Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Lettuce
Lettuce is a fast-growing leafy annual in the daisy family, a cool-season garden staple. It comes in loose-leaf, romaine, butterhead, and crisphead types.
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Lambsquarters
Lambsquarters is a fast-growing annual weed with mealy, diamond-shaped (goosefoot) leaves and a whitish, mealy coating on new growth.
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Licorice
A deep-rooted leguminous perennial grown for its long taproot system. It thrives in warm climates and rich, sandy soils.
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Jalapeno
The jalapeno is a chili pepper, a cultivar of Capsicum annuum that bears green pods ripening to red. It is easy to grow and productive in warm, sunny conditions.
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Dog Fennel
Dog fennel is a tall, feathery-leaved native weed of the southeastern United States that forms dense stands in old fields and roadsides and has an aromatic, somewhat unpleasant scent.
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Kale
Kale is a hardy leafy green in the cabbage family that forms loose leaves rather than a head. It tolerates cold weather well.
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Cumin
Cumin is a small annual herb in the carrot family grown for its seeds, a widely used culinary spice. It needs a long, hot, sunny season to ripen.
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Cucumber
Cucumber is a warm-season vining plant in the gourd family, grown for its long green fruits. It is fast-growing and productive when given heat, sun, and steady moisture.
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Jimsonweed
Jimsonweed is a rank-smelling nightshade with large white-to-purple trumpet flowers and spiny seed pods, and one of the most distinctive weeds of North America.
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Hyssop
An aromatic, semi-evergreen Mediterranean shrub-herb in the mint family, bearing spikes of deep blue flowers loved by bees.
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Holy Basil
Holy basil, or tulsi, is an aromatic herb in the mint family, sacred in Hinduism. More clove-scented than sweet basil, it is grown in gardens and containers and traditionally near homes and temples.
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Creeping Charlie
Creeping Charlie is a low, aromatic perennial in the mint family that spreads aggressively by creeping stems to form dense mats in lawns and shady gardens. Its scalloped, round leaves and small blue-violet flowers make it easy to recognize and notoriously hard to eradicate.
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Horseradish
A hardy perennial in the cabbage family grown for its thick, white taproot. Vigorous and long-lived, it can become invasive once established.
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Cocklebur
Cocklebur is a coarse annual weed famous for its hard, hooked burs that cling to fur and clothing. It is a serious agricultural and pasture pest.
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Dandelion
The dandelion is a familiar, resilient perennial with sunny yellow flowers and toothed leaves, widely recognized as both a common lawn weed and a cheerful wildflower.
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Cloudberry
Cloudberry is a low-growing Arctic and subarctic plant bearing distinctive amber berries. It demands cold, acidic, boggy conditions and is notoriously difficult to cultivate.
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Henbit
Henbit is a low winter annual in the mint family that carpets lawns, fields and gardens in early spring with pinkish-purple tubular flowers. It is closely related to purple deadnettle and, like it, is a bee-friendly weed of cool seasons.
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Henbane
Henbane is a foul-smelling, sticky-haired herb of the nightshade family with funnel-shaped, purple-veined flowers, long associated with witchcraft and folklore.
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Groundsel
Common groundsel is a fast-growing annual weed with ragged leaves and small, rayless yellow flower heads that turn into fluffy seed tufts. Wind-borne seeds let it colonize gardens and disturbed ground rapidly.
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Burdock
A large biennial famous for its bur-covered seed heads that cling to fur and clothing, the inspiration for Velcro. It has enormous rhubarb-like leaves and a thick, deep taproot.
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Cantaloupe
Cantaloupe is a warm-season trailing vine in the gourd family, grown for its round, netted melons. It needs long, hot summers and plenty of sun.
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Ginger
Ginger is a tropical perennial herb grown for its knobbly, aromatic underground rhizome, cultivated across the warm regions of the world.
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Cilantro
A fast-growing aromatic annual herb grown in gardens worldwide. Its finely divided foliage is known as cilantro and its small round seeds as coriander.
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Corn Speedwell
Corn speedwell is a tiny low-growing winter annual weed with small, deep-blue flowers and rounded toothed leaves. It commonly carpets lawns, gardens, and bare ground in late winter and spring.
