Populus section Aigeiros is a section of three species in the genus Populus, the poplars. Like some other species in the genus Populus, they are commonly known as cottonwoods. The species are native to North America, Europe, and western Asia. In the past, as many as six species were recognized, but recent trends have been to accept just three species, treating the others as subspecies of P. deltoides.
Gunnera is the sole genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Gunneraceae, which contains 63 species. Some species in this genus, namely those in the subgenus Panke, have extremely large leaves. Species in the genus are variously native to Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Papuasia, Hawaii, insular Southeast Asia, Africa, and Madagascar. The stalks of some species are edible.
Oxydendrum arboreum, the sourwood or sorrel tree, is the sole species in the genus Oxydendrum, in the family Ericaceae. It is native to eastern North America, from southern Pennsylvania south to northwest Florida and west to southern Illinois; it is most common in the lower chain of the Appalachian Mountains. The tree is frequently seen as a component of oak-heath forests.
Aralia spinosa, commonly known as devil's walking stick, is a woody species of plant in the genus Aralia of the family Araliaceae. It is native to eastern North America. The various names refer to the viciously sharp, spiny stems, petioles and even leaf midribs. It has also been known as Angelica-tree.
Cotinus, the smoketree or smoke bush, is a genus of seven species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs (Rhus).
Quercus imbricaria, the shingle oak, is a deciduous tree in the red oak group of oaks. It is native primarily to the Midwestern and Upper South regions of North America.
Kigelia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae. The genus consists of only one species, Kigelia africana, which occurs throughout tropical Africa. The so-called sausage tree grows a poisonous fruit that is up to 60 cm long, weighs about 7 kg, and resembles a sausage in a casing.
Gunnera manicata, known as Brazilian giant-rhubarb or giant rhubarb, is a species of flowering plant in the family Gunneraceae from the coastal Serra do Mar Mountains of Santa Catarina, Parana and Rio Grande do Sul States, Brazil. In cultivation, the name G. manicata has regularly been wrongly applied to the hybrid with G. tinctoria, G. × cryptica.
Pritchardia pacifica, the Fiji fan palm, or piu, is a species of palm tree in the genus Pritchardia that is native to Tonga. It is also found in Fiji, Samoa, and the north-eastern part of India, and the Marquesas. However, these populations are likely to be human introductions.
Cordyline pumilio, commonly known as the dwarf cabbage tree, pygmy cabbage tree or by its Māori names tī koraha or tī rauriki, is a narrow-leaved monocot shrub endemic to New Zealand. It usually grows up to 1 metre tall, although rare examples of 2 metres tall have been reported. It has long leaves and can easily be mistaken for a grass or a sedge. C. pumilio grows in the north of the North Island from North Cape at 34°S to Kawhia and Opotiki at about 38°S, generally under light forest and scrub. It was cultivated by Māori as a source of carbohydrate and used as a relish to sweeten less palatable foods.
Harmsiopanax ingens of the Gensing, or Ivy Family (Araliaceae), is a very spiney palmlike mesocaul tree endemic to the montane rainforests of central New Guinea which bears a terminal rosette of deeply lobed, meter-wide dentate margined, peltate leaves, maple-like in shape, on equally long petioles. It ultimately attains a height of eighteen meters, at which point it bears a huge panicle of flowers five meters high and equally wide; the largest above ground inflorescence of any dicot plant (although Caloncoba flagelliflora and Ficus geocarpa and Ficus unciata var. strigosa have larger subsurface panicles, each about nine meters in length. H. ingens' panicles are very unusual; the ultimate twigs being spikes each bearing about fifty tiny umbels, each umbel with 8 to 20 minute flowers. So panicle, spike and umbel are all represented in a single inflorescence. Harmsiopanax ingens is monocarpic, and again the largest such plant among dicots. H. ingens was discovered in 1973 by W. R. Philipson. Its native name is "makua".
