In Indonesia, taro is widely used for snacks, cakes, crackers, and even macarons, thus it can be easily found everywhere. Some varieties are specially cultivated in accordance with social or geographical traditions. Taro is usually known as "keladi", although other varieties are also known as "talas", among others. Chinese descendants in Indonesia often eat taro with stewed rice and dried shrimp. The taro is diced and cooked along with the rice, the shrimp, and sesame oil.


In the Philippines taro is usually called gabi, abi, or avi and is widely available throughout the archipelago. Its adaptability to marshland and swamps make it one of the most common vegetables in the Philippines. The leaves, stems, and corms are all consumed and form part of the local cuisine. A popular recipe for taro is laing from the Bicol Region; the dish's main ingredients are taro leaves (at times including stems) cooked in coconut milk, and salted with fermented shrimp or fish bagoong. It is sometimes heavily spiced with red hot chilies called siling labuyo. Another dish in which taro is commonly used is the Philippine national stew, sinigang, although radish can be used if taro is not available. This stew is made with pork and beef, shrimp, or fish, a souring agent (tamarind fruit, kamias, etc.) with the addition of peeled and diced corms as thickener. The corm is also prepared as a basic ingredient for ginataan, a coconut milk and taro dessert.


In Thai cuisine, taro Thai: เผือก (pheuak) is used in a variety of ways depending on the region. Boiled taro is readily available in the market packaged in small cellophane bags, already peeled and diced, and eaten as a snack. Pieces of boiled taro with coconut milk are a traditional Thai dessert. Raw taro is also often sliced and deep fried and sold in bags as chips (เผือกทอด). As in other Asian countries, taro is a popular flavor for ice cream in Thailand.


In Vietnam, there is a large variety of taro plants. One is called khoai môn, which is used as a filling in spring rolls, cakes, puddings and sweet soup desserts, smoothies and other desserts. Taro is used in the Tết dessert chè khoai môn, which is sticky rice pudding with taro roots. The stems are also used in soups such as canh chua. One is called khoai sọ, which is smaller in size than khoai môn. Another common taro plant grows roots in shallow waters and grows stems and leaves above the surface of the water. This taro plant has saponin-like substances that cause a hot, itchy feeling in the mouth and throat. Northern farmers used to plant them to cook the stems and leaves to feed their hogs. They re-grew quickly from their roots. After cooking, the saponin in the soup of taro stems and leaves is reduced to a level the hogs can eat. Today this practice is no longer popular in Vietnam agriculture. These taro plants are commonly called khoai ngứa, which literally means "itchy potato".


Taro roots are commonly known as Arbi in Urdu and Hindi language. It is a common dish in Northern India and Pakistan. Arbi Gosht (meat) Masala Recipe is a delicious tangy mutton curry recipe with taro vegetable. Mutton and Arbi is cooked in whole spices and tomatoes which lends a wonderful taste to the dish.


In Bangladesh taro is a very popular vegetable known as kochu (কচু) or mukhi (মুখি). Within the Sylheti dialect of the Bangla language, it is called mukhi. It is usually cooked with small prawns or the ilish fish into a curry, but some dishes are cooked with dried fish. Its green leaves, kochu pata (কচু পাতা), and stem, kochu (কচু), are also eaten as a favorite dish and usually ground to a paste or finely chopped to make shak — but it must be boiled well beforehand. Taro stolons or stems, kochur loti (কচুর লতি), are also favored by Bangladeshis and cooked with shrimp, dried fish or the head of the ilish fish. Taro is available, either fresh or frozen, in the UK and US in most Asian stores and supermarkets specialising in Bangladeshi or South Asian food. Also, another variety called maan kochu is consumed and is a rich source of vitamins and nutrients. Maan Kochu is made into a paste and fried to prepare a delicious food known as Kochu Bata.


Taro is grown in the Terai and the hilly regions of Nepal. The root (corm) of taro is known as pindalu (पिँडालु) and petioles with leaves are known as karkalo (कर्कलो), Gava (गाभा) and also Kaichu (केेेैचु ) in Maithili. Almost all parts are eaten in different dishes.  Boiled corm of Taro is commonly served with salt, spices, and chilies. Taro is a popular dish in the hilly region. Chopped leaves and petioles are mixed with Urad bean flour to make dried balls called maseura (मस्यौरा). Large taro leaves are used as an alternative to an umbrella when unexpected rain occurs. Popular attachment to taro since ancient times is reflected in popular culture, such as in songs and textbooks. Jivan hamro karkala ko pani jastai ho (जीवन हाम्रो कर्कलाको पानी जस्तै हो) means, "Our life is as vulnerable as water stuck in the leaf of taro".
Taro is cultivated and eaten by the Tharu people in the Inner Terai as well.  Roots are mixed with dried fish and turmeric, then dried in cakes called sidhara which are curried with radish, chili, garlic and other spices to accompany rice.  The Tharu prepare the leaves in a fried vegetable side-dish that also shows up in Maithili cuisine.


In Pakistan, taro or eddoe or arvi is a very common dish served with or without gravy; a popular dish is arvi gosht, which includes beef, lamb or mutton. The leaves are rolled along with gram flour batter and then fried or steamed to make a dish called Pakora, which is finished by tempering with red chilies and carrom (ajwain) seeds. Taro or arvi is also cooked with chopped spinach. The dish called Arvi Palak is the second most renowned dish made of Taro.


Many varieties are recorded in Sri Lanka, several being edible, others being toxic to humans and therefore not cultivated. Edible varieties (kiri ala, kolakana ala, gahala, and sevel ala) are cultivated for their corms and leaves. Sri Lankans eat corms after boiling them or making them into a curry with coconut milk. The leaves of only two variety, kolakana ala and  kalu alakola are eaten.


Taro was consumed by the early Romans in much the same way the potato is today. They called this root vegetable colocasia. The Roman cookbook Apicius mentions several methods for preparing taro, including boiling, preparing with sauces, and cooking with meat or fowl. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the use of taro dwindled in Europe. This was largely due to the decline of trade and commerce with Egypt, previously controlled by Rome. When the Spanish and Portuguese sailed to the new world, they brought taro along with them. Recently there has been renewed interest in exotic foods and consumption is increasing.


In Cyprus, taro has been in use since the time of the Roman Empire. Today it is known as kolokas in Turkish or kolokasi (κολοκάσι) in Greek, which comes from the Ancient Greek name κολοκάσιον (kolokasion) for lotus root. It is usually sauteed with celery and onion with pork, chicken or lamb, in a tomato sauce – a vegetarian version is also available. The cormlets are called poulles (sing. poulla), and they are prepared by first being sauteed, followed by decaramelising the vessel with dry red wine and coriander seeds, and finally served with freshly squeezed lemon.


In Egypt, taro is known as qolqas (Egyptian Arabic: قلقاس, IPA: [ʔolˈʔæːs]). The corms are larger than what would be found in North American supermarkets. After being peeled completely, it is cooked in one of two ways: cut into small cubes and cooked in broth with fresh coriander and chard and served as an accompaniment to meat stew, or sliced and cooked with minced meat and tomato sauce.


In Greece, taro grows on Icaria. Icarians credit taro for saving them from famine during World War II. They boil it until tender and serve it as a salad.


In Lebanon, taro is known as kilkass and is grown mainly along the Mediterranean coast. The leaves and stems are not consumed in Lebanon and the variety grown produces round to slightly oblong tubers that vary in size from a tennis ball to a small cantaloupe. Kilkass is a very popular winter dish in Lebanon and is prepared in two ways: kilkass with lentils is a stew flavored with crushed garlic and lemon juice and ’il’as (Lebanese pronunciation of قلقاس) bi-tahini. Another common method of preparing taro is to boil, peel then slice it into 1 cm (1⁄2 in) thick slices, before frying and marinating in edible "red" sumac.
In northern Lebanon, it is known as a potato with the name borshoushi (el-orse borshushi). It is also prepared as part of a lentil soup with crushed garlic and lemon juice. Also in the north, it is known by the name bouzmet, mainly around Menieh, where it is first peeled, and left to dry in the sun for a couple of days. After that, it is stir-fried in lots of vegetable oil in a casserole until golden brown, then a large amount of wedged, melted onions are added, in addition to water, chickpeas and some seasoning. These are all left to simmer for a few hours, and the result is a stew-like dish. It is considered a hard-to-make delicacy, not only because of the tedious preparation but the consistency and flavour that the taro must reach. The smaller variety of taro is more popular in the north due to its tenderness.


In the Azores taro is known as inhame or inhame-coco and is commonly steamed with potatoes, vegetables and meats or fish. The leaves are sometimes cooked into soups and stews. It is also consumed as a dessert after first being steamed and peeled, then fried in vegetable oil or lard, and finally sprinkled with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Taro grows abundantly in the fertile land of the Azores, as well as in creeks that are fed by mineral springs. Through migration to other countries, the inhame is found in the Azorean diaspora.


Taro root is consumed in the south of Spain. Taro has remained popular in the Canary Islands. In the Canary Islands it is known as ñame and is often used in thick vegetable stews, like potaje de berros (cress potage).  Taro is called ñame (which normally designates yams) in Canarian Spanish and is a common crop in the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands (Canary Islands, Spain).


Taro (Turkish: gölevez) is grown in the south coast of Turkey, especially in Mersin, Bozyazı, Anamur and Antalya. It is boiled in a tomato sauce or cooked with meat, beans and chickpeas. It is often used as a substitute for potato.


In Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, taro is commonly known as arrow root, ggobe, or nduma and madhumbe in some local Bantu languages. It is usually boiled and eaten with tea or other beverages, or as the main starch of a meal. It is also cultivated in Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.


It is known as amadumbe (plural) or idumbe (singular) in the Zulu language of Southern Africa.


Taro is consumed as a staple crop in West Africa, particularly in Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon.  It is called cocoyam in Nigeria, Ghana and Anglophone Cameroon, macabo in Francophone Cameroon, mankani in Hausa language, koko and lambo in Yoruba, and ede in Igbo language. Cocoyam is often boiled, fried, or roasted and eaten with a sauce. In Ghana, it substitutes for plantain in making fufu when plantains are out of season. It is also cut into small pieces to make a soupy baby food and appetizer called mpotompoto. It is also common in Ghana to find cocoyam chips (deep-fried slices, about 1 mm (1⁄32 in) thick). Cocoyam leaves, locally called kontomire in Ghana, are a popular vegetable for local sauces such as palaver sauce and egusi/agushi stew. It is also commonly consumed in Guinea and parts of Senegal, as a leaf sauce or as a vegetable side, and is referred to as jaabere in the local Pulaar dialect.


