Red-crowned parakeets were once widespread across the North and South Island of New Zealand. Nowadays, however, most of those mainland populations have disappeared due to predation by introduced species.
On the mainland, this species occurs in large forest blocks in Northland, Coromandel and central North Island. In the South Island, there has been records of them along the West, South and South-East coasts. Nevertheless, those mainland populations remain extremely scarce. The rest of the species is confined to Stewart Island/Rakiura and a number of offshore islands (such as Kapiti Island, Tiritiri Matangi Island and Matiu/Somes Island) as well as the Auckland Islands to the south. The other subspecies live on their respective islands, namely the Kermadec Islands and the Chatham Islands.


Red-crowned parakeets are highly generalised and diverse when it comes to feeding. They consume flowers, fruits, seeds, leaves and buds from a variety of plants. They also complement their diet with a few invertebrates such as small aphids and can be fed mealworms. Their feeding habits vary throughout the year depending on the seasonal availability of food. In winter and spring, the birds mostly eat flowers. In summer and autumn, their main food items consist of seeds.


Red-crowned parakeets form monogamous pair bonds. Couples may or may not stay together after a breeding season, possibly depending on the success of their nesting.
Courtship feeding and other pair bond behaviours begin to take place about two months before laying the eggs, in mid-October. In the beginning of October, males begin to escort their companion to inspect potential nest sites. While he stands guard in front a hole, the female cautiously explores it. She communicates that she found a suitable one by repeatedly entering and exiting the hole. The female then proceeds to excavate a hole up to 10–12 cm deep and 15 cm wide in the floor of the nest chamber with her upper mandible and feet. Wood chips from the walls are chewed and used as substrate. Throughout the whole nest-building process, the male remains nearby, feeding himself and his mate as well as chasing other parakeets away. Successful breeding pairs have been seen coming back to the same nesting location the next year.
Nests are mostly found in the holes of large healthy trees, although cavities of other kinds are not excluded. These include holes in cliffs, cavities amongst the roots of plants, abandoned seabird burrows and manmade structures. It has also been noticed that a majority of nest entrances face north.
Egg laying takes place from November to January, peaking in December. On average, clutches count 7 eggs, yet can range from 4 to 9. Eggs look oval and white with a slight gloss which fades during incubation. In red-crowned parakeets, only the female incubates. While in the nest, they are seen turning their eggs regularly. Otherwise, they spend their time sleeping, preening or digging. This period last from 23 to 25 days. Again, males visit the nest regularly to feed their companion by regurgitation.
The eggs do not hatch all at the same time. Some chicks can emerge several days after the first one. The hatchlings are born sparsely covered by light grey down and weigh on average 4.6g. They can already produce strong, high-pitched sounds. However, the young are altricial, born completely dependent on their parents to fulfill their basic needs. The first couple of days, the chicks are fed a clear viscous liquid brought by the mother. They are later able to eat solid ground particles. Around day 9, when the nestlings can open their eyes, the male is invited back into the nest. From thereon, both parents take care of feeding their offspring. 30 days after hatching, the chicks have developed feather on most of their body and have grown up to about 83g. They then begin leaving the nest, but remain perched or living on the ground in the vicinity of their nest. The parents still visit their young to provide them with food. It is only 10 days after fledging that the young birds begin to feed on their own. They finally acquire complete independence 4 to 5 weeks after leaving the nest.
Note that differences timing and clutch size might be observed between different subspecies of red-crowned parakeets considering they live in regions with different environmental conditions.


The red-crowned parakeet is absolutely protected under New Zealand's Wildlife Act 1953. The species is also listed under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meaning international export/import (including parts and derivatives) is regulated.
It was once widespread across the islands and mainland of New Zealand. It was extremely abundant during the 1880s and irruptions occurred in a number of locations. Nevertheless, their numbers dropped drastically on the mainland due to their vulnerability to introduced species, particularly stoats, rats, and possums.


Various reintroduction attempts have been studied. Between 1976 and 1986, seventeen red-crowned parakeets were released in the Waitākere Ranges near Auckland. The project was not monitored very meticulously and it apparently failed.
More recent attempts on Tiritiri Matangi Island, New Zealand from 2004 to 2006 concluded that reintroduction can succeed in areas free of introduced predators.


Recent research conducted on Little Barrier Island, New Zealand, has confirmed the presence of the psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD) amongst the local red-crowned parakeet population.


The red-crowned parakeet is common in aviculture and is relatively easy to breed. Several colour mutations are available including yellow, cinnamon, and piebald.


Sphaeropteris medullaris,  synonym Cyathea medullaris, commonly known as mamaku or black tree fern, is a large tree fern up to 20 m tall. It is distributed across the south-west Pacific from Fiji to Pitcairn Island. Its other Māori names include katātā, kōrau, or pītau.


Sphaeropteris medullaris will grow from fresh spores, but this is slow. Plants are easy to transplant when they are young. It is also possible to plant newly felled trunks which will generally sprout again, provided they are watered with care. They are hardy in various conditions once established. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit as an ornamental.


Tree fern trunks, including those of S. medullaris, have been used as rough building material and also for makeshift trackwork.
The 1889 book The Useful Native Plants of Australia records that Indigenous Australians ate the pith of this fern tree which contained a certain amount of starch similar to sago.


Alsophila smithii, synonym Cyathea smithii, commonly known as the soft tree fern or kātote, is a species of tree fern from New Zealand.


Cyclochila australasiae was first described as Tettigonia australasiae in 1805 by amateur zoologist Edward Donovan, who reported that  it was common in New South Wales and many specimens had been collected and sent to England. Ernst Friedrich Germar named it Cicada olivacea in 1830. It was the second Australian species of cicada described after the double drummer (Thopha saccata).
It was formerly commonly known as the Great Green Cicada; in addition, the various colour forms have different vernacular names, including Yellow Monday for a common yellow morph; Chocolate Soldier for a rare dark tan form; Blue Moon for a rare turquoise form; and Masked Devil for its red-orange form. The names for the green and yellow forms have been recorded since at least 1896. Australian entomologist Walter Wilson Froggatt reported that the green form was known as green Monday (alongside yellow Monday for the yellow form) in his 1907 work Australian Insects.


Cyclochila australasiae measures about 4 cm (1.6 in) in length, with a wingspan of 11–13 cm (4.3–5.1 in). Diverse colour forms are seen, the most common being predominantly green or brownish yellow. It has red eyes. The exuvia, or discarded empty exoskeleton of the nymph form, is commonly seen on tree trunks in gardens and bushland during the summer months.
The loud calls of the male are heard over the summer months; harsh and high-pitched, these may reach 120 decibels. The sound is made by the rapid buckling of the timbal ribs, and amplified by resonation in an air sac; the frequency is around 4.3 kHz. Calls occur in the afternoon and dusk of warm days.


Cyclochila australasiae is found from Kroombit Tops in southeastern Queensland through eastern New South Wales and Victoria to the Grampians, and through to Mount Gambier in southeastern South Australia. It is common along the Great Dividing Range, and is also found in the Warrumbungles. It is commonly seen (and heard) around Sydney and Melbourne, the Blue Mountains and Gippsland. In Brisbane, it is only encountered at elevations above 300 m (1000 ft). It was associated with the white stringybark (Eucalyptus globoidea) in a study at three sites in western Sydney.


Live cicadas are often collected by climbing trees and can be kept temporarily as pets in shoeboxes. They cannot easily be kept for longer than a day or two, given that they need flowing sap for food.
The Green grocer cicada is now the topic of a popular Australian children's book, "Cecil Singer Cicada" (Michelle Cox) released in January 2020.
The lifecycle of the Cicada was also referenced in the children's book Cicada (2018) by Shaun Tan.
The Yellow Monday form is referenced in Clive James' epic poem "The River in the Sky" (2018).


Cycloneda munda, known generally as the polished lady beetle or immaculate ladybird beetle, is a species of lady beetle in the family Coccinellidae. It is found in Eastern North America.


Cycloneda sanguinea is the most widespread ladybird beetle in Latin America, with a distribution that ranges from the southern United States to Argentina, and eastward to the Cayman Islands. On the Galápagos Islands, it lives in sympatry with its sister species, Cycloneda galapagensis.


Cycloneda sanguinea is a large ladybird beetle with red, unspotted elytra (wing covers). The color ranges from orange to deep red. The white and black marks on the head and pronotum are very distinctive, and they are also gender-specific. Females and males both have white spots on the black part, but the female has black in the center, continuing down into the face, while the male has a white cleft above the head and a white face. These ladybugs are very often found feeding on aphids on milkweeds, but also occur on a number of other plants. Its pupae have the remarkable ability to "bite" potential predators using a device known as a "gin trap".


Cyclophora linearia, the clay triple-lines, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Jacob Hübner in 1799 and it can be found in Europe and (primarily in the southern half) Britain.


The wingspan is 26–33 mm. The basic colour of the wings is pale brown to orange in the first generation and rose red in the second generation. On the forewing are three crosslines, black to reddish in colour, the middle is wider. The crosslines are often vague in the second generation. describes some aberrations. The egg is elongate-oval, with fine hexagonal or rather irregularly polygonal ribbing; pale yellow, becoming marked with red. The larva is slender and naked, pale green, with small, yellow spots on the dorsum.


The moths fly from May to July depending on the location.
The larvae feed on beech.


Cyclophora linearia is difficult to certainly distinguish from these congeners. See Townsend et al.
Blair's mocha Cyclophora puppillaria (Herrich-Schäffer, 1855)
Jersey Mocha Cyclophora ruficiliaria (Herrich-Schäffer, 1855)
Maiden’s Blush Cyclophora punctaria  (Linnaeus, 1758)
False mocha Cyclophora porata (Hübner, 1799)


Cyclophora nanaria, the dwarf tawny wave, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Francis Walker in 1861. It is found in the US from California to Texas and from New Jersey to Florida west along the Gulf Coast. The range extends south through Dominica and Jamaica to Argentina. It is an introduced species in Hawaii.
The wingspan is about 16 mm.


Cyclophora pendulinaria, the sweetfern geometer moth or pearly-grey wave, is a moth in the  family Geometridae. It is found in North America, where it is found from Newfoundland and Labrador west to the Yukon and coastal British Columbia, south to Georgia in the east. The habitat consists of moist or mesic forests.
The wingspan is 17–26 mm. The wings vary from white to gray or even blackish-brown. Adults have been recorded on wing from April to October.
The larvae feed on the leaves of Comptonia and Alnus  species. The larvae are variable in colour, ranging from green to yellow, orange brown or purple-brown. The species overwinters in the pupal stage.


