orange, although the colour differs across the range. Its base is fused into a tube of 6–10 mm (0.24–0.39 in) long, a bit laterally compressed, smooth near the base and with a minutely powdery covering near the top. Three of the perianth lobes coil back towards the center of the flower head, with many fine and short crinkly hairs and some long straight silky hairs. The style is 3¾–5½ cm (1½–2¼ in) long, slightly curved towards the center of the flower head, initially yellow but later turning orange. It is topped by a slight thickening that is called the pollen presenter, which is narrow or broadly cone-shaped 1½–4 mm (0.6–1.6 in) long and up to 2 cm (0.79 in) wide, with the groove that functions as the stigma central at the very tip. The four scales that subtend the ovary are triangular to awl-shaped and about 1 mm (0.039 in) long.