In Lusophone countries, inhame (pronounced Portuguese pronunciation: [ĩ ˈ ȷ̃ɐ̃mi], Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈ ȷ̃ɐ̃mi] or Portuguese pronunciation: [ĩˑˈɲɐ̃mi], literally "yam") and cará are the common names for various plants with edible parts of the genera Alocasia, Colocasia (family Araceae) and Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae), and its respective starchy edible parts, generally tubers, with the exception of Dioscorea bulbifera, called cará-moela (pronounced Portuguese pronunciation: [kɐˈɾa muˈɛlɐ], literally, "gizzard yam"), in Brazil and never deemed to be an inhame. Definitions of what constitutes an inhame and a cará vary regionally, but the common understanding in Brazil is that carás are potato-like in shape, while inhames are more oblong.
In the Brazilian Portuguese of the hotter and drier Northeastern region, both inhames and carás are called batata (literally, "potato"). For differentiation, potatoes are called batata-inglesa (literally, "English potato"), a name used in other regions and sociolects to differentiate it from the batata-doce, "sweet potato", ironic names since both were first cultivated by the indigenous peoples of South America, their native continent, and only later introduced in Europe by the colonizers.
Taros are often prepared like potatoes, eaten boiled, stewed or mashed, generally with salt and sometimes garlic as a condiment, as part of a meal (most often lunch or dinner).


In Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama, taro is eaten in soups, as a replacement for potatoes, and as chips. It is known locally as malanga (also malanga coco) , a word of Bantu origin, and dasheen in Belize and Costa Rica, quiquizque in Nicaragua, and as otoe in Panama.


In Haiti, it is usually called malanga, or taro. The corm is grated into a paste and deep-fried to make a fritter called Acra. Acra is a very popular street food in Haiti.


In Jamaica, taro is known as coco, cocoyam and dasheen. Corms with flesh which is white throughout are referred to as minty-coco. The leaves are also used to make Pepper Pot Soup which may include callaloo.


In Suriname it is called tayer, taya, pomtayer or pongtaya. The taro root is called aroei by the native Indians and is commonly known as "Chinese tayer". The variety known as eddoe is also called Chinese tayer. It is a popular cultivar among the Maroon population in the interior, also because it is not adversely affected by high water levels. The dasheen variety, commonly planted in swamps, is rare, although appreciated for its taste. The closely related Xanthosoma species is the base for the popular Surinamese dish pom. The cooked taro leaf (taya-wiri, or tayerblad) is also a well-known green leafy vegetable. The fresh leaves can be purchased in almost every vegetable market, in supermarkets or, outside Paramaribo, on vegetable stands by the road.


In Trinidad and Tobago, it is called dasheen. The leaves of the taro plant are used to make the Trinidadian variant of the Caribbean dish known as callaloo (which is made with okra, dasheen/taro leaves, coconut milk or creme and aromatic herbs) and it is also prepared similarly to steamed spinach. The root of the taro plant is often served boiled, accompanied by stewed fish or meat, curried, often with peas and eaten with roti, or in soups. The leaves are also sauteed with onions, hot pepper and garlic til they are melted to make a dish called "bhaji". This dish is popular with Indo-Trinidadian people. The leaves are also fried in a split pea batter to make "saheena".


Taro has been grown for centuries in the United States, though it has never attained the same popularity as in Asian and Pacific nations.
William Bartram observed South Carolina Sea Islands residents eating roasted roots of the plant, which they called tanya, in 1791, and by the 19th century it was common as a food crop from Charleston to Louisiana.
In the 1920s, dasheen, as it was known, was highly touted by the Secretary of the Florida Department of Agriculture as a valuable crop for growth in muck fields. Fellsmere, Florida, near the east coast, was a farming area deemed perfect for growing dasheen. It was used in place of potatoes and dried to make flour. Dasheen flour was said to make excellent pancakes when mixed with wheat flour.
Since the late 20th century, taro chips have been available in many supermarkets and natural food stores, and taro is often used in American Chinatowns, in Chinese cuisine.


In Venezuela, taro is called ocumo chino or chino and used in soups and sancochos. Soups contain large chunks of several kinds of tubers, including ocumo chino, especially in the eastern part of the country, where West Indian influence is present. It is also used to accompany meats in parrillas (barbecue) or fried cured fish where yuca is not available. Ocumo is an indigenous name; chino means "Chinese", an adjective for produce that is considered exotic. Ocumo without the Chinese denomination is a tuber from the same family, but without taro's inside purplish color. Ocumo is the Venezuelan name for malanga, so ocumo chino means "Chinese malanga". Taro is always prepared boiled. No porridge form is known in the local cuisine.


Taro is called dasheen, in contrast to the smaller variety of corms called eddo, or tanya in the English speaking countries of the West Indies, and is cultivated and consumed as a staple crop in the region. There are differences among the roots mentioned above: taro or dasheen is mostly blue when cooked, tanya is white and very dry, and eddoes are small and very slimy.
In the Spanish-speaking countries of the Spanish West Indies taro is called ñame, the Portuguese variant of which (inhame) is used in former Portuguese colonies where taro is still cultivated, including the Azores and Brazil.  In Puerto Rico and Cuba, and the Dominican Republic it is sometimes called malanga or yautia.  In some countries, such as Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Dominica, the leaves and stem of the dasheen, or taro, are most often cooked and pureed into a thick liquid called callaloo, which is served as a side dish similar to creamed spinach. Callaloo is sometimes prepared with crab legs, coconut milk, pumpkin, and okra. It is usually served alongside rice or made into a soup along with various other roots.


It is also sold as an ornamental aquatic plant. It can be grown indoors with high humidity. In the UK, it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


It is also used for anthocyanin study experiments, especially with reference to abaxial and adaxial anthocyanic concentration. A recent study has revealed honeycomb-like microstructures on the taro leaf that make the leaves superhydrophobic. The measured contact angle on the leaf in this study is around 148°.


Colocasia propinquilinea, the closebanded yellowhorn, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Augustus Radcliffe Grote in 1873. It is found in North America from Newfoundland and Labrador, west across the southern edge of the boreal forest to central Alberta, south to North Carolina, Missouri and Arkansas.
The wingspan is 35–45 mm. Adults are on wing from April to July in the south and from May to August in the north. There is one generation per year in the north and two or more in the south.
The larvae feed on the leaves of Betula. Other recorded hosts include Tilia americana, beech, elm, Ostrya virginiana, maple, oak, poplar, walnut and willow.


Colonus sylvanus is a species of jumping spider. It is found in a range from the United States to Panama.


The speckled pigeon (Columba guinea), or (African) rock pigeon, is a pigeon that is a resident breeding bird in much of Africa south of the Sahara. It is a common and widespread species in open habitats over much of its range, although there are sizable gaps in its distribution.  It is sometimes referred to as the Guinea pigeon due to its similar coloring to some species of guineafowl.


In 1747 the English naturalist George Edwards included a description and an illustration of the speckled pigeon in the second volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. His hand-coloured etching was made from two live birds at the home of the Duke of Richmond in London. Edwards was told that the pigeons had been brought from the inland region of Guinea in West Africa. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the speckled pigeon with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Columba guinea and cited Edwards' work.
There are two recognised subspecies:
C. g. guinea Linnaeus, 1758 – Mauritania to Ethiopia south to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Malawi
C. g. phaeonota Gray, G.R., 1856 – southwestern Angola to Zimbabwe and South Africa


The speckled pigeon is frequently seen around human habitation and cultivation. Most of its food is vegetable, and it gathers in large numbers where grain or groundnuts are available. This species builds a large stick nest on protected rocky outcrops and in urban areas often atop covered pergola pillars and on flat roofs under deep eaves and lays two white eggs. Its flight is quick, with regular beats and an occasional sharp flick of the wings that are characteristic of pigeons in general.


The stock dove (Columba oenas) is a species of bird in the family Columbidae, the doves and pigeons. It is widely distributed in the western Palearctic.


The stock dove was first formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba oenas. The specific name oenas is from the Ancient Greek oinas meaning "pigeon".
Two subspecies are recognised:
C. o. oenas Linnaeus, 1758 – western Europe and Northwest Africa to northern Kazakhstan, southwestern Siberia and northern Iran
C. o. yarkandensis Buturlin, 1908 – southeastern Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to western China


The genus Columba is in the pigeon family, and has the widest distribution. Its members are typically pale grey or brown, often with white head or neck markings or iridescent green or purple patches on the neck and breast. The neck feathers may be stiffened and aligned to form grooves, but these are absent in this species. The stock dove is less grey in plumage than other pigeons in Europe.
The three western European Columba pigeons, though alike, have very distinctive characteristics.  The common wood pigeon may be readily distinguished by its large size, as well as the white on its neck (in adults) and wings. The rock dove and stock dove are more alike in size and plumage, but wild specimens of the former have a white rump and two well-marked dark bars on the wing, while the rump of the stock dove is grey and its wing bars incomplete. The feral pigeon (the same species as the rock dove) is highly variable, and indistinctly marked grey specimens with the white rump missing can sometimes resemble the stock dove quite closely.
The stock dove is sociable as well as gregarious, often consorting with wood pigeons, though doubtless it is the presence of food which brings them together.
The short, deep, "grunting" Ooo-uu-ooh call is quite distinct from the modulated cooing notes of the common wood pigeon; it is loud enough to be described, somewhat fancifully, as "roaring".


The stock dove is the scarcest of the wild European pigeons, though still common in ideal habitat. In part of its European and western Asiatic range it is a migrant. There has been a sharp decline in France (−57% in 1976). Although the species is not considered threatened in Europe, it is classified in Schedule 2 of the Birds Directive and Annex III the Berne Convention. 100,000 to 200,000 individuals winter in France. Over half of the European stock dove population is found in the UK.
The nest is usually in a hole in an old tree. Before deforestation, the stock dove was the most frequent pigeon, nesting mostly in oak or pine wood, but as it usually nests in cavities in trees it was normally only found in old forests. In plantations there are not as many holes to nest in, so it is scarcer. In addition, as the stock dove is double-brooded, requiring two holes for its broods. It has been observed nesting in rabbit burrows, ruins, old poplar hedges, cracks in crags or cliff faces, in ivy, and in the thick growth around the boles of lime trees. It will also use nest boxes. The cavity should be about 75 centimetres deep and the hole should be big enough to admit a fist. Though nesting material is seldom used, the squabs leave the hole very oily. Stock doves prefer to nest close together. Outside of the breeding season, stock doves may also roost in cavities.
The habitat of the stock dove is generally open country. Even though it nests in trees it does not prefer densely wooded areas. It is also common on coasts where the cliffs provide holes.
Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, a characteristic of pigeons in general. It perches well, and in nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail. During the circling spring flight the wings are smartly cracked like a whip.
Most of its food is plant material; young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain as well as insects and snails. In some areas it feeds mostly on acorns and pine seeds. Its diet can include a variety of foods: berries such as bay and hawthorn, figs, cereal grains, beans, peas, and small invertebrates that are obtained while walking on the ground. During autumn migration in October, stock doves stop over at places with an abundance of acorns, supplementing the diet with shoots and leaves.


