Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Bay Laurel
Bay laurel is an aromatic evergreen tree or shrub, a classic culinary herb most often grown as an elegant clipped topiary or hedge. Slow-growing and easily shaped.
herb
Collard Greens
Collard greens are a hardy, non-heading form of cabbage grown for their large, broad blue-green leaves. A leafy garden vegetable, they are cold-tolerant and productive over a long season.
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Banana Plant
The banana is a giant tropical herb, not a true tree, grown for its fruit and dramatic paddle-shaped leaves. Its 'trunk' is actually a pseudostem of tightly rolled leaf sheaths.
herb
Common Mallow
A sprawling annual or biennial with rounded, scalloped leaves, small pinkish-white flowers, and flat round seed pods that resemble tiny wheels of cheese. It is a common garden and lawn weed.
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Bee Balm
A fragrant North American native with shaggy, crown-like flowers in red, pink, or purple that are irresistible to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Its aromatic leaves release a citrusy, minty scent when crushed.
herb
Cleavers
Cleavers is a sprawling annual herb covered in tiny hooked hairs that cling to skin, clothing, and other plants. It is a common hedgerow weed that scrambles over surrounding vegetation.
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Cauliflower
Cauliflower is a cool-season member of the cabbage family grown for its dense white head of immature flower buds, called a curd. It is one of the more demanding brassicas, needing steady cool conditions to head up well.
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Arugula
Arugula is a fast-growing, cool-season leafy green in the brassica family. It goes from seed to a low rosette of lobed leaves in a matter of weeks.
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Cardamom
Cardamom is a tropical, shade-loving relative of ginger grown for its aromatic seed pods. A spice plant, it needs warmth, humidity and patience.
herb
Carpetweed
A low, mat-forming summer annual that spreads flat across the ground in a star-like pattern of whorled leaves. It is a common weed of gardens, lawns and bare soil, germinating in warm weather.
herb
Canada Thistle
Canada thistle is an aggressive perennial weed with spiny leaves and small pink-purple flower heads that spreads relentlessly through deep, creeping roots. Despite its name it is native to Europe and Asia, and it is one of the most difficult agricultural weeds to control.
herb
Amaranth
Amaranth is a vigorous annual grown for its dramatic drooping crimson flower tassels and broad, often red-tinged leaves. It has been cultivated for thousands of years across the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
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Calendula
Pot marigold is an easy cool-season annual with cheerful daisy-like orange and yellow flowers, long grown in cottage gardens and herb beds.
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Angelica
Angelica is a stately, architectural biennial herb in the carrot family with huge domed greenish-white flower heads and bold, divided foliage. It is a dramatic showpiece in herb and ornamental gardens.
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Butternut Squash
Butternut squash is a winter squash with a tan, bell-shaped rind grown on vigorous trailing vines. The hard-skinned fruit stores well for months.
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Cabbage
Cabbage is a cool-season leafy garden vegetable that forms a dense, rounded head of tightly packed leaves. A staple worldwide, it comes in green, red, and crinkled savoy types.
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Brussels Sprouts
Brussels sprouts are a cool-season brassica that produces dozens of small, cabbage-like buds along a tall central stalk. Slow to mature, they are a hallmark of autumn and winter gardens.
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Boneset
Boneset is a native North American wildflower with clusters of fuzzy white blooms and distinctive leaves that appear pierced by the stem. It is valued as a pollinator plant for moist gardens.
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Bouncing Bet
A vigorous old-fashioned perennial with clusters of fragrant pink flowers whose roots and leaves lather like soap, long used as a natural cleanser for textiles.
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Bindweed
Bindweed is a fast-twining perennial vine with arrowhead leaves and small white-to-pink morning-glory flowers that smothers gardens and crops. Its deep, persistent root system makes it one of the hardest weeds to eradicate.
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Basil
A fragrant, warmth-loving aromatic herb in the mint family, grown for its highly aromatic leaves.
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Bell Pepper
Bell pepper is a blocky-fruited variety of Capsicum annuum grown as a warm-season garden crop, bearing glossy fruit in shades of green, red, yellow, and orange. It is a colorful, productive plant for sunny beds and containers.
herb
Artichoke
The globe artichoke is a striking thistle grown in gardens for its large, scaly flower buds. Left unharvested, the buds open into large, vivid purple blooms.
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Asparagus
Asparagus is a long-lived perennial grown for the tender shoots, or spears, that emerge in spring. Once established, a bed can persist for 15-20 years or more.
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Agrimony
Agrimony is an upright perennial herb topped with slender spires of small yellow flowers that smell faintly of apricot. It produces bur-like seeds that cling to passersby.
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Fenugreek
Fenugreek is a fast-growing legume herb grown in gardens, with clover-like leaves, small pale flowers and slender, sickle-shaped seed pods. It is easy to grow and enriches soil as a nitrogen-fixer.
herb