Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Organ Pipe Cactus
A large columnar desert cactus that grows many tall ribbed stems from near its base, resembling the pipes of an organ. It is a signature plant of the Sonoran Desert.
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Ghost Plant
The ghost plant is a hardy rosette succulent with pearly, pastel leaves that shift from grey-blue to pinkish or yellow depending on light. It is fast-growing, trailing, and extremely easy to propagate.
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Flapjack Plant
A striking rosette succulent with large, flat, rounded leaves that blush deep red along their edges when grown in bright sun. It is prized as an architectural accent in pots and water-wise gardens.
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Lifesaver Cactus
A low, clumping stem succulent famous for bizarre flowers with a thick, glossy red ring at the center that looks exactly like a candy lifesaver. The flowers are striped like a zebra.
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Gasteria
Gasteria is a slow-growing South African succulent with thick, tongue-shaped leaves often arranged in fans, named for its curved, stomach-shaped flowers.
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Madagascar Palm
The Madagascar palm is a spiny, succulent caudex plant with a thick, spine-covered trunk topped by a crown of strappy leaves. Despite its name and look, it is not a true palm but a relative of the desert rose.
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Fairy Castle Cactus
A slow-growing columnar cactus whose many vertical, turret-like branches resemble the spires of a tiny castle. It is a compact, easygoing favorite for sunny windowsills.
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Flapjack Succulent
A striking succulent with large, flat, paddle-shaped leaves that flush vivid red along their edges in bright sun and cool weather. It forms rosettes that resemble a stack of pancakes, giving it the name flapjack.
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Key Lime Pie Plant
A small clumping succulent with plump, wedge-shaped green leaves whose ruffled, crinkled tips look like pie crust. Reddish aerial roots fuzz the stem like cinnamon.
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Feather Cactus
A clustering cactus completely cloaked in soft, feathery white spines that look and feel like down. The fluffy coating hides the body and gives it a snowball appearance.
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Living Stones
Tiny, stem-less succulents that mimic pebbles to avoid being grazed. They split to reveal new leaves and produce daisy-like flowers, but need a strict dry regime.
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Donkey Tail
Donkey tail is a trailing Mexican sedum whose long stems are packed with plump, blue-green teardrop leaves that resemble a braided animal's tail, perfect for hanging baskets.
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Elephant Ear Cactus
A prickly pear with flat, rounded green pads that branch into ear-like shapes. Instead of long spines it bears dense tufts of tiny barbed glochids that detach at the lightest touch.
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Dragon Fruit
A climbing cactus that produces vivid pink-skinned fruit covered in green, leaf-like scales. Its enormous, fragrant flowers bloom for a single night.
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Devil's Backbone
A shrubby succulent euphorbia famous for its distinctive zigzagging stems and small red-bracted flowers shaped like tiny birds. Often grown indoors for its sculptural, jointed form.
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Hoya Kerrii
A succulent-leaved hoya whose thick, heart-shaped leaves make it a popular Valentine's gift, often sold as a single rooted leaf. As a full plant it vines and produces clusters of fragrant star-shaped flowers.
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Hen And Chicks
Hen and chicks is a hardy rosette-forming succulent that spreads by producing clusters of offsets, or 'chicks,' around the central 'hen.' It is exceptionally cold-tolerant and thrives in rock gardens and containers.
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Cholla Cactus
A group of shrubby to treelike desert cacti with cylindrical, jointed segments and barbed spines that detach easily. Iconic plants of the American Southwest deserts.
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Christmas Cactus
The Christmas cactus is a Brazilian forest cactus that bursts into tubular pink, red, or white blooms in early winter. Unlike desert cacti, it likes humidity and regular water.
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Candelabra Cactus
A tall, tree-like succulent euphorbia with upright branching ridged stems that form a candelabra silhouette. Though cactus-like, it is a spurge that exudes milky latex.
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Golden Barrel Cactus
The golden barrel cactus is a globe-shaped desert cactus ringed with golden-yellow spines. Slow-growing and architectural, it is a popular feature in xeriscapes and pots despite being endangered in the wild.
