Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Green Onion
Green onions are slender, mild alliums grown for their hollow green tops and small white bases. Fast and forgiving, they are among the easiest plants to grow and even regrow from rooted bases.
herb
Masterwort
Masterwort is a clump-forming perennial with intricate, pincushion-like flower heads surrounded by a papery collar of petal-like bracts. It brings cottage-garden charm to moist, partly shaded borders.
flower
Gaura
Gaura is an airy, long-blooming perennial whose delicate pink or white flowers dance on slender, wiry stems like a cloud of butterflies. It is heat- and drought-tolerant and blooms for months.
flower
Love-in-a-Mist
A delicate cottage-garden annual whose blue, white or pink flowers nestle in a misty halo of thread-like foliage, followed by ornamental inflated seed pods. Both the airy blooms and the balloon-like pods are prized for fresh and dried arrangements.
flower
Fuchsia
Fuchsia is a shade-loving shrub famous for its dangling, two-tone teardrop flowers that resemble tiny ballerinas and draw hummingbirds.
shrub
Medallion Calathea
The Medallion Calathea has large rounded leaves with intricate feathered patterns of green, cream, and pink over deep purple undersides. A showstopper that demands humidity, clean water, and steady care.
houseplantGinseng
Ginseng is a slow-growing, shade-loving woodland perennial recognized by its whorls of compound leaves and its fleshy, often forked root.
herb
Longleaf Pine
A stately fire-adapted pine that once dominated vast southeastern U.S. forests, prized for its very long needles, durable timber and grass-stage seedlings. Restoration of its open, biodiverse savannas is a major conservation effort.
tree
Foxglove
Foxglove is a stately biennial bearing tall spires of tubular, spotted bell-flowers, beloved by bees and a striking accent in shade and cottage gardens.
flower
Loblolly Pine
Loblolly pine is a fast-growing evergreen conifer of the southeastern United States and the region's most important timber tree. Tall and straight with long needles, it dominates southern forests and plantations.
tree
Goji Berry
A hardy, sprawling deciduous shrub in the nightshade family grown for its bright red-orange berries. It tolerates poor soils and drought and bears long, arching, thorny canes.
shrub
Medlar Tree
The medlar is an ancient, gnarled deciduous tree in the rose family, grown for its large white spring flowers, twisted branches, and distinctive russet-brown fruit with a wide open calyx. Hardy and low-maintenance.
tree
Ginkgo
An ancient 'living fossil' tree with unmistakable fan-shaped leaves that turn brilliant gold in autumn. Remarkably tough and pollution-resistant, it is unchanged for over 200 million years.
tree
Meadowsweet
Meadowsweet is a graceful wetland perennial topped with frothy, almond-scented cream flowers carried in branched plumes above pinnate foliage.
herb
Forget-Me-Not
Forget-me-not is a low, spreading plant covered in tiny sky-blue flowers with yellow centers, beloved for carpeting spring gardens and self-seeding freely.
flower
Lupine
A striking cottage-garden perennial with tall, dense spires of pea-like flowers in vivid blues, purples, pinks, and bicolors above palmate leaves. A nitrogen-fixing legume beloved by bees.
flower
Fittonia
Fittonia, or nerve plant, is a low-growing tropical houseplant prized for its small leaves laced with striking white, pink, or red vein patterns that resemble a delicate mosaic.
houseplant
Lima Bean
Lima beans are a warm-season legume in the pea family, available in bush and pole forms. They are a heat-loving plant native to the Americas.
herb
Fireweed
A tall, magenta-flowered perennial famous for blanketing burned and disturbed land, which gives it its name. Its spires of pink-purple flowers make it both a pioneer species and a showy garden plant.
flower
Lime Tree
The lime tree is a small, often thorny evergreen citrus grown for its aromatic green fruit. Key limes (Citrus aurantiifolia) and Persian limes are the most familiar types.
tree
Firewheel Tree
The firewheel tree is an Australian rainforest tree named for its striking red-and-orange flowers arranged in spoke-like wheels. It has glossy lobed foliage and makes a handsome ornamental and street tree.
tree
Lungwort
Lungwort is a shade-loving perennial grown for its silver-spotted leaves and early spring flowers that often open pink and age to blue on the same plant. It is an excellent groundcover for woodland and shady gardens.