Cyclospermum leptophyllum (also, Ciclospermum l.) is a species of plant in the family Apiaceae known by the common names marsh parsley, slender celery and fir-leaved celery. This is a plant found worldwide at warm temperate to tropical latitudes and is considered a noxious weed in many areas. It is a taprooted branching herb reaching just over half a meter in height at maximum. It has threadlike green leaves a few centimeters long and small umbels of spherical flowers.
The 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia’ records that a common name included "Wild Parsley" and that "It is worthy of note that this plant (in common with others of the genus) is sometimes acrid and injurious when grown in damp soils. It is, doubtless, capable of much improvement by careful cultivation. This plant is not endemic to Australia."


Cycnia tenera, the dogbane tiger moth or delicate cycnia, is a moth in the family Erebidae. It occurs throughout North America, from southern British Columbia to Nova Scotia southwards to Arizona and Florida. The species is distasteful and there is evidence that it emits aposematic ultrasound signals; these may also jam bat echolocation, as the functions are not mutually exclusive.


It is a common feeder on Apocynum cannabinum (dogbane, Indian hemp) which produces a milky latex containing cardenolides, toxic cardiac glycoside that defend against herbivores. It also feeds on milkweed species, Asclepias, at least in parts of its range, but is most commonly reported from dogbane. Its interactions with bats have been much studied, but are an area of dispute regarding whether the clicks emitted by adult moths are disruptive of bat echolocation, or merely aposematic warning signals. The two functions are not mutually exclusive, however, so it may not be possible to resolve the issue. The moth's coloration appears to be aposematic for insectivorous birds. Chemical signals do not prevent bats from attacking, but do cause bats to release C. tenera they have caught.


This moth has several generations per year through much of its range, so caterpillars may be found from June to November.
Eggs are laid in clutches of 50–100. Larvae are reported to feed in aggregations of five to seven, at least in the early instars. Caterpillars are covered all over in soft grey to whitish hairs. Larvae feed at night.
The cocoon is grayish and covered in hairs from the caterpillar's body.
Adults have white wings with a buttery yellow margin along the front of the forewing; the legs are black. The underside of the forewing may have a dusting of black. The body is yellow with a row of black spots. The wingspan is 30–40 millimetres (1.2–1.6 in).


Bats refuse to eat either muted or intact moths of C. tenera. Hawking bats, that is, those seeking moths in flight, attacked intact, clicking C. tenera less frequently than surgically muted (with tymbal organs destroyed) moths in experiments. Intact moths emitted calls when the hunting bats switched from search phase calls to approach phase calls. In gleaning attacks, when bats attack moths perched on surfaces, bats use a different frequency of sound that these moths cannot hear, and the moths do not respond until actually handled by bats. Then clicking moths were dropped more frequently than mute moths.
In a set of experiments using bats that had never been exposed to moths before, Hristov and Conner found the clicking signals helped the bats to learn which moths are distasteful, and so to avoid them. They did not rule out a jamming function for the calls, however, and Ratcliffe and Fullard noted 20% of these native bats aborted attacks on the moth.
The calls are additionally used by male moths to signal to female moths. Like many Arctiinae, C. tenera flies all day and night, though preferentially some time after dusk. Its sense of hearing, on the other hand, is only moderately well-developed. Thus, the calls of Cycnia tenera have more of a defensive than a social function, and the aposematic role is likely to be significant.


Cycnia tenera tenera
Cycnia tenera sciurus (Boisduval, 1869)


The number of yearly generations varies depending on the climatic conditions. The number of generations is higher closer to the equator in the Northern hemisphere, which indicates that warmer climate is optimal for higher number of generations. In Denmark, for example, only one generation was observed; in Palestine, four to five generations have been noted. In most of Europe and North America there are usually two generations of moths in a given flight period (summer months). At those latitudes, first generation moths emerge in July and are active through August. Eggs laid by the first generation moths are called second generation. These eggs hatch and the caterpillar undergoes pupation. The larvae go into diapause and "hibernate" over the winter. In April and May of the following year, these second generation pupae eclose and the second generation moths are active during the months of May and June.


Males fly upward near the top of the trees to search for females because females tend to stay near trees that they eclosed from. Codlemones, or (E,E)-8,10-dodecadien-1-ol, is a major male-attracting sex pheromone secreted by females. Plant volatiles create a synergistic effect with the codlemone, which increases the degree of male attraction. These volatiles include racemic linalool, (E)-β-farnesene, or (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol. The optimal ratio at which attraction is maximized is at a 1:100 ratio of codlemone to synergistic plant volatiles.
Pear-derived kairomone has been found to be a species-specific attractant as well. Ethyl (2E, 4Z)-2,4-decadienoate, which is found in ripe pears and is a minor volatile secreted from ripe apples, attracts both mated and virgin males and females.
Codling moths can copulate as early as the day of their eclosion, as long as the climate is appropriate. Males have developed hooks near the end of the abdomen, which are used to grasp onto the female during copulation. Because these hooks hold onto the female tightly, copulation that lasts up to several hours has been observed. Copulation occurs within 24 hours of eclosion.


Predators of the codling moth are mostly birds, accounting for nearly 80% of caterpillar killings. Woodpeckers are especially significant predators because they find caterpillars from hidden crevices beneath the bark and branches of host trees. They are also highly preyed upon by arthropods from the following taxonomic groups: Araneae (spiders), Opiliones (harvestmen), Carabidae (ground beetles), Staphylinidae (rove beetles), Dermaptera (earwigs), Formicidae (ants) and Geocoridae (big-eyed bugs).
Ants are among the most significant of the insect predators because they are numerous and are active in masses. They attack all the stages of the codling moth life cycle, including the caterpillar, pupae, cocoons, and eclosing moths. Some of the commonly known ant predators include Solenopsis molesta, Lasius niger, Formica fusca, Formica pallidefulva schauffussi inserta, Aphaenogaster fulva aquia, Tetramorium caespitum, and Monomorium minimum. Solenopsis molesta can kill 90% of caterpillars they attack, which are usually those moving between fruits or fifth instar caterpillars looking for a pupation site.
Thrips are also predators of various life stages of the codling moth. Haplothrips faurei feeds on eggs from all generations, while Leptothrips mali feeds on second generation eggs.


The egg stage is the most vulnerable period for parasitism because it is when the moth is exposed the longest. Caterpillars are protected by the fruit and the pupae are protected by the cocoon. Insect parasitoids are listed below, with the parasitized life stage of the codling moth indicated in parentheses:
Arrhinomya tragica (pupa) – a fly
Neoplectops veniseta (pupa) – a tachinid fly
Ephialtes extensor (caterpillar) – an ichneumonid wasp that attacks both generations and overwinters in the body of second generation caterpillar
Hyssopus pallidus (larva) – these eulophid wasps follow the kairomone formed in the frass as the caterpillar bores into the fruit.
Lissonota culiciformis – an ichneumonid wasp
Mastrus ridens – another ichneumonid
Pimpla examinator (caterpillar and pupa) – another ichneumonid
Pristomerus vulnerator (caterpillar) – another ichneumonid that attacks both generations
Trichomma enecator (caterpillar) – another ichneumonid
Ascogaster nov. sp. (egg or pupa) – another ichneumonid. A parasitised pupa may die or eclose as a stunted adult. Perilampus tristis, a chalcidoid wasp, is a hyperparasite of this Ascogaster species.


Beauveria bassiana is a parasite to the caterpillar and pupae of the codling moth. The spores of this snowy white fungus are dispersed in locations where the caterpillars pass by or where they pupate. The mycelium of B. bassiana grows radially out from the body of the caterpillar, turning the caterpillar soft and mushy. It has a killing rate of 13.1% in caterpillars. B. bassiana grows favorably in humid and warm environments.
Hirsutella subulata is another entomophagous, or insect-eating, fungal parasite to the codling moth larvae. Unlike B. bassiana, this fungus type can grow even if the humidity is low.


Known bacteria that parasitize the codling moth are Erwinia amylovora and Bacillus cereus. B. cereus parasitizes the larvae of the codling moth.


Baculoviruses are common viruses of lepidopteran insects, and divide into two genera: Nucleopolyhedrovirus and Granulovirus. Of these, a granulovirus species specific to codling moths has been identified and studied. Granuloviruses form small granules that each carry one virion, and can be divided into two classes: the 'slow' and 'fast' granuloviruses, which refers to the rate at which the virus kills the host. Fast-killing granuloviruses usually kill the host during the same instar in which it was infected. Cydia pomonella granulovirus is a species of fast granulovirus that is fatally pathogenic to codling moths. Because Cydia pomonella granulovirus is a fast granulovirus, the codling moth larvae dies within the same instar as when infected. The complete genome of Cydia pomonella granulovirus has been sequenced and was found to have 123,500 bp.
Three main Cydia pomonella granulovirus isolates have been identified: Cydia pomonella granulovirus-M, E, R. These can be categorized into four genome types: genomes A, B, C, and D. It is believed that genome C is ancestral to the other genomes. Genome C is also less pathogenic to codling moth neonates compared to other genome types. Isolates from Iran have also been identified and were found to have same genome types as the other isolates.


Cydia pomonella granulovirus-M, which is a Mexican isolate strain of Cydia pomonella granulovirus, has been used as a bioinsecticide. Codling moth larvae can be infected with Cydia pomonella granulovirus just by crawling or browsing on infected leaves and fruits. A linear log time/mortality relationship has been found, which indicates that the longer the larva remains in contact with the bioinsecticide sprayed surface, the higher the degree of infection. Aqueous suspension of the granules are sprayed on leaves and fruits, which are then taken up by the larvae. Cydia pomonella granulovirus works most effectively when taken up by neonate larvae, so the bioinsecticide should be applied in concordance to the hatching time schedule of the eggs. Once the granules reach the midgut, which is basic (pH>7), the granules are dissolved and invade the tracheal matrix, epidermis, fat body, and other tissue bodies. During the later stages of infection, the virus form clusters, which causes apoptosis, or programmed cell-death, of host cells and eventually host death. Death of the host occurs within 5–10 days.
Some colonies of codling moths have developed resistance against the commonly used Cydia pomonella granulovirus-M isolate. However, some Cydia pomonella granulovirus-M isolates have overcome that host resistance. Identified isolates, such as 112 and NPP-R1, have shown increased pathogenicity against RGV isolates, which are Cydia pomonella granulovirus resistant colonies of codling moths used in laboratories.