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Fox Tail Agave
A soft, spineless agave with pale blue-green rosettes and a curving, foxtail-like flower spike. Unusual among agaves for its lack of sharp spines and tolerance of light shade.
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Burro's Tail
A trailing succulent with plump, overlapping blue-green leaves packed along long stems that resemble braided tails. Easy to grow but its beads drop off at the slightest touch.
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Fishbone Cactus
An epiphytic jungle cactus with flat, deeply zigzagged stems resembling a fish skeleton. Easy to grow and capable of producing large, fragrant night-blooming flowers in autumn.
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Elephant Bush
Elephant bush is a fast-growing South African succulent shrub with small round jade-green leaves on reddish stems, popular as a houseplant, bonsai subject, and carbon-storing landscape plant.
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Blue Chalksticks
Blue chalksticks is a spreading ground-cover succulent with slender, upright, powdery blue-green finger-like leaves. Its cool blue color and low, mounding habit make it a popular landscape and container plant.
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Blue Glow Agave
A compact hybrid agave forming a tidy rosette of blue-green leaves edged with a glowing red-and-yellow margin that lights up when backlit by sun. It is a refined, slow-growing landscape gem.
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Crown of Thorns
A spiny succulent shrub from Madagascar prized for its near year-round display of small, brightly colored bracts surrounding tiny flowers. Tough and drought-tolerant, with thorn-armored stems and milky sap.
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Desert Rose
The desert rose is a striking caudex succulent with a swollen trunk and clusters of showy, trumpet-shaped pink to red flowers. It is widely grown as a bonsai-like ornamental.
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Coral Cactus
The coral cactus is a grafted novelty plant combining a fan-shaped, crested Euphorbia top with a separate Euphorbia rootstock, resembling a piece of coral or a crested ridge. It is a Euphorbia, not a cactus.
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Bear's Paw
Bear's paw is a fuzzy succulent named for its plump, fleshy leaves tipped with tooth-like 'claws.' The chubby, hairy leaves and reddish tips give it a paw-like, animal appearance.
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Calico Kitten
A trailing succulent with small heart-shaped leaves in shifting shades of cream, green, pink, and purple. Prized for hanging baskets where its colorful cascading stems show off.
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African Milk Tree
The African milk tree is a fast-growing, upright succulent with ridged, branching green stems that resemble a cactus. Despite the look, it is a Euphorbia that exudes milky white sap when cut, not a true cactus.
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Bunny Ear Cactus
The bunny ear cactus is a charming Mexican prickly pear whose flat, paddle-shaped pads grow in pairs resembling rabbit ears, dotted with tufts of fine golden glochids instead of long spines.
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Century Plant
A massive rosette-forming agave with thick, spiny, blue-grey leaves that grows for decades before sending up a towering flower stalk and then dying. It is an iconic architectural plant of arid gardens.
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Aloe Vera
Aloe vera is a hardy succulent with thick, fleshy leaves arranged in a rosette and filled with a clear inner gel. It is easy to grow on a sunny windowsill and needs very little water.
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Burros Tail
A trailing succulent with long, rope-like stems densely packed with plump, blue-green leaves that resemble a braided tail. It makes a spectacular hanging plant but its leaves drop at the slightest touch.
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Brain Cactus
A crested form of the ladyfinger cactus whose fused, fan-like growth folds into convoluted ridges resembling a brain. A novelty succulent prized for its sculptural, undulating surface.
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Blue Flame Cactus
A fast-growing, heavily branching columnar cactus with powdery blue-green ribbed stems. Its many upright arms cluster like dancing flames, hence the name.
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Bishop's Cap Cactus
A spineless, star-shaped cactus with a rounded body of distinct ribs flecked with tiny white scales, resembling a bishop's mitre. It produces yellow daisy-like flowers from its crown.
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Bitterroot
A low, fleshy-leaved alpine succulent of western North America, bitterroot produces showy pink-to-white flowers on otherwise nearly leafless plants. It is the state flower of Montana.
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Baby Toes
A curious dwarf succulent that forms clusters of upright, club-shaped leaves with translucent 'windows' on their flat tops, looking like rows of tiny baby toes. It bears white or yellow daisy-like flowers.
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