Corypha lecomtei is a species of plant in the family Arecaceae. It is native to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is threatened by habitat loss. Although known locally for centuries, it was formally described in 1916 by the botanist Odoardo Beccari.
Pritchardia beccariana, the Kilauea pritchardia, or Beccari's loulu, is a species of palm tree in the genus Pritchardia that is endemic to wet forests on the eastern part of the island of Hawaiʻi, near Hilo.
Agave atrovirens, called maguey verde grande is a type of century plant native to Oaxaca, Puebla and Veracruz states in Mexico. It is the largest of all the Agaves, occasionally reaching a weight of two long tons. Each succulent leaf can be up to 14 feet 9 inches in length and weigh one hundred pounds (45 kg) apiece. In the variety A. a. cochlearis these leaves can also be up to 16 inches (41 cm) wide. As in other Agaves the leaves form a rosette, from the center of which, after many years, a panicle of flowers emerges on a long scape or peduncle which at first looks like a vast stalk of asparagus, but later grows to more than forty feet in height, develops side branches near the top and numerous flowers which open red and gradually turn yellow. Agave salmiana, the species with the tallest inflorescences, is frequently lumped with A. atrovirens as the varieties A. a. salmiana or A. a. sigmatophylla. If this is valid, then A. atrovirens also has the tallest inflorescences of any Agave, and of any known plant. Each rosette flowers and fruits once, then dies. According to Fayaz this is one of the species which makes offsets or "pups". A. atrovirens is one of the pulque agaves used in the production of mezcal.
Pandanus laxespicatus is a screwpine or pandan of the wetlands of Madagascar, and belonging to the monocot family Pandanaceae. It was of fairly recent discovery, having been unknown to science prior to 1951 when described by Martelli and Pichi-Sermolli. For the next seventeen years, it was just another member of a large family, but in 1968 Dr. Benjamin C. Stone discovered that at a certain stage of its growth it produces the longest linear (ribbon-like) leaves of any known plant; up to 33 feet in length and 14 inches in width. P. laxispicatus belongs to the same section (Acanthophylla) as P. pulcher. P. odorissimus and P obeliscus, which are known collectively as the Coniferoids, because their numerous side branches cause them to resemble huge Christmas trees. The very large leaves are known as "crown megaphylls" and sometimes have the appearance of a green "star" at the top of the tree. As the megaphylls fall away with age, they are replaced by side shoots of much smaller leaves which account for the conifer-like appearance of the mature trees.
Coccoloba gigantifolia is a species of flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae. It is endemic to the Madeira River Basin in the states of Amazonas and Rondonia in the central and southwestern Brazilian Amazon. This species resembles that of Coccoloba mollis but differs in that it has much larger leaves in its fertile branches.
Ficus salomonensis of the Solomon Islands is a palm-like sparingly branching mesocaul rainforest tree to about 26 feet in height. The main trunk and each branch of juvenile trees is topped by a rosette of huge leaves which are entire oblanceolate in form and up to 200 centimeters in length by 60 cm wide The adult trees have leaves up to 80 centimeters long by 30 cm in width. The fruit (syconia) are borne in clusters mostly on the trunk (cauliflory). It was discovered in 1912 but was not seen again until 1961 when it was re-discovered by E. J. H. Corner.
Ocotea porphyria is a species of evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to southern Bolivia and northwestern Argentina, where it lives in humid montane forests, or Yungas, on the eastern side of the Andes. Common names include laurel del cerro, laurel la falda, laurel tucumano, and ayuínandí.
Gunnera masafuerae, common name pangue. is a very large herbaceous plant endemic to Alejandro Selkirk Island in the Juan Fernandez Islands. It is the second largest species in the genus after Gunnera manicata. The blade, or lamina is up to 9 feet 5 inches (2.87 m) wide borne upon massive stalks, or petioles up to 4.75 inches (12.1 cm) thick; the thickest of any Dicot. The inflorescence a panicle composed of many tiny dimerous flowers, is up to 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) long.
