Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Corn Plant
The corn plant is a sturdy indoor tree with thick woody canes topped by arching, corn-like leaves, often with a yellow-green center stripe. It is famously tolerant of low light and neglect.
houseplant
Canna Lily
Canna lily is a bold tropical perennial grown for its large paddle-shaped leaves and vivid flower spikes. Despite the name it's not a true lily, and its rhizomes are lifted in cold climates.
flower
Cardinal Flower
Cardinal flower is a moisture-loving native perennial bearing tall spikes of brilliant scarlet-red flowers in late summer. Its intense color is a magnet for hummingbirds.
flower
Cast Iron Plant
An exceptionally tough foliage plant that tolerates deep shade, neglect and poor conditions, hence its name. It forms clumps of broad, glossy, dark green lance-shaped leaves.
houseplant
Buffalo Berry
A tough, thorny North American shrub with silvery leaves and small red berries. Nitrogen-fixing and extremely drought- and cold-hardy, it forms dense thickets on poor soils.
shrub
Bloodroot
An early spring ephemeral named for the red-orange sap that bleeds from its roots when cut. Each delicate white flower is wrapped in a single curled leaf and lasts only a few days.
flower
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.
succulent
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
African Violet
The African violet is a compact flowering houseplant beloved for its velvety leaves and clusters of purple, pink, or white blooms that can appear nearly year-round.
flower
American Elm
American elm is a stately deciduous tree famous for its graceful vase-shaped canopy, once a beloved street tree until Dutch elm disease devastated populations; disease-resistant cultivars now revive its use.
tree
Dwarf Alberta Spruce
Dwarf Alberta spruce is a compact, naturally cone-shaped evergreen with dense, soft needles. Its slow growth and tidy pyramid form make it a popular accent and container conifer.
tree
Japanese Andromeda
Japanese andromeda is an elegant evergreen shrub with cascading clusters of urn-shaped flowers in early spring and colorful new growth. It pairs beautifully with azaleas and rhododendrons.
shrub
Eastern Redbud
A small understory tree famous for the cloud of pink-purple flowers that bloom directly on its bare branches in early spring. Native to eastern North America.
tree
Sweetgum
A large deciduous shade tree known for its glossy star-shaped leaves, brilliant fall color, and spiky round seed balls. Native to the southeastern United States.
tree
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
Burning Bush
A deciduous shrub famous for its fiery crimson-red fall foliage and distinctive corky 'wings' along the stems. Tough and adaptable, it is also invasive in parts of North America.
shrub
Garlic Mustard
Garlic mustard is an aggressive biennial herb with garlic-scented leaves and small white flowers, and one of North America's most damaging invasive plants.
herb
Butterfly Weed
Butterfly weed is a native milkweed bearing flat clusters of brilliant orange flowers in summer. It is a top nectar plant for butterflies and a larval host for monarchs.
flower
Sourwood
Sourwood is a graceful native North American tree with drooping clusters of white lily-of-the-valley-like summer flowers and outstanding scarlet fall foliage.
tree
Anthurium Warocqueanum
Known as the Queen Anthurium, this collector's aroid grows enormous, elongated velvety leaves with bold silvery-white veins. It is prized but demanding, needing high humidity and airy media.
houseplant
Twinflower
A delicate, mat-forming evergreen subshrub of northern forests bearing nodding pairs of fragrant, bell-shaped pink flowers; the namesake of botanist Linnaeus.
flower
Tulip
A spring-flowering bulb cherished for its goblet-shaped blooms in nearly every color. Tulips are planted in autumn and naturalize best in regions with cold winters.
flower
Torrey Pine
Torrey Pine is the rarest native pine in the United States, found wild in only two coastal California locations. It has long needles in bundles of five and large, heavy cones.
tree
ZZ Raven
ZZ Raven is a dramatic cultivar of the ZZ plant whose new growth emerges bright green then matures to a near-black purple. It is exceptionally tough and drought-tolerant.
houseplant