The antennae of the moths are used to detect volatiles released by fruits like apples and pears. Males and females display similar antennal responses to most volatiles, except to codlemone. Males responded more strongly to codlemone than females.
Common apple volatiles include (Z)3-hexenol, (Z)3-hexenyl benzoate, (Z)3-hexenyl hexanoate, (±)-linalool and E,E-α-farnesene. Non-apple volatiles include pear ester ethyl (E,Z)-2,4-decadienoate. (E,E)-2,4-decadienal is a corresponding aldehyde for (E,Z)-2,4-decadienoate and is released as a defense mechanism by the fifth instar larvae of the European apple sawfly Hoplocampa testudinea. Apples infested with apple sawflies are unsuitable for codling moth larvae because apple sawflies secrete (E,E)-2,4-decadienal as part of their defense secretion. (E,E)-2,4-decadienal also causes a decrease in codling moth male attraction, so female codling moths are deterred by this volatile.


α-farnesene is a major volatile released by ripe apples that attracts codling moths. Sexual dimorphism in olfaction has been discovered with regards to this volatile. Both mated and virgin females were attracted to α-farnesene at a low dosage but repelled by it at a high dosage. The degree of response was stronger for mated females. Compared to that, mated males were attracted to a higher dosage of α-farnesene, while mid to low dosage elicited neutral responses. The threshold for mated male attraction was higher, which means the males are not as sensitive to the volatile as the females are. Butyl hexanoate is another sex-specific volatile released by ripe apples. Mated females were attracted by this volatile while males were not affected.


Because the caterpillar of the codling moth bore into fruits and stop their growth, codling moths are major agricultural pests. They are widespread and attack a wide range of fruits. In order to control these pests, insecticide has been used extensively. Case study done in British Columbia in the late 1980s and early 1990s showed that damage from codling moths ranged from 25% to 50% of crops being damaged. Another case study at Codling Moth Areawide Management (CAMP) project sites in Washington, California, and Oregon showed that the number of hectares of farms treated with mating disruption insecticides to control codling moths has grown exponentially from 1990 to 2000.


Regularly pruning the branches of the fruit trees will allow insecticide to reach the insides of the crown better. A crown of a tree is the branches, leaves, and fruits of the tree that stems from the tree trunk. Also, more sunlight can reach the branches after pruning, and sunlight is deadly to the eggs and larvae. Scraping bark from the tree trunk can decrease the number of sites available for pupation. Fallen fruits should be gathered and disposed of regularly. Caterpillars bore into the fruit and cause premature ripening of the fruit and causing the fruit to fall off of the tree. Getting rid of fallen fruits can eliminate caterpillars that are still inside the fruits that have fallen.


Trunk banding consists of wrapping a corrugated cardboard strip around the tree trunk. Larvae making their way down the tree to pupate after exiting the infested fruits will use bands as pupation sites. Bands may then be removed and burned.
Mass-trapping consists of placing kairomonal lures on a high density of sticky traps in orchards.  Both male and female moths are attracted to the lure and become stuck in the trap.  An experiment conducted over 5 years showed a significant decrease in the number of apples damaged by codling moth.


Successful development of synthetic fruit volatiles has led to increased control of codling moths. Codling moths can be managed and controlled with the use of synthetic apple volatiles, such as (Z)3-hexenol, (Z)3-hexenyl benzoate, (Z)3-hexenyl hexanoate, (±)-linalool and E,E-a-farnesene, and other synthetic attractants, such as pear ester ethyl (E,Z)-2,4-decadienoate and its corresponding aldehyde, E,E-2, 4-decadienal. Attractants are used as lures in codling moth traps, and are widely used in codling moth management programs in orchards.


Insect growth inhibitors (IGIs) and insect growth regulators (IGRs) are used in insects, especially Lepidoptera, to prevent the synthesis of chitin during development. Chitin is one of the major component which constitutes the exoskeleton of arthropods and cell walls of fungi. Without chitin, insects cannot develop properly. Ovicidal IGIs, such as diflubenzuron, hexaflumuron and teflubenzuron, have been shown to be effective against egg development. Fenoxycarb is an ovicidal IGR, while Tebufenozide is a larvicidal IGR. Flufenoxuron and Methoxyfenozide are an IGI and IGR respectively and are equally effective in preventing growth in eggs as in larvae. In addition to IGRs, reduced-risk pesticides are also used to control codling moth population in apple orchards.


In recent years, codling moths with insecticide-resistant strains arose. They have become resistant to avermectins, benzoylureas, benzoylhydrazines, neonicotinoids, organophosphates, macrocyclic lactones, pyrethroids. It is believed that this resistance is due to increase in enzymatic activity of the larvae. Low genetic structuration and high rate of gene flow have led to a rapid spread of resistance in European populations.
However, there is a fitness cost associated with increased insecticide resistance. Pesticide-resistant codling moths are less fecund, less fertile, slower in development, lighter in weight, and have a shorter life span compared to non-resistant moths. This is believed to be caused by increase in the metabolically costly activities of oxidase and glutathione-S-transferase. Oxidase is an enzyme that catalyzes oxidation-reduction reactions. Gluthione-S-transferase is an enzyme that catalyzes a detoxification process involving a conjugation of gluthione into xenobiotic substrates.


The codling moth is not a great candidate for biological pest control, as the larvae are well protected within the fruit for the majority of development. However, their eggs are susceptible to biological control by Trichogramma wasps. The wasps deposit their eggs into codling moth eggs, and the developing wasp larvae consume the moth embryo inside.
Another candidate for a biological control agent is the parasitoid wasp Mastrus ridens, also known as the Mastrus ridibundus. This wasp has exhibited a positive response to higher densities of codling moth larvae, a short generation time compared to other parasites of the codling moth, and a high number of female offspring per host larva. These 3 characteristics improve M. ridibundus's ability to control codling moth populations. Parasitism of overwintering codling moth cocoons has reached up to 70%, but most field tests have not demonstrated a dramatic result. M. ridibundus as a biological control is recommended as part of a broader management strategy.


The black-necked swan (Cygnus melancoryphus) is the largest waterfowl native to South America.


Adults average 102 to 124 cm (40 to 49 in) and weigh 3.5 to 6.7 kg (7.7 to 14.8 lb). The wingspan ranges from 135 to 177 cm (53 to 70 in). The body plumage is white with a black neck and head and greyish bill. It has a red knob near the base of the bill and a white stripe behind the eye. The sexes are similar, with the female slightly smaller. The cygnet has a light grey plumage with a black bill and feet. The black-necked swan was formerly placed in monotypic genus, Sthenelides.
The black-necked swan, like its nearest relatives the black and mute swan is relatively silent. Also, unlike most wildfowl, both parents regularly carry the cygnets on their backs. The female lays four to six eggs in a nest of vegetation mound. The diet consists mainly of vegetation, insects, and fish spawn.


The smallest member in its genus, it is found in freshwater marshes, lagoon and lake shores in southern South America. The black-necked swan breeds in Chilean Southern Zone, Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and on the Falkland Islands. In the austral winter, this species migrates northwards to Paraguay, Bolivia and southern Brazil. The wetlands created by the 1960 Valdivia earthquake like Carlos Anwandter Nature Sanctuary in Cruces River have become important population centers for the black-necked swan.


In 2004 and 2005 thousands of black-necked swans in the Carlos Anwandter Nature Sanctuary in Chile died or migrated away following major contamination by Valdivia Pulp Mill located on the Cruces River which feeds the wetlands. By August 2005 the birds in the Sanctuary had been "wiped out"; only four birds could be observed from a population formerly estimated at 5000 birds. Autopsies on dead swans attributed the deaths to high levels of iron and other metals polluting the water.
Widespread and common throughout its habitat, the black-necked swan is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed in Appendix II of CITES.


Cyligramma latona, the cream-striped owl, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Pieter Cramer in 1775.


Cyligramma latona has a wingspan reaching 75–100 millimetres (3.0–3.9 in). The uppersides of the wings are brown, with a yellowish band crossing all the wings and a large eyespot on the forewings. The larvae feed on Acacia species.


This widespread and common species can be found in western Sub-Saharan Africa, including Egypt and Guinea. It can also be found in southern Africa.


There are a number of recognized varieties include:
Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa var. acanthocarpa
Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa var. coloradensis — L.D. Benson; Colorado buckhorn cholla.
Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa var. ganderi — (C.B. Wolf) L.D. Benson
Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa var. major — Engelm. & J.M. Bigelow
Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa var. ramosa — Peebles
Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa var. thornberi — (Thornber & Bonker) L.D. Benson; Thornber's buckhorn cholla.


Early spring was called ko’oak macat (the painful moon) by the Tohono O’odham because of scarce food supplies. During this season, they turned to cacti for food and pit-roasted thousands of calcium-rich cholla flower buds.[1]
Today's O’odham people still pit-roast or boil the cholla buds, which taste like asparagus tips.


Cylindropuntia fulgida, the jumping cholla, also known as the hanging chain cholla, is a cholla cactus native to Sonora and the Southwestern United States.
The greatest range of the jumping cholla is the entirety of Sonora, except the Sierra Madre Occidental cordillera on the east and northern California, including the major islands of Tiburon and Isla Ángel de la Guarda.
In the Southwestern United States, the range extends into the Colorado Desert of California, and in Arizona. There it occurs south and southwest of the Arizona transition zone of the Mogollon Rim; in the northwest-central Sonoran Desert of Arizona, it is in a few selected locales. It also reaches into the northeast section of the Mojave Desert in southern Nevada and Utah, and in the very southern section of the Great Basin Desert of southern Utah. It also occurs just south of the east-west section of the Bill Williams River, east of the Colorado River in the Yuma Desert, and in parts of the Eastern Plains of Colorado.


Cylindropuntia fulgida grows at elevations ranging from 300 to 1,000 m (980 to 3,280 ft). While the name "jumping cholla" is applied especially to this species, it is also used as a general term for all chollas.
The jumping cholla is an arborescent (tree-like) plant with one low-branching trunk. It often grows to heights of 4 m (13 ft), with drooping branches of chained fruit. The stems are light green and are strongly tuberculate, with tubercles (small, wart-like projections on the stems) measuring 6 to 9 mm. Together, the plants form fantastic looking forests that may range over many hectares.
Leaves have been reduced to spines, 6 to 12 of which grow from each areole. Young branches are covered with 2 to 3 cm (1 to 1 in) silvery-yellow spines, which darken to a gray color with age. These spines form a dense layer that obscures the stems. Slower growing or older branches have sparse and/or shorter spines. As the spines fall off of older parts, the brown-black bark is revealed. It becomes rough and scaly with age.
Flowers are white and pink, streaked with lavender. They are about one inch wide, and are displayed at the joint tips (or old fruit tips), blooming in mid-summer.
Most of the fleshy, green fruits are sterile, pear-shaped to nearly round, wrinkled with a few spines. They are typically about 4 cm (1.5 in) long, often producing flowers the following year which add new fruits to those of previous seasons. It is these hanging chains of fruit which give it the name "hanging chain cholla".