The common name stock dove has caused some confusion about the origins of this bird. The modern usage of the word "stock" might imply that the bird has been tamed and kept as stock for food and merchandise, leading to the belief that this bird is a hybrid breed with its origins in human aviaries; however, this is not the case. The word "stock" in the common name of this species refers not to the stock of trade, but comes from the Old English "stocc" meaning "stump, post, stake, tree trunk, log,". Therefore, "stock dove" means roughly "a dove which lives in hollow trees". Such hollow trees near human settlements would often be taken and used as wood stock for firewood, hence the name.
The genus name Columba is the Latin word meaning "pigeon, dove", whose older etymology comes from the Ancient Greek κόλυμβος (kolumbos), "a diver", from κολυμβάω (kolumbao), "dive, plunge headlong, swim". Aristophanes (Birds, 304) and others use the word κολυμβίς (kolumbis), "diver", for the name of the bird, because of its swimming motion in the air.


The common wood pigeon or common woodpigeon (Columba palumbus), also known as simply wood pigeon or woodpigeon, is a large species in the dove and pigeon family (Columbidae), native to the western Palearctic. It belongs to the genus Columba, which includes closely related species such as the rock dove (Columba livia). It has historically been known as the ring dove, and is locally known in southeast England as the "culver"; the latter name has given rise to several areas known for keeping pigeons to be named after it, such as Culver Down. It has a flexible diet, predominantly feeding on vegetable matter, including cereal crops, leading to them being regarded as an agricultural pest. Wood pigeons are extensively hunted over large parts of their range, but this does not seem to have a great impact on their population.


The common wood pigeon was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba palumbus. The specific epithet palumbus is from the Latin palumbes for a wood pigeon.
Five subspecies are recognised, one of which is now extinct:
C. p. palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 – Europe to western Siberia and Iraq; Northwest Africa
† C. p. maderensis Tschusi, 1904 – Madeira (extinct)
C. p. azorica Hartert, 1905 – the eastern and central Azores
C. p. iranica (Zarudny, 1910) – southwestern and northern Iran to southwestern Turkmenistan
C. p. casiotis (Bonaparte, 1854) – southeastern Iran and Kazakhstan to western China, northwestern India and Nepal
† = extinct


The three Western European Columba pigeons, common wood pigeon, stock dove and rock dove, though superficially alike, have very distinctive characteristics; the common wood pigeon may be identified at once by its larger size at 38–44.5 cm (15–17+1⁄2 in) and weight 300–615 g (10+5⁄8–21+3⁄4 oz), and the white on its neck and wing. It is otherwise a basically grey bird, with a pinkish breast. The wingspan can range from 68 to 80 cm (27 to 31 in) and the wing chord measures 24 to 25.4 cm (9+1⁄2 to 10 in). The tail measures 13.8 to 15 cm (5+1⁄2 to 6 in), the bill is 1.9 to 2.2 cm (3⁄4 to 7⁄8 in) and the tarsus is 2.5 to 2.8 cm (1 to 1+1⁄8 in). Adult birds bear a series of green and white patches on their necks, and a pink patch on their chest. The eye colour is a pale yellow, in contrast to that of rock doves, which is orange-red, and the stock pigeon, which is black.
Juvenile birds do not have the white patches on either side of the neck. When they are about 6 months old (about three months out of the nest) they gain small white patches on both sides of the neck, which gradually enlarge until they are fully formed when the bird is about 6–8 months old (approx. ages only). Juvenile birds also have a greyer beak and an overall lighter grey appearance than adult birds.
The call is a characteristic cooing, coo-COO-coo--coo-coo.


In the colder northern and eastern parts of Europe and western Asia the common wood pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident. In Great Britain wood pigeons are commonly seen in parks and gardens and are seen with increasing numbers in towns and cities.


Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, characteristic of pigeons in general. It takes off with a loud clattering. It perches well, and in its nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail. During the display flight the bird climbs, the wings are smartly cracked like a whiplash, and the bird glides down on stiff wings. The common wood pigeon is gregarious, often forming very large flocks outside the breeding season. Like many species of pigeon, wood pigeons take advantage of trees and buildings to gain a vantage point over the surrounding area, and their distinctive call means that they are usually heard before they are seen.
Wood pigeons are known to fiercely defend their territory, and will fight each other to gain access to nesting and roosting locations. Male wood pigeons will typically attempt to drive competitors off by threat displays and pursuit, but will also directly fight, jumping and striking their rival with both wings.
This species can be an agricultural pest, and it is often shot, being a legal quarry species in most European countries. It is wary in rural areas, but often quite tame where it is not persecuted.


It breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days. Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roadways and rivers. Males exhibit aggressive behaviour towards each other during the breeding season by jumping and flapping wings at each other. Their plumage becomes much darker, especially the head, during hot summer periods. Breeding can happen year round if there is food abundant however breeding season most commonly occurs in autumn usually in the months of August and September.
The nests are vulnerable to attack, particularly by crows, because they live in the countryside, the more so early in the year when the leaf cover is not fully formed. The young usually fly at 33 to 34 days; however, if the nest is disturbed, some young may be able to survive having left the nest as early as 20 days from hatching.
In a study carried out using ring-recovery data, the survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 52 per cent, and the adult annual survival rate was 61 per cent. For birds that survive the first year the typical lifespan is thus only three years, but the maximum recorded age is 17 years and 8 months for a bird ringed and recovered on the Orkney Islands.


Most of its diet is vegetable, round and fleshy leaves from Caryophyllaceae, Asteraceae, and cruciferous vegetables taken from open fields or gardens and lawns; young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain, pine nuts, and certain fruits and berries. In the autumn they also eat figs and acorns, and in winter buds of trees and bushes. They will also eat larvae, ants, and small worms. They need open water to drink and bathe in. Young common wood pigeons swiftly become fat, as a result of the crop milk they are fed by their parents. This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season. Due to their feeding on cereal crops, wood pigeons are considered an agricultural pest.


Predators include:
Eurasian sparrowhawk
Northern goshawk
Domestic cat
Crows


Cramp, Stanley;  et al., eds. (1985). "Columba palumbus Woodpigeon". Handbook of the Birds of Europe the Middle East and North Africa. The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume IV: Terns to Woodpeckers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 311–329. ISBN 978-0-19-857507-8.


The Inca dove or Mexican dove (Columbina inca) is a small New World dove. The species was first described by French surgeon and naturalist René Lesson in 1847. It reaches a length of 16.5–23 cm (6.5–9.1 in) and weighs 30–58 g (1.1–2.0 oz). The Inca dove has an average wingspan of 28.5 cm and a max wingspan of 32 cm. It is a slender species, with a gray-brown body covered in feathers that resemble a scaled pattern. The tail is long and square and edged with white feathers that may flare out in flight. The underwings are reddish, like other ground doves, and upon takeoff, the wings produce a distinctive, quiet rattling noise.


Inca doves build their nests primarily in trees and shrubs. The average diameter is about 5 centimeters. The male gathers nesting material and presents it to the female, who also gathers some nesting material. The nest is composed of twigs, grass, weed stalks, and leaves and becomes reinforced with the brood's excrement. The nest is often used over and over, with one nest being reused 11 times.


During winter, Inca doves roost in communal huddles in a pyramid formation that aid in heat conservation. These pyramids can contain up to 12 birds. They often flock outside their territories, with flocks going up to 100 birds.


The common ground dove (Columbina passerina) is a small bird that inhabits the southern United States, parts of Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. It is considered to be the smallest dove that inhabits the United States. As its name suggests, the bird spends the majority of its time on the ground walking but still has the ability to fly.


The IUCN has assessed the Picui ground dove as being of Least Concern. The species appears to be abundant in much of its range and is rarely hunted.


The ruddy ground dove (Columbina talpacoti) is a small New World tropical dove. It is a resident breeder from Mexico south to Brazil, Peru and Paraguay, and northern Argentina, and on Trinidad and Tobago. Individual birds can sometimes be seen in the southwestern USA, from southern Texas to southernmost California, primarily during winter.
The ruddy ground dove is very common in scrub and other open country, including cultivated land and urban centers, where it can be seen feeding on grain alongside feral pigeons. It builds a solid but sparsely lined cup-shaped stick nest in a tree and lays two white eggs. Incubation is 12–13 days with another 12–14 days to fledging. There may be a second or third brood. Chick mortality through predation and falls from the nest is high.
Its flight is fast and direct, with the regular beats and occasional sharp flick of the wings which are characteristic of pigeons in general.
Ruddy ground doves are small short-tailed pigeons, 17 cm (6.7 in) long with a weight normally about 47 g (1.7 oz). Adult males have a pale grey head and neck, and rich rufous upperparts, black-spotted on the wing coverts. The underparts are paler brown, the tail is edged black, and the underwings are cinnamon and black. The female is grey-brown rather than rufous, and has less contrast between head and body than the male.
Ruddy ground doves feed mainly on seeds, but also sometimes on snails and small insects. Their call is a soft cooing cur-WOO.This species can be quite approachable. Males frequently threaten each other by jumping and raising a wing, and brief confrontations may ensue.


It measures 12-18 centimeters in length and weighs about 35-56 grams. The male , with reddish brown feathers, dominant color on the adult's body , in contrast to the head, bluish gray. The female is all brown. In both sexes, on the wing there are a series of black spots on the feathers. The chicks come out with traces of the plumage of each sex.
Subspecies
It has 4 subspecies, only one of which occurs in Brazil:
Columbina talpacoti caucae (Chapman, 1915) - occurs in the Colca River valley in western Colombia.
Columbina talpacoti eluta (Bangs, 1901) - occurs on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Mexico from the north of the state of Sinaloa to the south of the state of Chiapas.
Columbina talpacoti rufipennis (Bonaparte, 1855) - Central and Eastern Mexico, Central America to Colombia and Northern Venezuela including Margarita Island and the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.
Columbina talpacoti talpacoti (Temminck, 1810) - Eastern Ecuador and Eastern and Northern Peru, Eastern Guyana, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Northern Argentina and Brazil. Occasionally as a visitor in the central region and the Lakes region in Chile.


