#tropical

• Abidjan — The largest city and principal economic center of Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire). In the field of global epidemiology and tropical medicine, the city represents a crucial hub for clinical research in West Africa, housing specialized centers (such as the Institut Pasteur de Côte d'Ivoire) dedicated to tracking, studying, and combating major infectious diseases like yellow fever, endemic malaria, HIV/AIDS, and African hemorrhagic fevers.
• Abrus — (Botany) A genus of climbing plants in the family Fabaceae (Leguminosae), native to tropical and subtropical regions worldwide, characterized by pinnate leaves and pods containing spherical seeds that are often intensely colored and highly toxic due to their abrin content.
• Acalypha — A large genus of herbaceous plants, shrubs, and subshrubs in the Euphorbiaceae family, comprising hundreds of species widely distributed across tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Plants within this genus are highly valued in horticulture as ornamental species due to their unique inflorescences shaped like long, pendulous, and fuzzy catkins or spikes, often intensely colored in bright red or crimson shades, as well as for their exotic, serrated, and variegated foliage.
• Acalypha hispida — A species of tropical evergreen shrub in the Acałypha genus, native to the Malay Archipelago and South Pacific islands, widely cultivated worldwide as a greenhouse or indoor ornamental plant. This spectacular plant stands out for its unique pistillate inflorescences, shaped like long, pendulous, cylindrical, and fuzzy catkins of an intense bright red color, which can reach lengths of up to 50 centimeters. Their velvety appearance is determined by the high density of long, slender styles on the female flowers, adapted for capturing pollen.
• Acanthaceae — The large botanical family of dicotyledonous plants (Acanthaceae) within the Lamiales order, comprising hundreds of genera and thousands of species of herbs, shrubs, and vines, primarily distributed across tropical and subtropical global regions. Morphologically, these plants are characterized by simple, opposite leaves, spike- or raceme-type inflorescences equipped with large, often intensely colored bracts, and dehiscent capsule fruits remarkable for their explosive seed expulsion mechanism.
• Acanthus montanus — A species of evergreen perennial subshrub with partially woody bases, belonging to the Acanthus genus and Acanthaceae family, native to the tropical rainforests and shaded mountainous areas of West and Central Africa. It is distinguished by its large, deeply lobed, and heavily undulated leaves, whose margins are armed with sharp, rigid spines. Its inflorescences are spectacular erect terminal spikes made of white, pale pink, or light lilac tubular flowers, valued in horticulture for its exotic and sculptural appearance.
• Acrocomia — A genus of monocotyledonous plants in the palm family (Arecaceae), native to tropical and subtropical regions of Central and South America. These palms are characterized by massive trunks covered with sharp spines and dense crowns of pinnate leaves.
• Acrostichum — A genus of large, massive, and vibrant ferns belonging to the Pteridaceae family, characterized by their unique structural adaptation to saline environments, being the only ferns that grow natively in mangrove swamps and tropical and subtropical intertidal coastal zones. The genus is distinguished by large, pinnate, leathery (coriaceous) fronds and by the fact that fertile sporangia are not grouped into distinct sori but cover uniformly and densely the entire lower surface of the terminal pinnae.
• Acrostichum aureum — The bilingual scientific name of a specific mangrove fern species (commonly known as the golden leather fern), remarkable for its gigantic stature and extreme salinity tolerance. This halophytic plant presents large, leathery, golden-green fronds, with the fertile pinnae at the apex becoming completely covered underneath by a dense layer of sporangia of an intense golden-brown color, from which the specific epithet 'aureum' is derived.
• Adelia — A genus of tropical plants belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae, characterized by shrubs or small trees with entire leaves and unisexual flowers structurally arranged in axillary inflorescences. The plant is predominantly distributed in the warm regions of Central and South America and is studied for its secondary phytochemical properties.
• Adiantopsis — A genus of terrestrial ferns in the Pteridaceae family, Cheilanthoideae subfamily, structurally distributed primarily throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of South and Central America. These plants are recognized for their short, often erect rhizomes and elegant leaves, divided in a pedate, digitate, or pinnate manner, which feature marginal false indusia (sori protected by the reflexed leaf margin), possessing resilient structural adaptations in rocky habitats or forest edges.
• Adiantopsis pedata — A species of small terrestrial fern belonging to the Pteridaceae family, native to neotropical regions, particularly the Caribbean islands (such as Jamaica) and parts of South America. The plant is structurally recognized for its unique pedately divided leaves, with fine segments arranged like toes, attached to thin, black, shiny stipes (petioles), developing optimally in shaded limestone soils.
• Adiantopsis radiata — A species of tropical fern in the family Pteridaceae, genus Adiantopsis, structurally characterized by spectacular palmate fronds whose long, narrow pinnae are arranged radially, resembling the spokes of a wheel or the rays of a circle. This plant is native to the moist forests of Central and South America, being cultivated internationally in greenhouses and private botanical collections due to its unique aesthetic value.
• Adiantum concinnum — A species of elegant tropical fern belonging to the Pteridaceae family, native to the neotropical regions of Central and South America (as well as Mexico and the Caribbean islands). This plant is structurally remarkable for its pendulous, bi- or tripinnate fronds, with delicate fan-shaped or rhombic pinnules attached to thin, shiny blackish-purple stipes and rachises, highly valued in greenhouses as a decorative ornamental plant.
• Adiantum lunulatum — A species of terrestrial and lithophytic fern in the Pteridaceae family, structurally distributed throughout the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Australia, also known by the taxonomic synonym Adiantum philippense. The plant is structurally recognized for its pinnate fronds with asymmetrical, crescent-shaped or fan-shaped pinnules attached to thin, shiny black stipes, possessing the unique ability to develop proliferous buds at the frond apex that root upon soil contact.
• Adiantum macrophyllum — A species of tropical fern in the Pteridaceae family, native to the neotropical regions of Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean islands. This plant is structurally remarkable for its large pinnate fronds with opposite, triangular or ovate leaflets of a leathery texture, which display a spectacular shade of pinkish-salmon or copper when young, gradually turning into a deep green at maturity.
• Aechmea fulgens — A species of perennial herbaceous plant in the genus Aechmea, native to the tropical forests of Brazil, remarkable for its rigid olive-green leaves, often with a purple reverse, and its branched inflorescence consisting of bright red bracts and small flowers with blue petals. It is frequently cultivated as an indoor decorative plant due to the strong chromatic contrast between its foliage and resilient floral stalk.
• Aechmea miniata — A species of perennial epiphytic plant in the family Bromeliaceae, native to the humid tropical forests of Brazil, remarkable for its glossy deep-green leaves, often tinged with purple on the underside of the blade. It develops an erect, paniculate inflorescence composed of a bright red scape bearing globose red berries of a minium (red lead) hue and small flowers with blue or translucent petals.
• Aechmea paniculata — An exotic species of perennial herbaceous plant in the genus Aechmea, native to the densely forested rainforests of South America, remarkable for its complex, heavily branched paniculate inflorescence. Its foliar rosette, composed of rigid leaves with serrated margins, forms a deep central reservoir destined for storing rainwater and absorbing dissolved nutrients through specialized cellular scales.
• Aeginetia — The Romanian adapted form for the plant genus Aeginetia, a category of annual or perennial holoparasitic plants in the broomrape family Orobanchaceae, native to the tropical regions of Asia. These plants completely lack chlorophyll, having leaves reduced to scales and large, tubular pink, red, or purple pipe-like flowers, extracting their nutrients exclusively from the roots of host plants (especially grasses).