flower
Fan Flower
An Australian trailing plant grown for its unusual fan-shaped flowers, with five petals all spread to one side like a tiny hand. Heat- and drought-tolerant, it blooms nonstop in blue, purple, pink or white, ideal for baskets and containers.
flower
Loropetalum
Loropetalum is an evergreen shrub prized for its spidery, fringe-like flowers and—in popular cultivars—deep burgundy foliage. It blooms heavily in spring with sporadic reflushes through the year.
shrub
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.
succulent
Longan Tree
A subtropical evergreen relative of the lychee, bearing clusters of small brown-skinned fruits with translucent flesh around a single dark seed. The seed peeking through the flesh gives it the name dragon eye.
tree
Flowering Almond
Flowering almond is a small deciduous ornamental shrub prized for its profuse pink or white pompom-like blossoms that smother the bare branches in early spring. It is grown purely for ornamental display.
shrub
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.
succulent
Flowering Kale
Flowering kale is a cool-season ornamental grown for its showy rosettes of frilly leaves in pink, purple, white, and cream. The color intensifies in cold weather, making it a star of fall and winter displays.
flower
Maidenhair Fern
A graceful fern with airy, fan-shaped fronds on glossy black stems. Stunning but demanding, it needs constant humidity and consistently moist soil.
fern
Gladiolus
Gladiolus is a tall summer bulb that sends up dramatic spikes of funnel-shaped flowers in nearly every color, a staple of cutting gardens and floral arrangements.
flower
Loganberry
A blackberry-raspberry hybrid bramble producing long, deep-red berries on vigorous trailing canes. Reliable and hardy, it is a classic garden cane fruit.
shrub
Globe Thistle
Globe thistle is a bold, architectural perennial topped with spherical, steel-blue flower heads above spiny, gray-green foliage. It is drought-tolerant and irresistible to bees.
flower
Lodgepole Pine
Lodgepole Pine is a slender, adaptable western North American pine with paired needles and small prickly cones. Many populations have serotinous cones that open only after fire.
tree
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.
succulent
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.
succulent
Flowering Tobacco
An ornamental relative of commercial tobacco grown for its tubular, star-shaped flowers that open and release a jasmine-like scent in the evening. It comes in white, green, red and pink, attracting moths and hummingbirds.
flower
Lemon Button Fern
The Lemon Button Fern is a dwarf sword fern with small, round leaflets and a faint lemony scent when handled. Compact and forgiving, it's one of the easiest ferns for desks, terrariums, and bathrooms.
fern
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.
succulent
Larkspur
A cool-season annual related to delphinium, bearing tall spikes of spurred blue, purple, pink or white flowers above feathery foliage. It is a cottage-garden classic and an excellent cut flower.
flower
Foamflower
Foamflower is a charming native woodland perennial with maple-like, often patterned leaves and frothy spikes of tiny, star-shaped white or pink flowers in spring. It forms a delicate groundcover for shady gardens.
flower
Lavender
An aromatic Mediterranean shrub-herb grown for its fragrant purple flower spikes and silvery foliage. Lavender thrives on sun, lean soil, and minimal water.
herb
Floss Flower
Floss flower is a compact annual covered in fluffy, thread-like clusters of blue, lavender, pink, or white blooms that flower nonstop all summer.
flower
Lily of the Valley
A low, spreading shade groundcover with arching sprays of tiny, intensely fragrant white bells in spring. Beautiful and beloved, with broad glossy leaves rising from creeping rhizomes.
flower
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.
succulent
Lemon Tree
The lemon is a small evergreen citrus tree grown for its fragrant yellow fruit. Glossy leaves, perfumed white blossom and year-round fruit make it a favorite for warm gardens and sunny containers.
tree
Flowering Plum
The flowering plum is a small deciduous ornamental tree grown for its early pink or white spring blossoms and, in popular purple-leaf forms, its deep burgundy foliage. It is a favorite accent tree for gardens and streets.
tree
Kousa Dogwood
Kousa dogwood is an elegant small tree with pointed white bracts in late spring, raspberry-like fruit, and striking exfoliating bark. It is more disease-resistant than the native flowering dogwood.
tree