Comandra is a monotypic genus containing the single species Comandra umbellata. Its common names include bastard toadflax, umbellate bastard toadflax, and common comandra. The plant has a disjunct distribution; its four subspecies occur in North America and the Mediterranean.


Comandra is a perennial herb growing from rhizomes, often in drier or semi-sandy soils, to about 8 to 34 centimetres (3+1⁄4 to 13+1⁄2 in) tall. The leaves are up to 3.3 cm long and are alternately arranged. Growing in flat or roundish clusters, the flowers lack petals, but have five greenish-white sepals. The flowers contain both male and female structures, and are insect-pollinated. The fruit is a drupe 4–6 mm thick.
Subspecies include:
Comandra umbellata subsp. californica – California bastard toadflax
Comandra umbellata subsp. pallida – pale bastard toadflax, pine bastard toadflax
Comandra umbellata subsp. umbellata
Comandra umbellata is hemiparasitic; it is not holoparasitic as it obtains some nutrition through photosynthesis. It has a wide host range, parasitizing over 200 known plant species. These include: Acer, Antennaria, Aster, Betula, Carex, Solidago, Fragaria, Populus, Quercus, Rosa, Rubus, Vaccinium  and some grasses.
In Europe the common English name bastard toadflax is used for plants of the genus Thesium.


Comandra umbellata is the alternate host for the comandra blister rust (Cronartium comandrae), a rust fungus that affects pine species in North America. Comandra blister rust can cause tree losses of up to 7% in some regions where it is common.
When C. umbellata is infected by the rust aeciospores from the pine host, yellow, blister-like spots bearing urediniospores appear on the leaves of the plant within 20 days. In the following weeks, teliospores develop on brown, hairlike telia that germinate to produce basidiospores, the fungal life stage capable of infecting pines.


A decoction of the plant parts was made by the Navajo people for narcotic and other medicinal usage. In times of food shortage, the berries were used by Native Americans as a food source, and though small, they have a sweet taste. The fruit may contain toxic selenium if grown in soil rich in the element.


Comarum palustre (syn. Potentilla palustris), known by the common names purple marshlocks, swamp cinquefoil and marsh cinquefoil, is a common waterside shrub. It has a circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, particularly the northern regions. It is most commonly found on lake shores, marshy riversides and stream margins, often partly submerged with foliage floating. It is a parent of some Fragaria–Comarum hybrids, ornamental plants produced by crossing with strawberries.


Its branches spread into leaves with three to seven narrow leaflets which are sharply jagged. The stem is a reddish-brown, low sprawling, vine-like structure. Flowers extend from the branch which vary from red to purple, and are about one inch in diameter, blooming in summer.
The stems roots at the base then rises to about 30 cm (12 in).


Commelina communis, commonly known as the Asiatic dayflower, is an herbaceous annual plant in the  dayflower family. It gets its name because the blooms last for only one day. It is native throughout much of East Asia and northern parts of Southeast Asia. In China, the plant is known as yazhicao (simplified Chinese: 鸭跖草; traditional Chinese: 鴨跖草; pinyin: yāzhīcǎo), roughly translating to "duckfoot herb", while in Japan it is known as tsuyukusa (露草, tsuyukusa), meaning "dew herb". It has also been introduced to parts of central and southeastern Europe and much of eastern North America, where it has spread to become a noxious weed. It is common in disturbed sites and in moist soil. The flowers emerge from summer through fall and are distinctive with two relatively large blue petals and one very small white petal.
The Asiatic dayflower plant serves as the type species for its large genus. Linnaeus picked the name Commelina in honour of the two Dutch botanists of the Commelijn family, using the two large showy petals of Commelina communis to symbolise them. Linnaeus described the species in the first edition of his landmark work, Species Plantarum, in 1753. Long before the plant was studied in Europe, however, it had been used for generations in traditional Chinese medicine. The flowers have also been used in Japan to produce a dye and a pigment that was used in many world-renowned Ukiyo-e woodcuts from the 18th and early 19th centuries. In the modern era the plant has found limited use as a model organism in the field of plant physiology due to its complex pigment chemistry and the ease of viewing its stomata.
The Asiatic dayflower is considered a weed both in areas where it was introduced and in certain parts of its native range. The flowers' interactions with pollinators have been well studied and have helped to support important hypotheses about pollination in the field of plant ecology. Recent research has also revealed that the Asiatic dayflower can bioaccumulate a number of metals, making it a candidate for revegetating and essentially cleaning spoiled copper mines. Several animals and fungi use the plant as a food source, with a few species feeding upon it exclusively.


The Asiatic dayflower is an annual herb with stems that are typically decumbent, meaning that they are prostrate at the base but become erect towards the tips, but some individuals may be simply erect. The diffusely branched stems tend to root at the basal nodes. The pubescence on the stems is variable, but common patterns include a line of hair continuous with the leaf sheath, or they may be glabrous basally, meaning hairless, and puberulent towards the extremities, that is covered with fine hairs. The leaves are sessile: they lack a leaf stalk, also known as a petiole; or they may be subpetiolate, meaning they have very small petioles. The leaf sheaths are cylindrical, sometimes striped with red, and typically glabrous, but usually have margins that are puberulent or pilose, meaning lined with fine, soft hairs. The leaf blades range from narrowly lanceolate, or lance-shaped, to ovate-elliptic, between egg-shaped and ellipse-shaped. They measure 3–12 cm (1+1⁄4–4+3⁄4 in) by 1–4 cm (1⁄2–1+1⁄2 in) wide. The blades range from glabrous to puberulent and have scabrescent, or slightly rough, margins. Their tips are acute, meaning they come to a point quickly, to acuminate, meaning the point develops gradually. The leaf bases are oblique, or uneven.
The flowers are arranged on inflorescences called cincinni (singular: cincinnus), which are also called scorpioid cymes. This is a form of a monochasium where the lateral branches arise alternately. The cincinni are subtended by a spathe, a modified leaf. The solitary spathes usually measure 1.2–3 cm (1⁄2–1+1⁄4 in) long, but some may be up to 3.5 cm (1+1⁄2 in) in length, while they are 0.8–1.3 cm (1⁄4–1⁄2 in) tall, but sometimes up to 1.8 cm (3⁄4 in). The uncurved spathes typically have a cordate, or heart-shaped, whitish base, which contrasts with its dark green veins. Their margins lack hairs, are somewhat scabrous, or rough, and are unfused, meaning they are distinct to the base. Their apices are acute to acuminate while the surfaces are glabrous, puberulent, or hirsute-ciliate, meaning with longer, shaggier hairs. The spathes are borne on peduncles, or stalks, that measure 0.8–3.5 cm (1⁄4–1+1⁄2 in) and sometimes up to 5 cm (2.0 in) long.
There are often two cincinni present, though the upper, or distal, cincinnus may be vestigial. The lower, or proximal, cincinnus bears 1 to 4 bisexual flowers and is nearly included in the spathe, while the upper cincinnus has 1 to 2 male flowers and is about 8 mm (0.31 in) long. The individual flowers are subtended by bracteoles that fall off early in development. The pedicels supporting single flowers, and later the fruits, are erect initially but curve when in fruit. They measure about 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in). The 3 concave, membranous sepals are inconspicuous, but persist after the fruit develops; the lateral pair are fused basally, measure only 4.5–5 mm (0.18–0.20 in) long by 3–3.7 mm (0.12–0.15 in) wide, and are elliptic and glabrous. The lower sepal is lanceolate and about 4.5 mm (0.18 in) long by about 2.2 mm (0.087 in) wide. The 2 upper petals are blue to indigo in colour, while the much smaller lower petal is white. The upper two petals measure 9–10 mm (0.35–0.39 in) long by 8–10 mm (0.31–0.39 in) wide, while the lower petal is 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) long by about 6 mm (0.24 in) wide. The 2 upper petals are composed of a claw about 3 mm (0.12 in) long and a broadly ovate limb with an acute apex and a cuneate-cordate base.
There are three anticous fertile stamens, meaning they are on the lower part of the flower, and three posticous infertile stamens, meaning they are on the upper part of the flower. These infertile stamens are termed staminodes. The fertile stamens are dimorphic: the lateral pair have maroon to indigo anthers that measure about 2 mm (0.079 in) long and are elliptic with a base that is sagittate or arrowhead-shaped. Their filaments are about 10–12 mm (0.39–0.47 in) long. The central fertile stamen has a yellow, elliptic anther with a maroon connective and a base that is hastate or spearhead-shaped, but with the lobes at right angles. The anther measures about 2.5 mm (0.098 in) long while its filament is about 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) long. The three staminodes are all alike with yellow, cruciform, or cross-shaped, antherodes that are about 2 mm (0.079 in) long on filaments about 3 mm (0.12 in) long. Sometimes the antherodes will have a central maroon spot. Each antherode has two abortive lateral pollen sacks. The ovary is ellipsoid, about 2 mm (0.079 in) long and has a style that is about 1.3 cm (0.51 in) long.
The fruit is a dehiscent, ellipsoid capsule with two locules each containing two seeds. The capsule is glabrous, brown, measures 4.5–8 mm (0.18–0.31 in) long, and dehisces into two valves. The seeds are brown or brownish yellow in colour and deltoid, or roughly triangular in outline. They are dorsiventral, meaning they have distinct upper and lower surfaces, with the ventral, or lower, surface being planar and the dorsal, or upper, surface being convex. Seeds range in length from 2.5–4.2 mm (0.098–0.165 in), but seeds as short as 2 mm (0.079 in) can occur, while they are 2.2–3 mm (0.087–0.118 in) across. The surfaces are rugose  pitted-reticulate and are densely covered with smaller farinose granules with sparse larger farinose granules.