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Comfrey
Comfrey is a vigorous, deep-rooted perennial famous as a garden fertilizer. Its rough leaves and bell-shaped flowers grow back fast, making it a favorite for nutrient-rich liquid plant feeds.
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Chervil
A delicate annual culinary herb with lacy, fern-like leaves, grown in gardens. One of the classic French fines herbes, it prefers cool weather and light shade.
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Green Bean
Green beans are the young pods of the common bean, picked while still slender before the seeds mature. They come in bush and pole forms and are among the most reliable and rewarding crops for home gardens.
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Chives
Chives are a clump-forming perennial culinary herb in the onion family, grown for their slender hollow leaves and pompom-like purple flowers.
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Chamomile
Chamomile is a daisy-like aromatic herb famous for its small, apple-scented white-and-yellow flowers.
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Carrot
The carrot is a popular root vegetable grown for its taproot, most familiar in orange but also available in purple, red, yellow, and white. It is a biennial usually harvested in its first year.
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Celery
Celery is a marsh-loving biennial grown for its long, ribbed leaf stalks. It is famously demanding, needing rich soil and constant moisture to grow well.
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Catmint
A soft, billowing perennial with gray-green aromatic foliage and a long haze of small lavender-blue flowers. Tough, drought-proof, deer-resistant, and a magnet for bees.
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Chickweed
Chickweed is a low, sprawling annual often dismissed as a lawn weed, with weak stems and tiny white star-shaped flowers that give it the name starwort.
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Ground Ivy
Ground ivy is a creeping, aromatic perennial in the mint family with scalloped round leaves and blue-violet spring flowers, the same plant widely known as creeping Charlie. It forms dense mats in shady lawns and gardens and is notoriously persistent.
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Catnip
Catnip is a hardy, easy-growing mint-family herb famous for the response it triggers in many cats. It is also a useful pollinator and pest-repelling plant.
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Borage
A fast-growing annual herb with brilliant blue star-shaped flowers and bristly, cucumber-scented leaves. A magnet for bees, it self-seeds freely and is a favorite of pollinator gardens.
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Broadleaf Plantain
Broadleaf plantain is a tough, low-growing perennial weed with a rosette of broad, ribbed leaves and slender flower spikes, found in lawns, paths and compacted ground worldwide. It is unrelated to the banana-like plantain fruit despite the shared name.
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Fennel
Fennel is an aromatic, feathery herb grown in gardens for its finely divided foliage and airy yellow flower heads; the Florence type forms a swollen bulb at the base of the leaves.
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Broccoli
Broccoli is a cool-season member of the cabbage family grown for its dense clusters of green flower buds. It is best cut while the tight green heads are still closed, before they open into yellow flowers.
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Bok Choy
Bok choy is a fast-growing Asian leafy green with crisp white stalks and tender dark leaves. A cool-season vegetable, it matures quickly and is widely grown in gardens.
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Dill
Dill is a feathery, aromatic annual herb in the carrot family, grown in herb gardens for its delicate foliage and oval seeds.
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Buckhorn Plantain
A common perennial lawn and field weed with a basal rosette of narrow, ribbed leaves and bullet-shaped flower heads on tall leafless stalks. It is widespread and persistent in lawns, pastures and roadsides.
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Endive
Endive is a leafy plant in the chicory family grown as a cool-season green. Curly (frisée) and broad-leaved (escarole) forms are both popular garden greens.
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Eggplant
Eggplant is a warm-season member of the nightshade family grown in gardens for its glossy, pendant fruits that range from deep purple to white. It thrives in heat and a long growing season.
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Astragalus
A hardy perennial legume native to northern China and nearby regions, grown for its long, fibrous taproot. It is drought-tolerant and thrives in well-drained soils.
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Black Medic
Black medic is a low, clover-like legume weed with small yellow flower clusters and distinctive coiled black seed pods, common in lawns and disturbed soils.
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Beet
Beet is a cool-season root vegetable grown for its rounded, swollen root and its leafy greens. The familiar deep-red root is the most common, but golden, white, and striped types also exist.
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Curly Dock
Curly dock is a hardy perennial weed with long, wavy-edged leaves and tall rusty-brown seed stalks. Its deep taproot makes it persistent and difficult to remove.
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