The "jumping cholla" name comes from the ease with which the stems detach when brushed. Often the merest touch will leave a person with bits of cactus hanging on their clothes to be discovered later when either sitting or leaning on them. The ground around a mature plant will often be covered with dead stems, and young plants are started from stems that have fallen from the adult. They attach themselves to desert animals and are dispersed for short distances. Extinct, hairy megafauna may have played a role in their historic, more widespread dispersal in this manner.
Other names for this cactus include chain fruit cholla, cholla brincadora, and velas de coyote.


During droughts, animals like the bighorn sheep and some deer species like the desert mule deer, rely on the juicy fruit for food and water. Because they grow in inaccessible and hostile places of the desert, populations of this cactus are stable.


Cylindropuntia ganderi, also known as Gander cholla and Gander's buckhorn cholla, is a cholla native to the Sonoran desert of Baja California, Mexico, and the adjacent border area of southern California, US where it intergrades with Cylindropuntia californica.


Cylindropuntia imbricata, the cane cholla (or walking stick cholla, tree cholla, chainlink cactus, etc.), is a cactus found in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico, including some cooler regions in comparison to many other cacti. It occurs primarily in the arid regions of the Southwestern United States in the states of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. It is often conspicuous because of its shrubby or even tree-like size, its silhouette, and its long-lasting yellowish fruits.


The cane cholla's range is the arid regions of Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, south to Durango, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí. It occurs at altitudes from 1,200 to 2,300 m (3,900 to 7,500 ft) and is hardy for a cactus (USDA Zone 5A).
In parts of its range, often just below the pinyon-juniper belt, it can be abundant, surrounded by low grasses and forbs that are brown most of the year; in such places chollas are conspicuous as the only tall green plant. Plants may form thickets or be spaced at a few times their width in "gardens".
This species is a noxious invasive in Australia in old mining localities and along watercourses. It is known there by the common names of Devil's rope cactus or Devil's rope pear. It is a declared noxious weed in New South Wales and also occurs in Queensland, Northern Territory, Victoria, and South Australia.


The above-ground part consists of much-branched cylindrical stems, the end joints being about 3 cm (1.2 in) in diameter. The joints, unlike those of some chollas, are hard to detach. The stems are highly tubercular (lumpy) with a pattern of long oval lumps. A typical height is about 1 m (3 ft), but exceptionally it can grow to 4.6 m (15 ft) with a "trunk" diameter of 25 cm (9.8 in). The width is often similar to or somewhat greater than the height. The stems are armed with clusters of up to about 10 red to pink spines, which may be 3 cm (1.2 in) long and are barbed and sharp enough to easily penetrate leather gardening gloves. The stems and fruits also have many spines or "glochids" about 1 mm (0.04 in) long that can detach and stick in the skin.
There are two kinds of stems or "cladodes": long plagiotropic, bearing flowers at the ends and falling off after a few years, and long orthotropic, primarily serving for support and transport and staying on the plant. Plagiotropic stems grow in a star- or crown-like pattern around a central orthotropic stem.
This species blooms in late spring or early summer. The flowers are purple or magenta, rarely rose-pink, about 5 cm (2.0 in) wide. The fruits are yellowish, tubercular like the stems, and shaped something like the frustum of a cone, with a hollow at the wide end where the flower fell off; they are often mistaken for flowers. The plant retains them all winter. They are dry and not tasty, though the Indians of Arizona and New Mexico are said to have eaten them.
In addition to sexual reproduction, the tree cholla reproduces when stem joints fall to the ground and take root. Thus this species spreads and its spread is hard to control, especially where animals defecate seeds and carry stem joints stuck to their hide some distance from the parent plant. (Some cows, "cholla eaters", learn to eat cholla fruits despite the pain.) "Waves of invasion" typically occur four or five years after drought combined with grazing, probably because this combination exposes soil on which the stem joints can take root.


The fruits are also eaten by various wild birds and mammals, including pronghorn, desert bighorn sheep, and deer. The thorny plants provide escape for cover for many small animals.
The leafcutter bee Lithurgus apicalis has been observed to pollinate the flowers.


The plants are sometimes grown as ornamentals. Dead stems decay to leave a hollow wooden tube with a pattern of lengthwise slits. These are sometimes used as canes or to make curios. The Roman Catholic Penitentes of New Mexico formerly tied fresh stems to their bare backs in Holy Week processions. The Zuni people use the imbricata variety ceremonially.


Cylindropuntia leptocaulis, the desert Christmas cactus, desert Christmas cholla, pencil cactus, or tasajillo, is a species of cholla cactus.


Cylindropuntia leptocaulis is widely distributed in deserts, grasslands, chaparral, and woodlands in the Southwestern United States and several states in Northern Mexico.


The shrubby Cylindropuntia leptocaulis plants reach .5 to 1.8 m (1.6 to 5.9 ft) tall, reaching the extreme height when supported within desert trees.  Branches are narrow, 3–5 mm across.  Spines 0-1 (occasionally as many as 3) at each areole.  Flowers open in the late afternoon and are pale yellow or greenish yellow, with occasional red tips.
Around December, the plant grows red berries that when consumed, can have an intoxicating effect. The fruits are crushed and mixed with a beverage by the Apache, Chiricahua, and Mescalero to produce narcotic effects.


Cylindropuntia prolifera, known by the common name Coastal cholla, is a species of cactus.


Cylindropuntia prolifera is a mostly erect, treelike cactus which can approach 3 meters in maximum height. The gray-green segments are narrow and cylindrical, surfaced in fleshy tubercles bearing many brown or reddish spines up to 2 centimeters long. The flowers are reddish purple and often borne on the fruits of previous seasons. Fruits grow in chains of up to 5 and are green in color.


Cylindropuntia prolifera is native to Southern California and Baja California, where it grows in coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and beach and bluff habitat. It occurs from Santa Barbara County south.


Cylindropuntia whipplei (formerly known as Opuntia whipplei, common name Whipple cholla) is a member of the cactus family, Cactaceae.
The Zuni people rub the spines off the fruit and then dry them for winter use. The dried fruit is also ground into a flour, mixed with ground corn meal and made into a mush. Spineless fruits are eaten raw or stewed.


Cynanchum laeve is a vining perennial herb native to eastern and central U.S. states and Ontario. Common names include sand vine, honeyvine, honeyvine milkweed, bluevine milkweed, climbing milkweed, and smooth swallow-wort. The root system of C. laeve can cause it to be very difficult to eradicate, especially in agricultural fields. It is a larval food of monarch butterflies and milkweed tussock moth larvae. C. laeve can cause eye irritation if touched and can be toxic to humans and livestock if consumed in large quantities.


Cynanchum laeve was originally described in 1803 as Gonolobus laevis Michx. Mixed elements on the type sheet that was published has led to confusion around the correct nomenclature. Currently under the International Plant Names Index it is listed as Cynanchum laeve Pers. Synonymous plant names include Ampelamus albidus (Nutt.) Britton, Ampelamus laevis (Michx.) Krings, and Gonolobus laevis Michx. Cynanchum laeve is in the Apocynaceae, or milkweed family. Cynanchum, or swallow-wort genus, and the laeve, which is a specific epithet meaning smooth .


Like bindweed and some other members of the Convolvulaceae, Cynanchum laeve is a twining vine with heart-shaped leaves and commonly found in roadsides, fence rows, fields, and disturbed areas. However, C. laeve is easily recognized as a member of the Apocynaceae by its opposite leaves, milky sap, and distinctive flowers and follicles ("milkweed pods"). The seeds are wind dispersed and can travel long distances. Each plant can produce up to 50 follicles. The root system is fleshy and brittle with a large taproot with other lateral roots, these roots can grow up through 6 feet deep. Developing stems are a light pink and produce a milky sap when broken. Vase-shaped flowers have 5 white petals. These occur in clusters on short stalks. C. laeve flowers from June through September.


Cynanchum laeve occurs in the eastern and central United States and Ontario, Canada. C. laeve can be found in wetland areas in the arid West, Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain, Eastern mountain and Piedmont, the Great Plains, Midwest, and the North Central and North Eastern United States. Cynanchum laeve typically lives disturbed habitats such as thickets, low moist fields, riverbanks, fence rows, and cultivated fields.


In Pennsylvania, Cynanchum laeve is listed as endangered.


Cynanchum laeve is a food plant of caterpillars of monarch butterflies. Larvae of Euchaetes egle, the milkweed tussock moth, both in the Eastern and Western United States consume C. laeve. The larvae of these moths eat Cynanchum laeve and other plants when developing.


Cynanchum laeve is not a human edible plant. Its sap can cause eye irritation damaging mucous membranes. If C. laeve is consumed in large quantities it can be toxic. Thorough hand washing is recommended after handling the plant.
Hay fed to livestock can contain C. laeve which can be toxic when consumed in large quantities. Most animals will not eat “C. leave” due to its bitter taste. It is recommended by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to take precautionary steps. These steps include not grazing hungry animals in pastures containing C. laeve, eradicating it from driveways and trails, and closely observing livestock that have just been introduced to areas containing C. laeve.  C. laeve can be very difficult to eradicate from fields because of its deep, extensive root system. This vine climbs on other plants, and this can cause problems in crop harvesting.


The broad-billed hummingbird (Cynanthus latirostris) is a small-sized hummingbird that resides in Mexico and the southwestern United States. The bird displays sexual dimorphism, and the juveniles resemble the female adult more than the male adult. The broad-billed hummingbird is a bright coloured bird with a broad and bright red bill. The bird is also known for its other common names – the Colibrí Pico Ancho in Spanish and Colibri circé in French. It is a diurnal bird.


There are around 360 described species of hummingbirds that can be further categorized into 9 different clades. The Cynanthus genus falls under the emerald clade of hummingbirds. The emerald clade formed between 10 and 15 million years ago and has the largest diversity of species.  The broad-billed hummingbird was formally described in 1827 by William Swainson based on specimens collected by William Bullock in México. Swainson coined the binomial name Cynanthus latirostris. Swainson  specified the type locality as "Table land ?" where he included a question mark. This species probably does not occur there and in 1939 the American ornithologist Robert Moore designated the type locality as the Valley of Mexico near Mexico City. The species name combines the Latin latus meaning "broad" with -rostris meaning "-billed".