Commelina communis was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in the first edition of his Species Plantarum, along with eight other species in the genus. The plant serves as the type species for the genus. The scientific name Commelina was chosen based on the Asiatic dayflower. Linnaeus picked the name in honour of the Dutch botanists Jan and Caspar Commelijn, using the two large showy petals of Commelina communis to symbolise them. A number of names given to plants thought to be different species have fallen into synonymy with the Asiatic dayflower. Albrecht Wilhelm Roth created the first such synonym, Commelina polygama, in 1790. Wenceslas Bojer described what he believed were two new species, Commelina barabata and Commelina salicifolia, in his work Hortus Mauritianus, both of which were quickly found to be identical to C. communis. Karl Sigismund Kunth created the synonym Commelina willdenowii in 1841. Finally, Korean populations of the species were named under the synonym Commelina coreana in 1910 by Augustin Abel Hector Léveillé.
Several varieties have also been named. Commelina communis var. ludens was created by C.B. Clarke after demoting it from the full species status in which it was placed by Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel in 1861. The variety is distinguished by its darker flowers, antherodes with central maroon spots, less well developed distal cymes that usually do not produce a flower, and spathes that are proportionally broader. Jisaburo Ohwi's Flora of Japan also treats the variety as geographically distinct, stating that it is restricted to mountainous areas. This variety is still accepted by some workers, but others, such Robert B. Faden, consider it impossible to consistently separate from the type variety. Another variety, C. communis var. hortensis, which was named by Tomitaro Makino and is apparently a cultivated variety which originated from C. communis var. ludens in Japan, is also accepted by some botanists. It differs in having larger showy flowers which are used to produce a dye (see "Uses" section below). A variegated form called C. communis var. ludens f. aureostriata named by Frank C. MacKeever in 1961 is known to occur randomly throughout much of the species' range.


The plant's native distribution includes much of East Asia and Southeast Asia. Country by country, it is found in China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, the Russian Far East, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Iran and Vietnam. Within China it is found in all provinces except Qinghai, Hainan, Xinjiang, and Tibet. In Japan the plant is found throughout the bulk of the country from Hokkaido south to Kyūshū. In Russia the Asiatic dayflower is found naturally on Sakhalin as well as in the Far East in areas surrounding the Ussuri River.
The species has been introduced to much of Europe and eastern North America. On the former continent it is now found from Central Europe well into western Russia. Specifically it is known from Italy north to Switzerland, east through the region encompassing the former Yugoslavia, east into the regions around the Black Sea including Romania, the Moldavia Region, and Ukraine but excluding Crimea, north through the Dnieper Basin into Belarus and Russia, continuing east into the regions surrounding the Don River and the Volga River south to their intersection at the Volga-Don Canal and north to the regions around Lake Ladoga and Lake Ilmen, and farther east to the regions of the Ural River and the Kama River. It is also found in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is present in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada, and in most of the eastern and central American states from Massachusetts and New York state in the northeast, west to Minnesota and south through the Great Plains to Texas and east to Florida in the United States.
Within its native distribution, the plant is most typical of moist, open places, including shady forest edges and wet areas of crop fields, orchards, ditches, and roadsides. In Taiwan, it can be found from 350 to 2,400 m (1,150 to 7,870 ft) elevation. In areas where the Asiatic dayflower is an introduced weed it is most common in waste places, but also along the edges of fields, woods, and marshes, and occasionally penetrating into woods.


The Asiatic dayflower is considered an invasive weed in many areas where it has been introduced. In the United States, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, for example, categorises the species as "occasionally invasive" in its Invasive Plant Species of Virginia. This means that the plant will "not affect ecosystem processes, but may alter plant community composition by outcompeting one or more native plant species". The species is typically limited to disturbed sites, whence it spreads relatively slowly. Within its native range in China it is also sometimes considered a pest, especially in the northeast of the country where it has caused economically significant agricultural damage in orchards.
The Asiatic dayflower has been used in pollination studies concerning the behaviour of plants in relation to their pollinators. One important experiment tested the hypotheses that floral guides (i.e. various patterns and colours on anthers and petals) simultaneously promote pollinator visitation and prevent visits where the pollinator fails to come into contact with the stigma or anthers, termed pollen theft. As the flowers of the Asiatic dayflower lack nectar, they offer only pollen as a reward to their visitors. To attract pollinators, the plant has three types of brightly colored floral organs: the large blue petals, fertile yellow anthers, and infertile yellow antherodes that lack pollen. When the infertile antherodes were experimentally removed in natural populations, the number of total floral visitor landings was reduced, supporting the hypothesis that these infertile anthers essentially trick their pollinators into believing they offer more than they actually do. When the central, bright yellow fertile anther was removed, leaving only two brown fertile anthers, the frequency of legitimate flower landings decreased, meaning that the visitors were not pollinating the flowers, suggesting that floral signals also prevent "theft", or visits where the pollinators take pollen, but do not place any on the stigma. Thus both the fertile anthers and the infertile antherodes were shown to play an important role in both increasing visitor landings and orienting floral visitors toward a landing point appropriate for pollination.
Recent studies have shown that wild Asiatic dayflower populations found growing on copper mine spoils in eastern China exhibited very high concentrations of copper within the plants, the highest in the 48 species tested. Commelina communis had sequestered some 361 mg/kg of copper, while the plant with the next highest concentration, Polygonum macrathum, had 286 mg/kg. Five of the species examined, including the Asiatic dayflower, also showed high concentrations of other metals such as zinc, lead, and cadmium. The results suggest that the Asiatic dayflower is a good candidate for copper mine spoil revegetation and phytoremediation.
Ten species of fungi have been found on the Asiatic dayflower, four of which can infect the plant, while 12 species of insects are known to be associated with it. Two of the fungi, Kordyana commelinae and Phyllosticta commelinicola, are thought to be host specific with the Asiatic dayflower. Of the ten fungi seven are Basidiomycota and three are Ascomycota. Nine of the 12 insects associated with the plant are beetles, seven of which are in the genus Lema, while the other two are in the families Hispidae and Pentatomidae. The remaining three insects include one species of moth, Pergesa acteus, and two true bugs, namely Aphis commilinae and Aeschrocoris ceylonicus. Important pollinators include the Asian honeybee, Apis cerana, syrphid fly, Episyrphus balteatus, and the bumble bee species Bombus diversus.


In China it is used as a medicinal herb with febrifugal, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, and diuretic effects. Additionally, it is also used for treating sore throats and tonsillitis. Recent pharmacological investigations have revealed that the Asiatic dayflower contains at least five active compounds. One of these, p-hydroxycinnamic acid, shows antibacterial activity, while another, D-mannitol, has an antitussive effect. In China and India the plant is also used as a vegetable and fodder crop.


In Japan there is a sizeable dye industry devoted to the plant. The purported variety Commelina communis var. hortensis, which is apparently a cultivated form of another putative variety, namely Commelina communis var. ludens, is grown for its larger petals which yield a blue juice used in manufacturing a paper called boshigami or aigami (藍紙), which is the famous product of the Yamada village in the Shiga prefecture. The paper is usually resoaked, allowing the pigment to be reabsorbed in water for use as a dye. The dye, also referred to as aigami, but also as aobanagami (青花紙) or tsuyukusairo (露草色), is composed primarily of malonyl awobanin and was used extensively as a colorant in 18th and 19th century woodblock prints in Japan, especially during the early Ukiyo-e era. The colorant is known to have been used by several famous Ukiyo-e artists such as Torii Kiyonaga. However, aigami fades to a greenish yellow in a matter of months when exposed to sunlight. As a result, the color was eventually replaced by imported Prussian blue, a much more stable colour with its first commercial appearance in 1829 in the work of Keisai Eisen. The plant is also grown for its dye in northern China. Additional uses of the colourant include making preparatory designs on cloth before dyeing with other pigments.
Commelinin is the blue pigment from the flowers of C. communis, is a metalloanthocyanin. It is a complex of 4 Mg²⁺ ions chelating six anthocyanin molecules.


Commelina communis is also used as a model organism in plant physiology and plant development to a limited extent, especially in relation to stomatal physiology and the biology of pigmentation development. For example, the blue pigmentation of Asiatic dayflower petals was shown to consist of a large complex of six anthocyanins, six flavones, and two associated magnesium ions, demonstrating that supramolecular complexes of several copigments and chelated metals often determine colour. Other research on the plant has helped to explain photoreceptor systems in plants such as their stomatal responses to blue light versus red light spectrums, abscisic acid perception and its role in cell signaling, particularly concerning the chemical's role in stomatal function, the role of vanadates in inhibiting stomatal opening, and the necessity of calcium in stomatal closure, among other topics. Its widespread use in stomatal studies is due to the fact that the leaves produce exceptional epidermal peels that are consistently one cell layer thick. This same quality makes the plant popular for use in laboratory exercises in higher education for demonstrating stomatal function and morphology. Guard cell turgor pressure and its regulation in the opening and closing of stomata is particularly easy to demonstrate with the Asiatic dayflower.


Commelina diffusa, sometimes known as the climbing dayflower or spreading dayflower, is a pantropical herbaceous plant in the dayflower family. It has been introduced to the southeastern United States where it is most common in wet disturbed soils. There are two recognised varieties, one being the type and the other being C. diffusa var. gigas, which is native to Asia and has been introduced to Florida. It flowers from spring to fall and is most common in disturbed situations, moist places and forests. In China the plant is used medicinally as a febrifuge and a diuretic. A blue dye is also extracted from the flower for paints. In the Hawaiian Islands, it is known as "honohono grass", although it is technically not a grass. "Honohono" refers to the alternating structure of the leaves.  At least one publication lists it as an edible plant in New Guinea.


