Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Skimmia
Skimmia is a compact, shade-loving evergreen shrub valued for fragrant spring flowers, ornamental red winter berries, and showy red flower buds that decorate the plant all winter.
shrub
Totem Pole Cactus
A spineless, columnar cactus whose smooth green stems are covered in bumpy, sculptural knobs resembling carved totems. A slow-growing, low-maintenance architectural plant.
succulent
Sweet Potato Vine
Ornamental sweet potato vine is a vigorous trailing plant grown for its bold chartreuse, purple-black, or variegated foliage that cascades from containers all season.
houseplant
Smokebush
A deciduous shrub famous for the airy, smoke-like haze of fluffy flower stalks that envelop the plant in summer. Many cultivars add dramatic purple or gold foliage and fiery fall color.
shrub
Mimosa Tree
A fast-growing ornamental tree with feathery fern-like leaves and fluffy pink powderpuff flowers, widely planted but invasive across the southern United States.
tree
Florida Beauty
Florida Beauty is a shrubby dracaena with dark green, oval leaves heavily speckled in creamy gold, giving a gold-dust appearance. It is a compact, slow-growing foliage plant.
houseplant
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.
herb
Yellow Birch
A long-lived northern hardwood with shiny, peeling bronze-gold bark and twigs that smell of wintergreen when scratched, important for timber and wildlife value.
tree
Wild Bergamot
An aromatic North American mint-family perennial topped with ragged lavender flower heads that are magnets for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.
herb
Paper Bark Birch
A graceful northern tree famous for its peeling, papery white bark and fluttering golden fall foliage. Its bark was traditionally used by Indigenous peoples to build canoes.
tree
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.
herb
Harebell
A delicate, wiry perennial bearing nodding blue bell-shaped flowers on thread-like stems. Found across the Northern Hemisphere, it is famed as the bluebell of Scotland.
flower
Cranberry
A low, trailing evergreen shrub native to North American wetlands, grown for its red berries. It requires acidic, consistently moist, peaty soil to thrive.
shrub
Celandine Poppy
A spring-blooming woodland wildflower of eastern North America bearing bright golden-yellow poppy flowers above deeply lobed blue-green leaves.
flower
Cape Daisy
A sun-loving South African daisy with vivid, often metallic-blue-centered blooms in purple, white, and orange, prized for nonstop color in beds and containers.
flower
Balsam Fir
A fragrant northern evergreen with flat, soft needles and resin-blistered bark, beloved as a Christmas tree for its classic spire shape and lasting pine scent.
tree
Bearberry
A hardy, mat-forming evergreen groundcover shrub of cold northern regions, with glossy leaves, pink bell flowers, and red berries favored by bears and birds.
shrub
Mustard Greens
Mustard greens are fast-growing leafy plants in the cabbage family, grown as a cool-season crop in gardens across many regions.
herb
Elephant Ear
A dramatic tropical plant grown for its huge, heart- or arrowhead-shaped leaves resembling elephant ears.
houseplant
Kumquat
A small evergreen citrus producing tiny oval orange fruit. It is among the most cold-hardy citrus and a popular compact container plant.
tree
Summersweet
A late-summer-blooming deciduous shrub with upright spikes of intensely fragrant white or pink flowers that draw bees and butterflies. Native to eastern North America, it thrives in moist, shady spots.
shrub
Sweetspire
A North American deciduous shrub with drooping, fragrant white flower spikes in early summer and outstanding long-lasting crimson-to-burgundy fall color. Thrives in moist soils and tolerates shade.
shrub
Ponderosa Pine
Ponderosa pine is a tall, drought-hardy evergreen conifer of western North America, known for its long needles, large cones and puzzle-piece bark that smells of vanilla or butterscotch. It is a major western timber tree.
tree
Cottonwood
Cottonwood is a fast-growing deciduous tree of North American riverbanks, named for the fluffy, cotton-like seeds that fill the air in early summer. Large and vigorous, it provides quick shade and vital riparian habitat.
tree