Kids Encyclopedia

Morning Glory — Morning glory is a common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae. As the name implies, morning glory flowers, which are funnel-shaped, open in the morning, allowing them to be pollinated by hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, and other daytime insects and birds as well as Hawkmoth at dusk for longer blooming variants. The …

Mistletoe — Mistletoe is the common name for a group of hemi-parasitic plants in the order Santalales that grow attached to and within the branches of a tree or shrub. Parasitism evolved only nine times in the plant kingdom; of those, the parasitic mistletoe habit has evolved independently five times: Misodendraceae, Loranthaceae, Santalaceae (formerly considered the separate family Eremolepidaceae), and …

Lotus — Nelumbo is a genus of water flowers or water lilies commonly known as lotus . The word originates from the Sinhalese word Nelum. There are two species in the genus, one of which is the well-known National Flower of India. Taxonomists disagree as to exactly which family that the genus is in, with many saying that it is …

Rue — Rue (Ruta) is a genus of strongly scented evergreen subshrubs 20-60 cm tall, in the family Rutaceae, native to the Mediterranean region, Macronesia and southwest Asia. Different authors accept between 8-40 species in the genus. The most well-known species is the Common Rue. The leaves are bipinnate or tripinnate, with a feathery appearance, and green to strongly glaucous …

Poison Ivy — Toxicodendron radicans (syn. Rhus toxicodendron, Rhus radicans; Poison ivy) is a plant in the family Anacardiaceae. The name is sometimes spelled “Poison-ivy” in an attempt to indicate that the plant is not a true Ivy (Hedera). It is a woody vine that is well known for its ability to produce urushiol, a skin irritant that causes an …

Ivy — Hedera (English name ivy, plural ivies) is a genus of 15 species of climbing or ground-creeping evergreen woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to the Atlantic Islands, western, central and southern Europe, northwestern Africa and across central-southern Asia east to Japan. On suitable surfaces (trees and rock faces), they are able to climb to at least 25–30 …

Iris — Iris is a genus of between 200-300 species of flowering plants with showy flowers which takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, referring to the wide variety of flower colors found among the many species. As well as being the scientific name, iris is also very widely used as a common name and refers to …

Hyacinth — A Hyacinth is any plant of genus Hyacinthus, which are bulbous herbs formerly placed in the lily family Liliaceae but now regarded as the type genus of the separate family Hyacinthaceae. Hyacinths are native to the eastern Mediterranean region east to Iran and Turkmenistan. They are Hyacinths are sometimes associated with rebirth The Hyacinth flower is used in …

Hydrangea — Hydrangea (common names Hydrangea and Hortensia) is a genus of about 70-75 species of flowering plants native to southern and eastern Asia (from Japan to China, the Himalaya and Indonesia) and North and South America. The flowers are extremely common in the Azores Islands of Portugal, particularly on Faial Island, which is known as the “blue island” due …

Honeysuckle — Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to the Northern Hemisphere. There are about 180 species of honeysuckle, with by far the greatest diversity in China, where over 100 species occur; by comparison, Europe and North America have only about 20 native species each. Widely known species include Lonicera periclymenum (European Honeysuckle or …