Commelina diffusa is typically an annual herb, though it may be perennial in the tropics. It spreads diffusely, creeping along the ground, branching heavily and rooting at the nodes, obtaining stem lengths up to 1 metre. Pubescence on the stem is variable and ranges from glabrous to hispidulous, which can occur either in a line or throughout. The leaf blades are relatively variable, ranging from lanceolate to ovate, with proximal leaves tending to be more oblong. They measure 3 to 12 cm in length by 0.8 to 3 cm in width. North American populations tend to have smaller leaf size, typically measuring 1.5 to 5 cm, by 0.5 by 1.8 cm. The leaf apex is acute to acuminate. The leaf surface can be either glabrous (i.e. hairless) or hispid (i.e. bristly). The leaves are subsessile (i.e. having a very small petiole) with a leaf sheath striped with red and covered with hispid pubescence.
The flowers are arranged into cincinni (singular: cincinnus), or scorpioid cymes. This is a form of a monochasium where the lateral branches arise alternately on opposite sides of the false axis. There are typically two cincinni present, with the lower cincinnus bearing 2 to 4 flowers, while the upper cincinnus has one to several flowers. The upper cincinnus is generally exerted on specimens with larger spathes, but it may be included in specimens with smaller spathes. The upper cincinnus bears only male flowers and has a longer peduncle, while the lower cincinnus bears bisexual flowers on a shorter peduncle. The pedicels supporting single flowers, and later the fruits, are thick and curved and measure about 3 to 5 mm. The membranous sepals are inconspicuous at only 3 to 4 mm in length. The petals are blue, though may be lavender in rare cases. The upper two petals measure 4.2 to 6 mm. The anther connective (i.e. the tissue connecting the two halves of the anther) of the centre-most stamen has a broad transverse band of violet. The spathes are solitary, borne on a peduncle and typically falcate (i.e. sickle-shaped) with a cordate (i.e. heart-shaped) to rounded base, acuminate apices and can be either glabrous or hispidulous (i.e. minutely hispid) beneath. They usually measure 0.8 to 2.5 cm long, but may be as short as 0.5 cm and as long as 4 cm. They are typically 0.4 by 1.2 cm wide, but may be up to 1.4 cm long. Their peduncles are usually 0.5 to 2 cm long and rarely up to 2.9 cm. Flowering occurs from May to November. Pollens are elongated with bilateral symmetry, approximate size is 73 microns.
The fruit is a capsule which has three locules and 2 valves. It measures 4 to 6.3 mm long by 3 to 4 mm wide, though it may be as narrow as 2.1 mm. They contain five brown seeds that are 2 to 2.8, rarely up to 3.2 mm long, by 1.4 to 1.8 mm wide. They are deeply reticulate (i.e. net-like). The chromosome number is 2n = 30.


The plant is present in tropical and subtropical locations worldwide. It can be found throughout much of southern China, specifically in the provinces of Guangdong, southwestern Guangxi, southwestern Guizhou, Hainan, southeastern Xizang and southeastern Yunnan. In Japan the plant has been reported from Yakushima off Kyūshū and is also present in the Ryukyu Islands from Amami Ōshima southwards.
It is native in parts of the West Indies, including much of Puerto Rico and several of the Virgin Islands such as Saint Croix, Saint Thomas and Tortola. It has also been introduced to the southeastern United States where it is present from Maryland in the north, west to Missouri and south to Texas and Florida. It has also been introduced to Hawaii, where it is a common and quickly spreading weed. The variety C. diffusa var. gigas has been introduced to Florida.
In China it can be found from sea level up to 2100 metres, and is typically associated with forests, thickets, stream banks and other open and humid habitats. In the West Indies it is a common weed that is especially associated with roadsides, moist ditches and waste places and it can be found from sea level to 1050 metres. In the United States it is also typical of disturbed locations, such as gardens, cultivated areas and lawns, but can also be found in woods and other moist situations.


Within China, Commelina diffusa is used as a medicinal herb with febrifugal and diuretic effects. A dye is also obtained from the juice of the petals for use in painting.
Within Hawaii, "honohono grass" was used as medicine to aid with deep cuts. While other Hawaiian herbs just get superficial cuts, honohono grass is an herb to aid with deeper troubling issues.
According to a work by Bruce French published on papuaweb.org, the young leaf tips are cooked and eaten in New Guinea.  (See page 80.)


Commelina erecta is native to much of the world, including the Americas, Africa and western Asia. In the Americas it is present in the United States, the West Indies, every country of Central America and south through the tropics into Argentina. In the United States it can be found from New York and Nebraska in the north, south to Florida and Texas. In the West Indies it is present throughout Puerto Rico and on several of the Virgin Islands such as Saint Croix, Saint Thomas, Saint John, George Dog Island, Anegada, Great Camanoe, Guana Island, Tortola and Water Island.
The native Slender dayflower is located occasionally in the western half Illinois, Northeast, and Southern Illinois. It is usually in dry sand prairies, woodlands, or anywhere drier than normal. (illinoiswildflowers.info)
In tropical Africa the plant is also widespread. In west Africa it is present in Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria, and Bioko.
In Nigeria, the plant is known as Ewe Apolukuluku and Itopere.
In the West Indies it is common in disturbed sites as well as in dry to moist woods from sea level up to 1300 meters.


Commelina virginica, commonly known as the Virginia dayflower, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the dayflower family. It is native to the mideastern and southeastern United States, where it is typical of wet soils. While most members of the genus have thin, fibrous roots, the Virginia dayflower is relatively unique for its genus in having a perennial rhizome. The plant was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1762 publication of the second edition of Species Plantarum. A phylogenetic study based on the nuclear ribosomal DNA region 5S NTS and the chloroplast region trnL-trnF, two commonly used gene regions for determining relationships, suggested that Commelina virginica is most closely related to two African species, namely Commelina capitata and Commelina congesta. However, the statistical support for this result was low. Morphologically speaking the supposedly related species do share some unique traits. C. virginica and C. capitata have red hairs at the top of their leaf sheaths, an unusual character in the genus, while C. virginica and C. congesta both have clustered inflorescences on very short stalks.


Comptonia peregrina is a species of flowering plant in the family Myricaceae. It is the only extant (living) species in the genus Comptonia, although a number of extinct species are placed in the genus. Comptonia peregrina is native to eastern North America, from southern Quebec, east to Nova Scotia, south to the extreme north of Georgia, and west to Minnesota. The common name is sweetfern or sweet-fern (although it is not a fern), or in Quebec, comptonie voyageuse.


Comptonia peregrina is a deciduous shrub, growing to 1.5 m (4.9 ft) tall. The leaves of the plant are linear to lanceolate, 3–15 cm (1.2–5.9 in) long and 0.3–3 cm (0.1–1.2 in) broad, with a lobed margin; they give off a sweet odor, especially when crushed. Plants are monoecious with separate unisexual flowers. The staminate flowers grow in clusters at the ends of branches, and are up to 5 cm (2.0 in) long. The pistillate flowers are only 5 mm (0.2 in), but elongate when the fruits form, reaching 5 cm (2.0 in).


The species was first described, as Liquidambar peregrina, by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, in the second volume of Species Plantarum. Further on in the same volume, he described Myrica aspleniifolia as a different species (with the epithet spelt asplenifolia). In 1763, he changed his mind concerning Myrica aspleniifolia, and it became Liquidambar aspleniifolia, and so in the same genus as Liquidambar peregrina. In 1789, Charles Louis L'Héritier placed Linnaeus's original Myrica aspleniifolia in his new genus Comptonia. In 1894, John M. Coulter transferred Linnaeus's Liquidambar peregrina to Comptonia, and treated Linnaeus's Myrica aspleniifolia as a synonym. Comptonia peregrina is now the only extant (living) species in the genus.


Comptonia peregrina is native to eastern North America, from Ontario and Quebec in the north, east to Nova Scotia, to Georgia in the south, and west to Minnesota. It tends to grow on dry sandy sites, and is associated with pine stands.


Comptonia peregrina is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including Bucculatrix paroptila, grey pug, setaceous Hebrew character, Io moth, and several Coleophora case-bearers: C. comptoniella, C. peregrinaevorella (which feeds exclusively on Comptonia), C. persimplexella, C. pruniella and C. serratella. It is also a non-legume nitrogen fixer.


The plant produces a bristly burr that contains 1 to 4 edible nutlets.
The aromatic leaves (fresh or dried) are also used to make a tea. The Canadian author Catharine Parr Traill includes it in her book The Female Emigrant's Guide in a list of substitutes for China tea. "When boiled," she notes, "it has a slightly resinous taste, with a bitter flavour, that is not very unpleasant." Mistaking it, like others, for a fern, she says that it is in high repute "among the Yankee and old Canadian housewifes (sic)." Tea made from the plant has been said to treat the effects of poison ivy when applied to the affected area. The plant has also been used as a seasoning.


Conchylodes ovulalis, the zebra conchylodes moth, is a moth in the family Crambidae. It was described by Achille Guenée in 1854. It is found from the United States, where it has been recorded from Pennsylvania to Florida, west to Arizona, south through Mexico and Costa Rica to Colombia.
The wingspan is 23–30 mm. The wings are white with a violet sheen. The forewings are marked with six blackish-brown lines and a hollow reniform spot. Adults are on wing from May to September in the United States.
The larvae feed on Asteraceae species.


Condea emoryi (synonym Hyptis emoryi), the desert lavender, is a large, multi-stemmed shrub species of flowering plant in Lamiaceae, the mint family.
It is one of the favored plants of honeybees in early spring in the southwest deserts of North America.


Desert lavender is a medium to tall cold tender perennial shrub found in the southwestern United States in Arizona, Nevada, California, and northwestern Mexico in Sonora and Baja California.
It is a multi-stemmed shrub reaching 15–18 ft in optimum locations. It has violet-blue flowers up to 1 in, in leaf axils. The flowers are profuse along the main stem and side branches and is an aromatic attractor of the honeybee and other species. Leaves are oval and a whitish gray-green-(in deserts), serrated margins, hairy, and 2–3 in. It is found in dry washes, and on rocky slopes, up to 3000 ft (900 m). It is evergreen or cold deciduous, depending on location.


It occurs mostly in areas with a water source; in the southwestern US deserts it is commonly in the dry washes, intermixed with other species.
In the "creosote bush scrub" Yuma Desert-(western Sonoran Desert) of southwest Arizona, it is found with the palo verde, Bebbia, Encelia farinosa, desert ironwood (Olneya tesota), Lycium andersonii (wolfberry or Anderson thornbush), Psorothamnus spinosus (a type of smoke tree), and Acacia greggii, as some common associated species of the washes, elevation dependent.
In Arizona, found from central to southwestern Arizona of the Sonoran Desert; in northwest Arizona found in regions of the Mojave Desert. In southern California and Nevada, desert lavender is found in southern regions of the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Desert of southeast California.


Condica vecors, the dusky groundling, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1852. It is found from Newfoundland to Florida, west to Arizona and north to Ontario.
The wingspan is 29–38 mm. Adults have mottled dark brown and black forewings. The hindwings are greyish brown with a conspicuous whitish fringe. They are on wing from May to August in the north and from April to October in the south. There are two generations per year.
The larvae feed on Eupatorium and lettuce.


Condica videns, the white-dotted groundling moth, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Texas to Florida, north to Quebec and west to Alberta.
The wingspan is about 28 mm. The forewings are yellowish to reddish-brown with a dark brownish to blackish shade in the middle of the wing and a black line from the base through the reniform spot, which is indicated by a white dot. There are dark grey to black lines on the subterminal area and the terminal line is marked by white dots. Adults are on wing from April to September in at least two generations per year.
Larvae feed on the blooms of various composite flowers, including Solidago and Aster species.