There are four recognised subspecies of the broad-billed hummingbird. These subspecies are:
C. l. magicus (Mulsant and Verreaux, J, 1872) – southwest USA, Sonora, Sinaloa and Nayarit (northwest Mexico)
C. l. propinquus Moore, RT 1939 – Guanajuato and north Michoacán (central Mexico)
C. l. latirostris Swainson, 1827 – Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí to Veracruz (east Mexico)
C. l. lawrencei (von Berlepsch, 1887) – Tres Marías Islands (off west Mexico) – Tres Marias hummingbird
There are doubts surrounding the subspecies status of C. l. doubledayi and C. l. lawrencei. A study by McGuire et al. (2014) analyzed the mtDNA and nDNA of C. l. doubledayi and concluded that it should be treated as its own species instead. C. l. doubledayi was found to relate more to Canivet's Emerald (Chlorostilbon canivetii) than the Broad-billed hummingbird. The same study also showed that the genus is paraphyletic and concluded that C. latirostris is closer related to Canivet's Emerald (Chlorostilbon canivetii) than another other species in the genus, the Dusky Hummingbird (Cynanthus sordidus).
The broad-billed hummingbird has hybridized with two different species: Rivoli's hummingbird (Eugenes fulgens) and the Violet-crowned hummingbird (Amazilia violiceps).


The broad-billed hummingbird is a small-sized hummingbird at about 8–10 cm (3.1–3.9 in) long. It weighs only 3–4 grams, with the male weighing slightly more than the female. The wingspan of the hummingbird is about 13 cm (5.1 in). It has a long, bright reddish coloured bill that has a black tip. The birds are metallic green dorsally with more dull colouring on the crown and forehead. The hummingbird is sexually dimorphic, with the adults appearance varying significantly.
The male is dark green with white undertail-coverts and a blue throat. The adult males tail is blackish-blue and broad. The flight feathers are brownish-gray. The adult female has a pale belly and has a white eyestripe behind her eye. Her tail feathers are white-tipped. The bill of the male is shorter but brighter red. As for size, both the juvenile and adult males have larger wings and tails than the female.
The colouring of the juveniles tends to resemble the adult female. With time, the bill of the juvenile males will redden, and iridescent feathers will appear on its throat. Unlike the females, the juvenile males do not have a white-tipped tail.
The hatchings have a brown body and orange downy feathers and an orange bill. Not much is known about hatchlings, but in captivity, the juvenile birds have been seen to have adult plumage within 6–8 months.


The C. latirostris chatter is done by both the male and the female. Like the note of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) the chatter sounds like a rapid chi-dit. This noise can be done while perching or in flight. The males display call is a whining zing - but little is known about its song.


In the United States, C. l. latirostris lives along streamsides and oak woodlands. It prefers areas with streamside groves and dense vegetation, as well as open oak woodlands in lower canyons. It favours living in areas with Arizona sycamore (Platanus wrightii), Fremont cottonwoods (Populus fremontii), and mesquite.
In Mexico, specimens have been collected at nearly every elevation above sea level, even from 1494 to 3048 meters high. Along the Pacific coast, the broad-billed hummingbird is known to be a common resident of arid thorn forests, tropical deciduous forests and riparian gallery forests.
During breeding season, the broad-billed hummingbird is common in desert canyons and low mountain oak woodlands. It's found in the Southwest United States through to central Mexico. It has been noted breeding in southeast Arizona, southwest New Mexico and rarely in southwest Texas. There have also been rare sightings across the continent, including in Arkansas. In the state of Sonora, Mexico, it is the most common hummingbird.


The broad-billed hummingbird eats both nectar and insects. The hummingbird is also known to visit sugar-water hummingbird feeders. Their eating habits showed that the broad-billed hummingbird prefers visiting red or red-and-yellow flowers the most.
To feed on nectar, the hummingbird will extend its bill and long tongue into the flower to access the nectar while hovering. This differs from their behaviour at feeders, where oftentimes they will perch. To feed on insects, the bird species can catch them midair or hover and pluck them from a plant.
Not much is known on the metabolism, drinking and food selection process of this species.
In the United States, the Broad-billed hummingbird is known to eat from the following flowering species:
Agave (Agave parryi and A. schottii), desert honeysuckle (Anisacanthus thurberi), milkweed (Asclepias spp.), Bouvardia (Bouvardia glaberima), bird-of-paradise (Caesalpinia gilliesii), Indian paintbrush (Castilleja spp.), desert willow (Chilopsis linearis), New Mexico thistle (Cirsium neomexicanum), fireweed (Epilobium canum), coral bean (Erythrina flabelliformis), ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens), trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), scarlet bugler (Penstemon barbatus), Mojave beardtongue (P. pseudospectabilis), superb penstemon (P. superbus) and Texas betony (Stachys coccinea).
In southern Mexico, the Broad-billed hummingbird is known to eat from the following flower species:
Bejuco blanco (Exogonium bracteatum), pochote (Ceiba aesculifolia), cactus (Lemairocereus spp.), fairy-duster (Calliandra spp.), Bumelia spp. and liana (Paullinia sessiliflora).
In Nayarit and Jalisco, Mexico, the broad-billed hummingbird is known to occur in the same range as the Cinnamon hummingbird (Amazilia rutila). This leads to food competition and therefore when co-occurring, the C. latirostris will feed from flowers with low-nectar availability.  The broad-billed hummingbird will feed from high-nectar available flowers such as the sharpleaf jacaranda (Jacaranda acutifolia), sleeping hibiscus (Malvaviscus arboreus), and mistletoe (Psittacanthus longipennis). When in competition with the A. rutila, the C. latirostris will feed from Calopogonium parvum, royal poinciana (Delonix regia), velvet-seed (Hamelia versicolor), hibiscus (Hibiscus sp.), and coralblow (Russelia tenuis).
In central Mexico, the C. latirostris feeds on two cacti (Pachycereus weberi and Pilosocereus chrysacanthus.) After feeding on these species, the hummingbirds studied were found to have pollen grains on them. However it was deemed that they have no role in the pollination of these plants.
There is little available information regarding the broad-billed hummingbird eating insects. However, one study showed that even when there is an abundance of insects, the hummingbirds prefer to feed from flowers if available. In Guadalupe Canyon, Mexico, the hummingbirds were only seen eating flying Diptera and Ephemeroptera.


Broad-billed hummingbirds reproduce sexually through mates choice. To attract a mate, the male will perform a "pendulum display" to the female. This display consists of the male broad-billed hummingbird hovering in front of the female and flying back and forth 4 times in repeated arcs, just like a pendulum.
In the United States, there are usually 2 brood attempts per year, in mid-April to mid-to-late June and then again in July to mid-August. These dates overlap with the peak nectar availability in the broad-bill hummingbirds' habitats. In Arizona, pairs breed in semi-open habitats at 914 to 1524 meters in elevation. In southern Mexico, the species breeds over a long period of time. The bird's sex organs have been shown to be able to breed from January to August. In Sonora and western Mexico, breeding starts mid-January, peaking in Mid March and ending in August.
The broad-billed hummingbird typically creates a nest within 2 meters of the ground. In Guadalupe Canyon, most nests were found to be at an average height of 1.1 meter above the ground. Although the height from the ground matters to the mothers, the nesting habitats have been found at many elevations. One study found 4 nests between 14 meters, in Sinaloa, to 442 meters, in Sonora. Nest site selection is thought to be less specific in individuals living towards the southern part of the range. The nests themselves are constructed only by the females. The female will weave nesting material (bark, grasses and dried leaves) into a nest and shape it with her body. The nest is about 2.5 cm tall, with an interior diameter of 1.9 cm. The interior is lined with materials such as white plant down, plant stems, leaves, plant blooms and even lichen. Once ready, the female broad-billed hummingbird will lay 2 eggs into her nest. The eggs of C. latirostris are smooth and white. On average, the eggs measure 12 by 8 millimeters. Although uncertain, it's believed that the female incubates the eggs for more than 2 weeks. After hatching, in Guadalupe Canyon the females spent about 60% of each hour at her nest. The largest causes of nest mortality are due to predation on eggs and nestlings, abandonment of nest before egg and failure for eggs to hatch.
There is little known information available regarding incubation, hatching, growth and fledgling of the broad-billed hummingbird.


The cardoon, Cynara cardunculus, also called the artichoke thistle, is a thistle in the family Asteraceae. It is a naturally occurring species that also has many cultivated forms, including the globe artichoke. It is native to the western and central Mediterranean region, where it was domesticated in ancient times and still occurs as a wild plant.


The wild cardoon is a stout herbaceous perennial plant growing 0.8 to 1.5 m (31 to 59 in) tall, with deeply lobed and heavily spined green to grey-green tomentose (hairy or downy) leaves up to 50 cm (20 in) long, with yellow spines up to 3.5 cm long. The flowers are violet-purple, produced in a large, globose, massively spined capitulum up to 6 cm (2 in) in diameter.
It is adapted to dry climates, native across a circum-Mediterranea area from Morocco and Portugal east to Libya and Greece and north to  Croatia and Southern France; it may also be native on Cyprus, the Canary Islands and Madeira. In France, the frost-tender cardoon only occurs wild in the Mediterranean south (Gard, Hérault, Aude, Pyrénées-Orientales, Corsica). It has become an invasive weed in the pampas of Argentina, and is also considered a weed in Australia and California.


The two main cultivar groups are the cardoon (Cynara cardunculus Cardoon Group, syn. C. cardunculus var. altilis DC), selected for edible leaf stems, and the artichoke (Cynara cardunculus Scolymus Group, sometimes distinguished as Cynara scolymus or C. cardunculus var. scolymus (L.) Fiori), selected for larger edible flower buds. They differ from the wild plant in being larger (up to 2 m tall), much less spiny, and with thicker leaf stems and larger flowers, all characteristics selected by humans for greater crop yield and easier harvest and processing. Wild and cultivated cardoons and artichokes are very similar genetically, and are fully interfertile, but only have very limited ability to form hybrids with other species in the genus Cynara.
The earliest description of the cardoon may come from the fourth-century BC Greek writer Theophrastus, under the name κάκτος (Latin: cactus), although the exact identity of this plant is uncertain. The cardoon was popular in Greek, Roman, and Persian cuisine, and remained popular in medieval and early modern Europe. It also became common in the vegetable gardens of colonial America, but fell from fashion in the late 19th century and is now very uncommon.
In Europe, cardoon is still cultivated in France (Provence, Savoie, Lyonnais), Spain, and Italy. In the Geneva region, where Huguenot refugees introduced it about 1685, the local cultivar Argenté de Genève ("Cardy") is considered a culinary specialty. "Before cardoons are sent to table, the stalks or ribs are blanched tying them together and wrapping them round with straw, which is also tied up with cord, and left so for about three weeks". Cardoons also are common vegetables in northern Africa, often used in Algerian or Tunisian couscous.
Cardoon stalks can be covered with small, nearly invisible spines that can cause substantial pain if they become lodged in the skin. Several spineless cultivars have been developed to overcome this.
Cardoon requires a long, cool growing season (about five months), and while it is not particularly frost-sensitive, in heavier freezes it may lose its leaves and resprout, or in extended hard freezes, die. It also typically requires substantial growing space per plant, so is not much grown except where it is regionally popular.
In cultivation in the United Kingdom, this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


Raw cardoon is 94% water, 4% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and has negligible fat (table). A 100 gram reference amount provides 17 calories and moderate amounts (10-19% of the Daily Value) of folate, magnesium, manganese, and sodium (table).