Conicosia pugioniformis is a species of succulent plant in the ice plant family known by the common names narrow-leaved iceplant and pigroot. It is native to South Africa and it is known on other continents as an introduced species and sometimes a noxious weed. It is an invasive species on the Central Coast of California, where it is a minor threat to native coastal vegetation, although not as harmful as other species of invasive iceplant. This is a short-lived perennial herb growing from an underground caudex. It can sprout vegetatively from the caudex if its aboveground parts are destroyed. The fingerlike leaves are fleshy, gray-green, hairless, and up to 20 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a solitary, malodorous flower up to 8 centimeters wide. It has rings of up to 250 thin petals.


Conium maculatum, colloquially known as hemlock, poison hemlock or wild hemlock, is a highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, native to Europe and North Africa. A hardy plant capable of living in a variety of environments, hemlock is widely naturalized in locations outside its native range, such as parts of Australia, West Asia, and North and South America, to which it has been introduced. It is capable of spreading and thereby becoming an invasive weed.
All parts of the plant are toxic, especially the seeds and roots, and especially when ingested. Under the right conditions the plant grows quite rapidly during the growing season and can reach heights of 2.4 metres (8 feet), with a long penetrating root. The plant has a distinctive odour usually considered unpleasant that carries with the wind. The hollow stems are usually spotted with a dark maroon colour before the plant dies and becomes dry and brown after completing its biennial lifecycle.


Conium maculatum is a herbaceous biennial flowering plant that grows to 1.5–2.5 metres (5–8 feet) tall, exceptionally 3.6 m (12 ft). It has a smooth, green, hollow stem, usually spotted or streaked with red or purple on the lower half of the stem. All parts of the plant are hairless (glabrous); the leaves are two- to four-pinnate, finely divided and lacy, overall triangular in shape, up to 50 centimetres (20 inches) long and 40 cm (16 in) broad. Hemlock's flower is small and white; they are loosely clustered and each flower has five petals.
A biennial plant, hemlock produces leaves at its base the first year but no flowers. In its second year it produces white flowers in umbrella-shaped clusters.


Hemlock can be confused with the wild carrot plant (Daucus carota). The wild carrot plant has a hairy stem without purple markings, grows less than 1 m (3+1⁄2 ft) tall, and does not have clustered flowers. One can distinguish the two from each other by hemlock's smooth texture, mid-green, quite vivid, colour and typical height of large clumps being least 1.5 m (5 ft), twice the maximum of wild carrot. Carrots have hairy stems that lack the purple blotches.
The species can also be confused with harmless cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris).
The plant should not be visually confused with the North American-native Tsuga, a coniferous tree sometimes called the hemlock, hemlock fir or hemlock spruce, from a slight similarity in the leaf smell. The ambiguous shorthand of 'hemlock' for this tree is more common in the US dialect than the plant it is actually named after. Similarly, the plant should not be confused with Cicuta (commonly known as water hemlock).
Wild poison hemlock also can be mistaken for Queen Anne's lace, which is wild or feral carrot plants and sometimes gathered and eaten as an edible wildflower. The authentic, edible plant lacks the purple mottling of hemlock on its stems, which, in the case of Queen Anne's lace, are also more hairy.


The genus name "Conium" refers to koneios, the Greek word for 'spin' or 'whirl', alluding to the dizzying effects of the plant's poison after ingestion. In the vernacular, "hemlock" most commonly refers to the species C. maculatum. Conium comes from the Ancient Greek κώνειον – kṓneion: "hemlock". This may be related to konas (meaning to whirl), in reference to vertigo, one of the symptoms of ingesting the plant.
C. maculatum, also known as poison hemlock, was the first species within the genus to be described. It was identified by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 publication, Species Plantarum. Maculatum means 'spotted', in reference to the purple blotches characteristic of the stalks of the species.


Vernacular names in the English language are poison hemlock, poison parsley, spotted corobane (rarer forms), carrot fern (Australian Eng.), devil's bread or devil's porridge (Irish Eng.)


The plant is often found in poorly drained soil, particularly near streams, ditches, and other watery surfaces. It also appears on roadsides, edges of cultivated fields, and waste areas Conium maculatum grows in quite damp soil, but also on drier rough grassland, roadsides and disturbed ground. It is used as a food plant by the larvae of some lepidoptera, including silver-ground carpet moths and particularly the poison hemlock moth (Agonopterix alstroemeriana). The latter has been widely used as a biological control agent for the plant. Poison hemlock grows in the spring, when much undergrowth is not in flower and may not be in leaf. All plant parts are poisonous.


Poison hemlock contains coniine and some similar poisonous alkaloids, and is poisonous to all mammals (and many other organisms) that eat it. Intoxication has been reported in cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys, rabbits, and horses. Ingesting more than 150–300 milligrams of coniine, approximately equivalent to six to eight hemlock leaves, can be fatal for adult humans. The seeds and roots are also toxic, more so than the leaves. While hemlock toxicity primarily results from consumption, poisoning can also result from inhalation, and from skin contact. Farmers also need to be careful that the hay fed to animals does not contain hemlock. Poison hemlock is most poisonous in the spring when the concentration of γ-coniceine (the precursor to other toxins) is at its peak.


C. maculatum is known for being extremely poisonous. Its tissues contain different alkaloids. In flower buds, the major alkaloid found is γ-coniceine. This molecule is transformed into coniine later during the fruit development. The alkaloids are volatile; as such, researchers assume that these alkaloids play an important role in attracting pollinators such as butterflies and bees.
Conium contains the piperidine alkaloids coniine, N-methylconiine, conhydrine, pseudoconhydrine and gamma-coniceine (or g-coniceïne), which is the precursor of the other hemlock alkaloids.
Coniine has a chemical structure and pharmacological properties similar to that of nicotine. Coniine acts directly on the central nervous system through inhibitory action on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. In high enough concentrations, coniine can be dangerous to humans and livestock. With its high potency, the ingestion of seemingly small doses can easily result in respiratory collapse and death.
The alkaloid content found in C. maculatum also affects the thermoregulatory centre by a phenomenon called peripheral vasoconstriction, resulting in hypothermia in calves. In addition, alkaloid was also found to stimulate the sympathetic ganglia and reduce the influence of the parasympathetic ganglia in rats and rabbits, causing an increased heart rate.
Coniine also has significant toxic effects on the kidneys. The presence of rhabdomyolysis and acute tubular necrosis has been shown in patients who died from hemlock poisoning. A fraction of these patients were also found to have acute kidney injury. Coniine is toxic for the kidneys because it leads to the constriction of the urinary bladder sphincter and eventually the accumulation of urine.


A short time after ingestion, the alkaloids produce potentially fatal neuromuscular dysfunction due to failure of the respiratory muscles. Acute toxicity, if not lethal, may resolve in spontaneous recovery, provided further exposure is avoided. Death can be prevented by artificial ventilation until the effects have worn off 48–72 hours later. For an adult, the ingestion of more than 100 mg (0.1 gram) of coniine (about six to eight fresh leaves, or a smaller dose of the seeds or root) may be fatal. Narcotic-like effects can be observed as soon as 30 minutes after ingestion of green leaf matter of the plant, with victims falling asleep and unconsciousness gradually deepening until death a few hours later.
The onset of symptoms is similar to that caused by curare, with an ascending muscular paralysis leading to paralysis of the respiratory muscles, causing death from oxygen deprivation.
It has been observed that poisoned animals return to feed on the plant after initial poisoning. Chronic toxicity affects only pregnant animals when they are poisoned at low levels by C. maculatum during the fetus' organ-formation period; in such cases the offspring is born with malformations, mainly palatoschisis and multiple congenital contractures (arthrogryposis). The damage to the fetus due to chronic toxicity is irreversible. Though arthrogryposis may be surgically corrected in some cases, most of the malformed animals die.
Such losses may be underestimated, at least in some regions, because of the difficulty in associating malformations with the much earlier maternal poisoning.
Since no specific antidote is available, prevention is the only way to deal with the production losses caused by the plant. Control with herbicides and grazing with less-susceptible animals (such as sheep) have been suggested. It is a common myth that C. maculatum alkaloids can enter the human food chain via milk and fowl, and scientific studies have disproven these claims.


In ancient Greece, hemlock was used to poison condemned prisoners. Conium maculatum is the plant that killed Theramenes, Socrates, Polemarchus, Matthias Corvinus, and Phocion. Socrates, the most famous victim of hemlock poisoning, was accused of impiety and corrupting the minds of the young men of Athens in 399 BC, and his trial gave down his death sentence. He decided to take a potent infusion of hemlock.


Conocarpus erectus, commonly called buttonwood or button mangrove, is a mangrove shrub in the family Combretaceae. This species grows on shorelines in tropical and subtropical regions around the world.


Locations it is known from include Florida, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Central and South America from Mexico to Brazil on the Atlantic Coast and Mexico to Ecuador on the Pacific Coast, western Africa and in Melanesia and Polynesia. It was introduced in Kuwait because it can thrive in high temperatures and absorbs brackish water.


Conocarpus erectus is usually a dense multiple-trunked shrub, 1–4 m (3.3–13.1 ft) tall, but can grow into a tree up to 20 m (66 ft) or more tall, with a trunk up to 1 m (3.3 ft) in diameter. The United States National Champion green buttonwood is 35 ft (11 m) tall, has a spread of 70 ft (21 m), and a circumference of 207 in (530 cm). The bark is thick and has broad plates of thin scales which are gray to brown. The twigs are brittle, and angled or narrowly winged in cross-section. The leaves are alternately arranged, simple and oblong, 2–7 cm (0.79–2.76 in) long (rarely to 10 cm or 3.9 in long) and 1–3 cm (0.39–1.18 in) broad, with a tapering tip and an entire margin. They are dark green and shiny on top, and paler with fine silky hairs underneath, and have two salt glands at the base of each leaf. The fruits are button-like (from which the common names derive), 5–8 mm (0.20–0.31 in) diameter, with no petals; they are produced in stalked panicles of 35-56 flowers. The fruit is a cluster of red to brown, small scaly, two-winged cone-like seeds, 5–15 mm (0.20–0.59 in) long. The seed heads burst when ripe, and the seeds are dispersed by water.
It is generally found growing in brackish water in tidal lagoons and bays, but can grow in inland habitats, with records at up to 745 m (2,444 ft) altitude in Costa Rica.