While the flower buds can be eaten much as small (and spiny) artichokes, more often the stems are eaten after being braised in cooking liquid. Cardoon stems are part of Lyonnaise cuisine (e.g. gratin de cardons). Only the innermost, white stalks are considered edible, and cardoons are therefore usually prepared for sale by protecting the leaf stalks from the sunlight for several weeks. This was traditionally done by burying the plant underground, thus, cardoon plantations in Spain are often formed by characteristic earth mounds surrounding each plant, the earth covering the stalks. In modern cultivation, the plant is usually instead wrapped in black plastic film or other opaque material.
The flower buds of wild cardoons are still widely collected and used in southern Italy and Sicily. In Spain and Portugal, the flower buds are also employed in cheesemaking: the pistils of the cardoon flower are used as a vegetable rennet in the making of some cheeses such as the Torta del Casar and the Torta de la Serena cheeses in Spain, or the Queijo de Nisa and Serra da Estrela cheeses in Portugal.
Cardoon leaf stalks, which look like giant celery stalks, can be served steamed or braised, and have an artichoke-like flavour with a hint of bitterness. They are harvested in winter and spring, being best just before the plant flowers. In the Abruzzo region of Italy, Christmas lunch is traditionally started with a soup of cardoon cooked in chicken broth with little meatballs (lamb or, more rarely, beef), sometimes with the further addition of egg (which scrambles in the hot soup – called stracciatella) or fried chopped liver and heart.
The cardoon stalks are considered a delicacy in Spain, particularly in the northerns regions of Navarre and Aragon, where they are grown in large quantities.  In Spain, cardoons are typically cooked by first boiling the stalks to soften them, and then adding simple sauces such as almond sauce or small amounts of jamón; they are sometimes combined with clams, artichokes, or beans as well.
Because of their seasonality (from November to February), cardoons are a staple of the Christmas dinner in Navarre and the surrounding regions; for the same reason, cardoons are often sold as vegetable preserves, usually in water or brine, so that they can be eaten all year round. Cardoons are an ingredient in one of the national dishes of Spain, the cocido madrileño, a slow-cooking, one-pot, meat and vegetable dish simmered in broth.
In the US, it is rarely found in conventional grocery stores but is available in some farmers' markets in the months of May, June, and July. The main root can also be boiled and served cold. The stems are also traditionally served battered and fried at St. Joseph's altars in New Orleans.
Cardoon is one of the herbs used to flavour Amaro liqueur, which may be called Cardamaro.


Cardoons are used as a vegetarian source of enzymes for cheese production. In Portugal, traditional coagulation of the curd relies entirely on this vegetable rennet. This results in cheeses such as the Serra da Estrela and Nisa.
The cardoon is also grown as an ornamental plant for its imposing architectural appearance, with very bright silvery-grey foliage and large flowers in selected cultivars.
Cardoon has attracted recent attention as a possible source of biodiesel fuel. The oil, extracted from the seeds of the cardoon, and called artichoke oil, is similar to safflower and sunflower oil in composition and use. Cardoon is the feedstock for the first biorefinery in the world converting the installations of a petrochemical plant in Porto Torres, Sardinia, providing biomass and oils for the building blocks of bioplastics.


Cynodon dactylon, known as Bermuda grass, Dhoob, dūrvā grass, ethana grass, dubo, dog's tooth grass, Bahama grass, devil's grass, couch grass, Indian doab, arugampul, grama, wiregrass and scutch grass, is a grass found worldwide. It is native to Europe, Africa, Australia and much of Asia. It has been introduced to the Americas. Although it is not native to Bermuda, it is an abundant invasive species there. In Bermuda it has been known as "crab grass" (also a name for Digitaria sanguinalis).


The blades are a grey-green colour and are short, usually 2–15 cm (0.79–5.91 in) long with rough edges. The erect stems can grow 1–30 cm (0.39–11.81 in) tall. The stems are slightly flattened, often tinged purple in colour.
The seed heads are produced in a cluster of two to six spikes together at the top of the stem, each spike 2–5 cm (0.79–1.97 in) long.
It has a deep root system; in drought situations with penetrable soil, the root system can grow to over 2 metres (6.6 ft) deep, though most of the root mass is less than 60 centimetres (24 in) under the surface. The grass creeps along the ground with its stolons, and roots wherever a node touches the ground, forming a dense mat. C. dactylon reproduces through seeds, stolons, and rhizomes. Growth begins at temperatures above 15 °C (59 °F) with optimum growth between 24 and 37 °C (75 and 99 °F); in winter, the grass becomes dormant and turns brown. Growth is promoted by full sun and retarded by full shade, e.g., close to tree trunks.


Cynodon dactylon is widely cultivated in warm climates all over the world between about 30° S and 30° N latitude, and that get between 625 and 1,750 mm (24.6 and 68.9 in) of rainfall a year (or less, if irrigation is available). For example, it is grown in the U.S. mostly in the southern half of the country.


Hundreds of cultivars have been created specifically for environmental tolerance and stakeholder requirements. New cultivars are released yearly.


Commonly known as "durva" or dūrvāyugma in India, this grass is used in the Ayurveda system of medicine. In Hinduism, it is considered important in the worship of Lord Ganesha. A clump of 21 shoots of this grass is usually offered during the pooja ceremony. It has been a part of Hindu rituals since Vedic times.
A unique festival called Durva Ashtami, dedicated to this grass, is celebrated on the 8th day of Shukla Paksha of Bhadra month of the Hindu calendar.
It is known as "Karuka" in Malayalam and is part of the Dashapushpam  (Ten sacred flowers) in Kerala.
This grass is a Yoruba herb used for Esu or Elegba in the Ifá Orisa System.


The rhizomes are reported to act as a diuretic in humans and the grass juice can act as an astringent.
It has been observed that Cynodon dactylon may be selectively eaten by dogs to swiftly induce vomiting when they have gastrointestinal problems. The effect may be due to irritation caused by bristles on the leaf margin.


It is fast-growing and tough, making it popular and useful for sports fields, as when damaged it will recover quickly. It is a highly desirable turf grass in warm temperate climates, particularly for those regions where its tolerance to heat and drought enable it to survive where few other grasses do. This combination makes it a frequent choice for golf courses in the southern and southeastern U.S. It has a relatively coarse-bladed form with numerous cultivars selected for different turf requirements.
Bermuda grass has been cultivated in saline soils in California's Central Valley, which are too salt-damaged to support agricultural crops; it was successfully irrigated with saline water and used to graze cattle.


It is a highly aggressive invasive species, crowding out most other grasses and invading other habitats, and has become a hard-to-eradicate weed in some areas (it can be controlled somewhat with Triclopyr, Mesotrione, Fluazifop-P-butyl, and Glyphosate). This weedy nature leads some gardeners to give it the name of "devil grass". Bermuda grass is incredibly difficult to control in flower beds and most herbicides do not work. However, Ornamec, Ornamec 170, Turflon ester (tricyclopyr), and Imazapyr have shown some effectiveness. All of these items are difficult to find in retail stores, as they are primarily marketed to professional landscapers.
The hybrid variety Tifton 85, like some other grasses (e.g. sorghum), produces cyanide under certain conditions, and has been implicated in several livestock deaths.


Cynoglossum officinale (houndstongue, houndstooth, dog's tongue, gypsy flower, and rats and mice due to its smell) is a herbaceous plant of the family Boraginaceae.


It can be either annual or biennial. Leaves are greyish and softly haired, lanceolate to oblong. Reddish-purple funnel-shaped flowers bloom between May and September.
The plant owes its common and scientific name to the long greyish leaves that are reminiscent of a dog's tongue and were once given as a remedy for dog bites.


Found in most parts of Europe, and also North America, where it was accidentally introduced including in British Columbia, where it is designated a noxious weed under the British Columbia Weed Control Act. It lives in wet places, sand dunes, waste land and hedges.


The name houndstongue (and the latin genus Cynoglossum) comes from the roughness of the leaf.


Cynoglossum officinale contains tumorigenic pyrrolizidine alkaloids. It is toxic to cows and is especially dangerous to pasture owners.


Cynosurus echinatus is a species of grass known by the common names bristly dogstail grass, rough dog's-tail and hedgehog dogtail. It is native to southern Europe, and it is known in the Americas and Australia as an introduced species and sometimes a noxious weed. An herbicide-resistant strain can be found growing as a weed in canola and wheat fields in Chile. This is an annual grass growing 10 to 50 centimeters tall. The inflorescence is a rounded or oval cluster or series of clusters of spikelets. The fertile spikelet has an awn up to a centimeter long. The awns clumped closely together into a tuft gives the inflorescence its bristly, hairy appearance.


Cyperus eragrostis is a species of sedge known by several common names, including tall flatsedge, nutgrass, tall nutgrass, umbrella sedge, chufa, Earth almond, zula nuts, edible galingale and pale galingale.


This species is native to the West Coast of North America from California to Washington, the Southeastern United States, Jamaica, and South America. It has become naturalized elsewhere in some regions in the northeastern and southeastern U.S., Europe, South Africa, and various oceanic islands (Azores, Canary Islands, Ryukyu Islands, Norfolk Island, Easter Island, etc.). It can become a weed where it is introduced; it has been known to infest rice fields.
It is found in riparian areas, roadsides ditches, damp grasslands, and other moist habitats.


Cyperus eragrostis is an herbaceous perennial growing from rhizomes. It is a green sedge with tall, erect stems, 10–90 centimetres (3.9–35.4 in) in height. Long, thin, pointed leaves radiate from the top, similar to parasol ribs.
Its flowers are found within tough, rounded, greenish-yellow or beige spikelets. Fruiting is in the summer.


Cyperus alternifolius, the umbrella papyrus, umbrella sedge or umbrella palm, is a grass-like plant in the very large genus Cyperus of the sedge family Cyperaceae. The plant is native to West Africa, Madagascar and the Arabian Peninsula, but widely distributed throughout the world. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. The subspecies Cyperus alternifolius ssp. flabelliformis is also known as Cyperus involucratus Rottb..


Cyperus odoratus is a species of sedge known by the common names fragrant flatsedge and rusty flatsedge. This plant can be found in much of the tropical and warm temperate world, including South, Central, and North America, Southeast Asia, some Pacific Islands, Australia, New Guinea, Madagascar, and central Africa. It is a plant of wet, muddy areas, including disturbed and altered sites. This species is quite variable and may in fact be more than one species included under one name. In general this is an annual plant approaching half a meter in height on average but known to grow much taller. It usually has some long, thin leaves around the base. The inflorescence is made up of one to several cylindrical spikes attached at a common point. Each of the spikes bears a large number of flat, oval-shaped spikelets. Each spikelet is usually light brown to reddish-brown and has a few to over 20 flowers. Each flower is covered by a tough, flat bract with a visible midvein. The fruit is a flat achene less than two millimeters long.


Cyperus rotundus (coco-grass, Java grass, nut grass, purple nut sedge or purple nutsedge, red nut sedge, Khmer kravanh chruk) is a species of sedge (Cyperaceae) native to Africa, southern and central Europe (north to France and Austria), and southern Asia. The word cyperus derives from the Greek κύπερος, kyperos, and rotundus is from Latin, meaning "round". The earliest attested form of the word cyperus is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀓𐀞𐀫, ku-pa-ro, written in Linear B syllabic script.


Cyperus rotundus is a perennial plant, that may reach a height of up to 140 cm (55 in). The names "nut grass" and "nut sedge" – shared with the related species Cyperus esculentus – are derived from its tubers, that somewhat resemble nuts, although botanically they have nothing to do with nuts.
As in other Cyperaceae, the leaves sprout in ranks of three from the base of the plant, around 5–20 cm (2–8 in) long. The flower stems have a triangular cross-section. The flower is bisexual and has three stamina and a three-stigma pistil, with the inflorescence having three to eight unequal spikes. The fruit is a three-angled achene.
Young plants initially form white, fleshy rhizomes, up to 25 mm (1.0 in) in dimension, in chains. Some rhizomes grow upward in the soil, then form a bulb-like structure from which new shoots and roots grow, and from the new roots, new rhizomes grow. Other rhizomes grow horizontally or downward, and form dark reddish-brown tubers or chains of tubers.


C. rotundus was part of a set of starchy tuberous sedges that may have been eaten by Pliocene hominins. Biomarkers and microscopic evidence of C. rotundus are present in human dental calculus found at the Al Khiday archaeological complex in central Sudan dating from before 6700 BC to the Meroitic pre-Islamic Kingdom of 300–400 AD.  It is suggested that C. rotundus consumption may have contributed to the relatively low frequency of dental caries among the Meroitic population of Al Khiday because of its ability to inhibit Streptococcus mutans.
C. rotundus was employed in ancient Egypt, Mycenean Greece, and elsewhere as an aromatic and to purify water. It was used by ancient Greek physicians Theophrastus, Pliny the Elder, and Dioscorides as both medicine and perfume.


It prefers dry conditions, but will tolerate moist soils, and often grows in wastelands and in crop fields.
The tubers are an important nutritional source of minerals and trace elements for migrating cranes.


C. rotundus has many beneficial uses. It is a staple carbohydrate in tropical regions for modern hunter-gatherers and is a famine food in some agrarian cultures.


In traditional Chinese medicine, C. rotundus is considered the primary qi-regulating herb.
The plant is mentioned in the ancient Indian ayurvedic medicine Charaka Samhita (circa 100 AD). Modern ayurvedic medicine uses the plant, known as musta or musta moola churna, for fevers, digestive system disorders, dysmenorrhea, and other maladies.
Ayurvedic physicians use the plant for medicinal purposes in treating fevers, digestive system disorders, dysmenorrhea and other maladies. Modern alternative medicine recommends using the plant to treat nausea, fever and inflammation; for pain reduction; for muscle relaxation and for many other disorders.
Arabs of the Levant traditionally use roasted tubers, while they are still hot, or hot ashes from burned tubers, for wounds, bruises, and carbuncles.  Western and Islamic herbalists including Dioscorides, Galen, Serapion, Paulus Aegineta, Avicenna, Rhazes, and Charles Alston have described its use as a stomachic, emmenagogue, and deobstruent, and in emollient plasters.
The antibacterial properties of the tubers may have helped prevent tooth decay in people who lived in Sudan 2000 years ago. Less than 1% of that local population's teeth had cavities, abscesses, or other signs of tooth decay, though those people were probably farmers (early farmers' teeth typically had more tooth decay than those of hunter-gatherers because the high grain content in their diet created a hospitable environment for bacteria that flourish in the human mouth, excreting acids that eat away at the teeth).


Several chemical substances have been identified in C. rotundus: cadalene, cyprotene, flavonoids, sesquiterpenes, terpenoids, mustakone, isocyperol, acyperone, rotundene, valecine, kaempferol, luteolin, quercetin, patchoulenone, isopatchoulenone, sugeonyl acetate, cellulose triacetate and sugebiol. A sesquiterpene, rotundone, so called because it was originally extracted from the tuber of this plant, is responsible for the spicy aroma of black pepper and the peppery taste of certain Australian Shiraz wines.
Extract from leaves and tubers of Cyperus rotundus L. increase the adventitious rooting of different species. These extracts contain a large amount of auxins and phenolic compounds that promote the rooting of cuttings and seedlings.


Despite the bitter taste of the tubers, they are edible and have nutritional value. Some part of the plant was eaten by humans between Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. The plant has a high amount of carbohydrates. The plant is eaten in Rajasthan in famine-stricken areas.


Cyperus rotundus is one of the most invasive weeds known, having spread out to a worldwide distribution in tropical and temperate regions. It has been called "the world's worst weed" as it is known as a weed in over 90 countries, and infests over 50 crops worldwide. In the United States it occurs from Florida north to New York and Minnesota and west to California and most of the states in between. In the uplands of Cambodia, it is described as an important agricultural weed.
Its existence in a field significantly reduces crop yield, both because it is a tough competitor for ground resources, and because it is allelopathic, the roots releasing substances harmful to other plants. Similarly, it also has a bad effect on ornamental gardening. The difficulty to control it is a result of its intensive system of underground tubers, and its resistance to most herbicides. It is also one of the few weeds that cannot be stopped with plastic mulch.
Weed pulling in gardens usually results in breakage of roots, leaving tubers in the ground from which new plants emerge quickly. Ploughing distributes the tubers in the field, worsening the infestation; even if the plough cuts up the tubers to pieces, new plants can still grow from them. In addition, the tubers can survive harsh conditions, further contributing to the difficulty to eradicate the plant. Hoeing in traditional agriculture of South East Asia does not remove the plant but leads to rapid regrowth.
Most herbicides may kill the plant's leaves, but most have no effect on the root system and the tubers. Glyphosate will kill some of the tubers (along with most other plants) and repeated application can be successful. Halosulfuron-methyl will control nut grass after repeated applications without damaging lawns. The plant does not tolerate shading and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) slows its growth in pastures and mulch crops.


Cyperus strigosus is a species of sedge known by the common names false nutsedge and straw-colored flatsedge. It is native to the United States, Cuba and Canada, where it grows in wet areas in many habitat types, including disturbed and cultivated areas such as roadsides and crop fields. It is common and sometimes weedy. It is a perennial sedge growing up to 70 centimetres tall. The inflorescence is a cluster of many linear-shaped spikelets up to 3 centimetres long each. A few long, leaf-like bracts grow at the base of the spike.
Introduced populations occur in Bulgaria, France, Italy, Spain and Bangladesh.


Cyperus ustulatus, also known as giant umbrella-sedge or coastal cutty grass is a species of sedge native to New Zealand. C. ustulatus generally grows in coastal or lowland areas near water in the North Island and on the Kermadec Islands.
The leaves are wide, shiny and folded. It produces long, dark brown seed heads after flowering in summer. The seed heads are held by a cluster of leaves at the top of the plant.
The Māori name for the plant is toetoe upoko-tangata. The word toetoe by itself generally refers to Austroderia which are in Poaceae, a different family. Alongside cattails (Typha orientalis, called raupō in the Maori language), it was a material used in traditional Māori kite-making.


Cypherotylus californicus, sometimes known as the blue fungus beetle or blue pleasing fungus beetle, is a species of pleasing fungus beetle in the family Erotylidae. It is recorded from Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Kansas, and the Mexican state of Sonora.


It starts its life in the spring when it hatches from an egg and pupates in the summer. It mates and lays eggs in the late summer and early fall. It feeds on the Conk Fungus it can find growing on logs and trees. Their elytra are blue with black dots, and it turns grey as they age.


Cypripedium acaule is a species of flowering plant in the orchid family Orchidaceae. It is commonly referred to as the pink lady's slipper or moccasin flower. The specific epithet acaule means "lacking an obvious stem", a reference to its short underground stem, for which reason the plant is also known as the stemless lady's-slipper. It is the provincial flower of Prince Edward Island, Canada and the state wildflower of New Hampshire, United States.


Unlike most other species of Cypripedium, the pouch of C. acaule opens in a slit that runs down the front of the labellum rather than a round opening. The plant consists of two plicate leaves near the ground. From between those leaves sprouts a long, pubescent stalk that bears a single pink flower. The sepals and petals tend to be yellowish-brown to maroon with a large pouch that is usually some shade of pink but can be nearly magenta. Leaves are simple, elliptical in shape and opposite in arrangement.


The genus Cypripedium is one of five genera in the subfamily of slipper orchids Cypripedioideae. Cypripedium acaule was first described by the Scottish botanist William Aiton in 1789. He referred to it as the two-leaved lady's slipper.
As of March 2021, Kew's Plants of the World Online (POWO) does not accept any infraspecific taxa. POWO lists a dozen synonyms, one of which is Cypripedium acaule f. albiflora E.L.Rand & Redfield, a form with a white pouch and green petals.


Cypripedium acaule can be found in the eastern third of the United States, particularly in the Great Lakes Region and the Northeast in New Hampshire and Maine, south along the Appalachians to Alabama. It is widespread in Canada, where it is found in every province except British Columbia. It also occurs in the Northwest Territories and in St. Pierre & Miquelon. Within its geographic range, it can be found in a wide variety of environments, from coastal plains, to pine barrens, to mountaintops.
C. acaule requires highly acidic soil but tolerates a range of shade and moisture, though it prefers at least partial shade and well-drained slopes. It is usually found in pine forests, where it can be seen in large colonies, but it also grows in deciduous woods. It was long speculated that a fungus association was needed for growth, and that C. acaule could not be artificially cultivated outside of these associations. However, a greater understanding of orchids in general has shown that this association is only needed to germinate orchid seeds and is not required once plants begin making true leaves.
C. acaule  is considered endangered in Illinois and Tennessee, Vulnerable in New York, and Unusual in Georgia.