These two varieties are not accepted as distinct by all authorities:
C. e. var. erectus - green buttonwood, leaves thinly hairy or hairless
C. e. var. sericeus - silver buttonwood, leaves densely silvery-hairy


The tree is used as an ornamental plant and in bonsai. The variety sericeus, with silvery leaves, is especially prized for landscaping. It is an important host plant for epiphytes. As a result of ornamental planting, it has become naturalized in Hawaii. It has been used extensively in landscaping in Kuwait and became the most abundant tree/shrub.  Conocarpus is widely believed to be fodder for the African buffalo, and it is understood that this is the source of their acidic urine.
The wood is sometimes used in cabinets; it is difficult to work but takes a smooth finish. It is also used as firewood, and is reported to be good for smoking meat and fish, as it burns very hot and slowly; it also makes high quality charcoal. The bark is high in tannin, for which it has been harvested commercially.


Conocephalum conicum, also known as the great scented liverwort or snakeskin liverwort, is a liverwort species in the genus Conocephalum. C. conicum is part of the Conocephalum conicum complex, which includes several cryptic species. The name C. conicum refers to the cone-shaped archegoniaphore, which bear sporangia.


C. conicum is one of the most common liverworts in northern hemisphere and is widely distributed throughout Canada.
C. conicum is found in open woodlands, sandy banks, wet rocks or cliffs and moist soils and is strongly associated with calcareous substrates.


C. conicum is the largest of the thalloid liverworts, growing up to 20 cm long.
The thalli can grow to 17 mm wide. The thalli are very strong-smelling, with purplish margins; a dark green, leathery surface; flat and smooth. There is a set of lines running along the thalli's surface. The air pores, which are found between the lines, are more conspicuous.


Male plants bear unstalked, terminal cushions. Female plants have terminal conical receptacles on stalks, which are shortly lobed.


C. conicum has been associated with some species of fungi. These fungi form a highly branched mycelium outside of the plant which then colonize the outside of the rhizoids and pass into the gametophyte.


Conocephalum salebrosum, commonly known as snakewort, is a species of liverwort, a non-vascular land plant, with a broad, holarctic distribution. It is also known as snakeskin liverwort, cat-tongue liverwort, mushroom-headed liverwort, and great scented liverwort.
Species of Conocephalum are arranged into the Conocephalum conicum complex, which includes several cryptic species.
C. salebrosum grows in shaded to part-shade habitats in wet or moist conditions, often on rock surfaces or thin soil.


C. salebrosum is commonly found throughout North America and occurs in moist, shaded and calcareous habitats. In contrast to Conocephalum conicum, C. salebrosum is more tolerant to desiccation and can grow in areas with less shade.


Conocephalus brevipennis, the short-winged meadow katydid, is a species of meadow katydid in the family Tettigoniidae. It is found in North America and the Caribbean.


Conoclinium coelestinum, the blue mistflower, is a North American species of herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It was formerly classified in the genus Eupatorium, but phylogenetic analyses in the late 20th century research indicated that that genus should be split, and the species was reclassified in Conoclinium.


Conoclinium coelestinum can reach a height of about 90 cm (3 ft). It has opposite leaves, almost triangular-shaped. On the top this, the plant forms clusters of bright blue, violet or white flower heads, about 5 mm (1⁄4 in) long. It flowers from July to November.
Blue mistflower is often grown as a garden plant, although it does have a tendency to spread and take over a garden. It is recommended for habitat restoration within its native range, especially in wet soils.


This species is native to eastern and central North America, from Ontario south as far as tepoztlan, mexico.


This species prefers wood edges, sandy woodlands and clearings, wet meadows and stream banks.


Conopholis americana, the American cancer-root, bumeh or bear corn, is a perennial, non-photosynthesizing (or "achlorophyllous") parasitic plant. It is from the family Orobanchaceae and more recently from the genus Conopholis but also listed as Orobanche, native but not endemic to North America. When blooming, it resembles a pine cone or cob of corn growing from the roots of mostly oak and beech trees.


Conopholis americana is parasitic on the roots of woody plants, especially oaks (genus Quercus) and beech (genus Fagus). The only part of the plant generally seen is the cone-shaped inflorescence, which appears above ground in spring. The entire structure is a yellowish color, turning to brown. It achieves heights of 10 centimeters (4 in) to 20 centimeters (8 in) tall.


The plant has stout and unbranched 1.3 centimeters (0.5 in) to 2.5 centimeters (1 in) thick stems.
Since C. americana does not photosynthesize it also does not have true leaves; it has instead simple, ovate, tiny scales 1.3 centimeters (0.5 in) long and brown, which appear at the base of each flower.


Conopholis americana produces spikes of yellow to cream flowers densely crowded all around the stem. Each flower is 5-parted, 8 millimeters (0.3 in) to 13 millimeters (0.5 in) long, tubular with a swollen base and facing downwards. As the flowering spike matures it begins to wither and becomes brown throughout the summer and often persisting through the winter, by which time it has become shriveled and black. There is no noticeable floral scent.


Each flower is replaced by a seed capsule that is longer than it is wide and contains many small seeds. This plant spreads to new locations by reseeding itself.


The root system is parasitic on the roots of oak trees (Quercus spp.); dependent on the host tree for its nourishment, the suckers of the parasitic roots cause the formation of large rounded knobs on the roots of the host tree.


The plant is found growing on roots in wooded ravines in every state of the United States east of the Mississippi River. While widely distributed, it is uncommon.
Native:
Nearctic:
Northern America:
Eastern Canada: Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec
Northeastern U.S.A.: Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia
North-Central U.S.A.: Illinois, Wisconsin
Southeastern U.S.A.: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
It is considered an exploitably vulnerable species in New York, a threatened species in New Hampshire and a special concern in Rhode Island.


Consolida regalis, known as forking larkspur, rocket-larkspur, and field larkspur, is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to the genus Consolida of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae).


Consolida regalis is native to:
Western Asia: Turkey, Georgia, western Siberia.
Northern Europe — Denmark; Finland; Sweden; Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania.
Middle Europe — Austria; Belgium; Czech Republic; Germany; Hungary; Netherlands; Poland; Slovakia; Switzerland.
East Europe — Belarus; Estonia; Latvia; Moldova; Russian Federation—European part; Ukraine.
Southeastern Europe — Albania; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Croatia; Greece; Italy; Macedonia; Montenegro; Romania; Serbia; Slovenia.
Southwestern Europe — France.


The plant is found growing on sandy or chalky soils. It is present at an altitude of 0–1,200 metres (0–3,937 ft) above sea level.
It grows in dry weedy places and roadside ditches, and in cereal crop fields. The plant has become quite rare in central and southern Europe because of the increased use of herbicides and intensive soil cultivation.
This species is grown as an ornamental plant.


Consolida regalis reaches on average 30–80 centimetres (12–31 in) in height. The stem is erect, hairy and very branched at the top. The roots grow into the soil up to a depth of 50 centimetres (20 in), so the plant can survive long periods of drought. The leaves are alternately arranged.
The inflorescence is a cluster with five to eight hermaphrodite flowers. The flowers are dark blue or purple with five sepals. The upper sepal is prolonged in a spur of 15–18 millimetres (0.59–0.71 in) long, pointing toward the back. There are eight to ten stamens. The flowering period extends from May through August.
The flowers are pollinated by hymenoptera and lepidoptera. The seeds ripen from June through September. All plant parts are poisonous in large doses, especially the seeds, that contain up to 1.4% of alkaloids.


The alkaloids which have been isolated from Consolida regalis include
aicolorine
atisine
corepanine
delcoridine
delcosine
delsoline
gigactonine
hetisinone
lycoctonine
paniculine
regaline
takaosamine


The western wood pewee (Contopus sordidulus) is a small tyrant flycatcher. Adults are gray-olive on the upperparts with light underparts, washed with olive on the breast. They have two wing bars and a dark bill with yellow at the base of the lower mandible. This bird is very similar in appearance to the eastern wood pewee; the two birds were formerly considered to be one species. The call of C. sordidulus is a loud buzzy peeer; the song consists of three rapid descending tsees ending with a descending peeer.


BirdLife International (2016). "Contopus sordidulus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22699811A93748966. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22699811A93748966.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
"Western Wood-Pewee Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology". www.allaboutbirds.org. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
C. Michael Hogan, 2008


The eastern wood pewee (Contopus virens) is a small tyrant flycatcher from North America. This bird and the western wood pewee (C. sordidulus) were formerly considered a single species. The two species are virtually identical in appearance, and can be distinguished most easily by their calls.


The eastern wood pewee is 13.5–15 cm (5.3–5.9 in) in length and weighs around 14 g (0.49 oz). Wingspan ranges from 9.1-10.2 in (23-26 cm). The sexes are alike. The adult is gray-olive on the upperparts with light underparts, washed with olive on the breast. Each wing has two pale wing bars, and the primary remiges are long, giving the wingtip a slim and very pointed appearance. The upper part of the bill is dark, the lower part is yellowish. The songs are basically a mournful whistled pee-a'wee given in a series, which gave this bird its name, and a "pe-wee" with a rising note at the end.
The western wood pewee (C. sordidulus) is essentially indistinguishable visually. But its range is parapatric to the west of the eastern wood pewee and its song—a descending tsee-tsee-tsee-peeer—is entirely different.
The eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) is similar, particularly in the worn plumage after breeding. It always lacks clearly defined wingbars, however, and bobs its tail frequently. It has a shorter primary projection. The eastern phoebe is also present on the breeding grounds by March, while eastern wood pewees do not arrive until very late April and early May. The songs (fee-bee, fee-bee) and calls (chip) are quite different. The least flycatcher (Empidonax minimus) is quite similar to the eastern wood pewee in plumage, but has a bold eye ring and much shorter primary projection, appearing rather blunt-winged. It also has a shorter bill and is smaller overall. The songs (che-bec, che-bec) and calls (a sharp whit) are very different.


Their breeding habitat is deciduous, mixed woods, or pine plantations in eastern North America. They migrate to Central America, the Caribbean, and in the Andes region of northern South America. They feed on insects and other arthropods. Wood pewees wait on a perch at a middle height in a tree and fly out to catch prey in flight, sometimes hovering to pick it from vegetation.
Eastern wood pewees arrive relatively late on breeding grounds (e.g., 18 May to 5 June in southern Ontario). They are rarely seen on their breeding grounds before the last days of April further south. They migrate south at a more usual time, leaving sometimes in late August but most often in September. Migration times have stayed the same in the last 100 years. They migrate quickly for most of the journey, dispersing and moving at a slower speed when approaching breeding or wintering range. For example, in the Cayman Islands which are offshore the winter quarters, the species is only rarely and briefly encountered, but passes through on its way north as early as mid-late February.