Seed germination labs have increased the commercial availability of C. acaule, although it still tends to be less commonly available than other Cypripedium species and hybrids. This is primarily due to the extra care that must be provided if the growing site is not naturally suitable for in-ground cultivation. This plant grows in soils below a pH of 5, often at 4–4.5. At this high acidity soil fungus is suppressed, and C. acaule can thrive. There is even evidence that it is partially myco-heterotrophic, parasitizing fungus that attempts to invade its roots. However, in soils above pH 5, soil microbes become more than C. acaule can manage, and the plants rot. Seedlings germinated in a sterile environment can grow and thrive in a much higher pH than 5, but must be grown below 5 if removed from the sterility.
For artificial cultivation, container culture is a must, and the growing medium must be naturally acidic. Additionally, all other soil additives must be devoid of any calcium that could buffer the pH to above 5. High quality peat moss or pine duff work well, and pH neutral perlite can be added to improve porosity. Due to the risk of calcium bicarbonate, tap water is unsuitable. Rainwater or distilled water mixed with 2 ounces (57 g) of vinegar per gallon will assure that a reliably high acidity is maintained in the growing medium. Give bright dappled shade or morning sun. Sink pots in winter or store in a cold frame for insulation. Given these conditions, C. acaule can thrive indefinitely, but it will always require much more maintenance than other species/hybrids that can be grown in a wider pH range.


Cypripedium reginae, known as the showy lady's slipper, pink-and-white lady's-slipper, or the queen's lady's-slipper, is a rare lady's-slipper orchid native to northern North America. Although never common, this plant has vanished from much of its historical range due to habitat loss. It is the state flower of Minnesota.


The species name reginae is Latin for "of a queen". Common names also include fairy queen, white wing moccasin, royal lady's slipper, and silver-slipper.


Like other lady's slipper orchids (subfamily Cypripedioideae) the Cypripedium reginae has flowers with a pouch-shaped labellum. Cypripedium reginae is a large, terrestrial orchid, growing 21–100 cm (0.7–3 ft) in height with many stems from the same rootstock. Each stem has three to five alternate, pubescent leaves. Each ovately shaped leaf grows up to 25 cm (10 in) long and 16 cm (6 in) broad. Flowering stems one to three large, white and pink flowers. The upper petals are white, up to 4 cm (2 in) in length and 1.5 cm (0.59 in) across. The pouch-shaped labellum is rose-pink to magenta 2.5–5.5 cm (0.98–2.17 in) in length.
Despite producing a large amount of seeds per seed pod, it reproduces largely by vegetative reproduction.


Cypripedium reginae grows in wetlands such as fens, wooded swamps, and riverbanks. Cyp. reginae thrives in neutral to basic soils but can be found in slightly acidic conditions. The plants often form in clumps by branching of the underground rhizomes. Its roots are typically within a few inches of the top of the soil. It prefers very loose soils and when growing in fens it will most often be found in mossy hummocks.
It can tolerate full sun but prefers partial shade for some part of the day. When exposed to full sun, the flower lip is somewhat bleached and less deeply colored. It is occasionally eaten by white-tailed deer.
Cypripedium reginae can be found in Canada from Saskatchewan east to Atlantic Canada, and the United States from North Dakota east to the Atlantic and south to Arkansas and Tennessee.


Cypripedium reginae reproduces sexually and depends on insects such as syrphid flies, beetles and Megachile bees for pollination. The structure of the flower creates a tight space through which insects have to squeeze. A pollinating insect first passes by the stigma, and upon exiting the trap rubs against the anther. Pollination typically occurs in June and the seed pod or fruit is ripe by September and dehisces by October. Although a single seed pod can produce over 50,000 seeds, low germination and a seed-to-flowering term of about 8 years indicate that sexual reproduction is inefficient. Asexual reproduction from rhizomes is a common means of sustaining a population.
It flowers in early to midsummer, usually with 1 to 2 flowers per stalk, less commonly 3 or 4.


Cypripedium reginae is quite rare. Its increasing rarity is attributable to destruction of a suitable alkaline habitat;  it is sensitive to hydrologic disturbances, and is threatened by wetland draining, water contamination, habitat destruction and horticultural collectors. Browsing by an exploding deer population stunts or eliminates the plant's growth.
The plant is classified as imperiled (SRANK S2) or critically imperiled (S1) in Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Newfoundland and Labrador, North Dakota, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. It is considered vulnerable (S3) in Indiana, Maine, Manitoba, Massachusetts, New York, Quebec, Vermont, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, and several areas of eastern Canada. It is known to occur in only 14 locations in Massachusetts (as of 2016).  It was historically found in Kentucky and North Carolina, but has not been found recently.
The only provinces to rank Cyp. reginae as apparently secure (S4) are Ontario and Manitoba.  There are no SRANKs for the U.S. states of Minnesota and Michigan, but the plant is found in 61 of Michigan's 83 counties, and 33 of the 87 counties in Minnesota.
The New Hampshire Academy of Science has sponsored research regarding the conservation and analysis of Cyp. species native to northern New England. They have published research papers and numerous abstracts and presented their research in the annual meeting notes of the AAAS on Cyp. species found in VT and NH.


The showy lady's slipper has been a subject of horticultural interest for many years, and was known to Charles Darwin who, like many, was unsuccessful in cultivating the plant.
It has low seed germination rates and slow maturation to flowering. This makes it more vulnerable to illegal collection. It is difficult to raise from seed, taking many months to germinate in sterile culture.  In the 1990s a group of high school students in New Hampshire made progress on axenic culture from seed and were able to obtain over 50% germination levels in about 3 weeks. Efforts at micropropagation have had marginal success.


The plant became the state flower of Minnesota in 1902 and was protected by state law in 1925. It is illegal to pick or uproot a showy lady's slipper flower in Minnesota.
Although this plant was chosen as the provincial flower for Prince Edward Island in 1947, it is so rare on the island that another lady's-slipper, C. acaule (moccasin flower or pink lady's slipper), replaced it as the province's floral emblem in 1965.


Cypripedium reginae contains an irritant, cypripedin, a phenanthrenequinone. The plant is known to cause dermatitis on the hands and face. The first report of the allergy reaction was in 1875 by H. H. Babcock in the United States, 35 years before the term "allergy" was coined. The allergen was later isolated in West Germany by Bjorn M. Hausen and associates.


The foliage hairs may cause a rash similar to the one caused by poison ivy.


Cyrilla racemiflora, the sole species in the genus Cyrilla, is a flowering plant in the family Cyrillaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas, from the southeastern United States (coastal areas from southeastern Texas east to southeastern Virginia), south through the Caribbean, Mexico (Oaxaca only) and Central America to northern Brazil and Venezuela in South America. Common names include swamp cyrilla, swamp titi, palo colorado, red titi, black titi, white titi, leatherwood, ironwood, he huckleberry, and myrtle.


Although generally treated as a single variable species, some botanists in the past have split Cyrilla racemiflora into several species. Synonyms include C. antillana, C. arida, C. brevifolia, C. caroliniana, C. cubensis, C. fuscata, C. nipensis, C. nitidissima, C. parvifolia, C. perrottetii, C. polystachia.


Cystopteris bulbifera, with the common name bulblet fern, bulblet bladderfern, or bulblet fragile fern is a fern in the family Cystopteridaceae.


The fern is native to eastern Canada, the Midwestern and Eastern United States, and two disjunct populations in the Southwestern United States.
It is found only on calcareous substrates such as limestone. It commonly festoons limestone cave openings. While most commonly found on vertical rock faces, it also grows in rocky scree.


Cystopteris bulbifera is a low-growing rock fern with creeping stems and narrow elongate deltate fronds which grow to 75 cm (30 in). C. bulbifera is unusual among ferns in producing bulblets along the bottom of the fronds. This is one of the easiest Cystopteris species to identify.


This species is known to hybridize with Cystopteris fragilis, Cystopteris protrusa, Cystopteris reevesiana, and Cystopteris tenuis. Hybrids with C. fragilis have given rise to the allohexaploid species C. laurentiana. Hybrids with C. protrusa have given rise to the allotetraploid species C. tennesseensis. The hybrid with C. reevesiana has given rise to the allotetraploid species C. utahensis. The hybrid with C. tenuis is known as C. × illinoensis, an allotriploid. Also see Cystopteris hybrid complex.


Cytisus proliferus, tagasaste  or tree lucerne, is a small spreading evergreen tree that grows 3–4 m (10–13 ft) high. It is a well known fertilizer tree. It is a member of the Fabaceae (pea) family and is indigenous to the dry volcanic slopes of the Canary Islands, but it is now grown in Australia, New Zealand and many other parts of the world as a fodder crop.


Tagasaste is an evergreen shrub that has rough yellow-grey bark and velvety hairy young growth. Its leaves are composed of three greyish-green equal-sized leaflets, which are slightly paler on the underside. Its scented, creamy-white flowers form in small clusters in the leaf axils. Its flat pea-like pods are green, ripening to black. The seeds are tiny (45,000/kg), shiny and black. Tagasaste is considered to be a promiscuous legume, compatible with cowpea and Tagasaste 1502 Rhizobium. It will nodulate with a wide range of rhizobia.
Tagasaste is suited to sandy, well-drained soils of pH range 4–7. On deep, freely drained soils its roots can extend down to at least 10 metres. Any physical or chemical barrier in the soil that restricts root growth will reduce the productivity and survival of tagasaste. Cultivars from arid sandy areas are very susceptible to root rot fungus on poorly drained soils, specifically Fusarium, Pythium and Rhizoctonia. It will tolerate winter temperatures as low as −9 °C, but cultivars exist that can handle winter temperatures down to minus 15 °C as in Orange, Eastern Australia. Tagasaste leaves will be burnt by frost and seedlings can be killed at temperatures below 0 °C. Growth of mature trees will slow at winter temperatures below 20 °C. Tagasaste can tolerate temperatures up to 50 °C, but above 36 °C leaves close up from stress. Tagasaste flowers during the early rainy season, typically June to October in Australia, New Zealand and East Africa.
Tagasaste has two types of roots. There are a few large 'sinker' roots that can extend down to at least 10 metres. These are used to extract moisture from that depth during the long dry summers. There are also many 'feeder' roots that are mostly confined to the top 11⁄2 metres. These can extend out at least 15 metres from the trunk. They extract mineral nutrients from the soil, and also water in winter. In summer the soil water can be taken up at depth by the sinker roots, drawn into the shallow feed roots and then pumped into the soil. This 'hydraulic lift' allows the tagasaste to keep extracting nutrients from the shallow soil which would otherwise be too dry. This hydraulic lift is also seen in the native banksia shrubs that grow naturally on these soils and have a similar root design.
When tagasaste is planted in rows that run north–south, it has been found that both the shoots and the roots grow twice as fast on the west side of the plant as on the east side.