Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Elephant Ear
A dramatic tropical plant grown for its huge, heart- or arrowhead-shaped leaves resembling elephant ears.
houseplant
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.
succulent
False Sunflower
False sunflower is a tough native perennial covered in golden-yellow daisy-like blooms all summer. It resembles a true sunflower but returns reliably year after year.
flower
Liatris
Liatris, also called blazing star or gayfeather, is a native prairie perennial with tall, fuzzy spikes of purple-pink flowers that uniquely open from the top down. A pollinator favorite, it adds vertical drama and butterfly traffic to sunny gardens.
flower
False Indigo
A long-lived, shrubby perennial legume with spires of indigo-blue, lupine-like flowers in late spring and attractive blue-green foliage all season.
flower
Kohlrabi
Kohlrabi is a cool-season cabbage relative grown for its crisp, swollen above-ground stem. It is a leafy garden vegetable in the cabbage family.
herb
Elephant Ear Plant
Elephant ear is grown for its enormous, heart-shaped leaves that can reach 2-3 ft across, lending a bold tropical look to gardens and large containers.
houseplant
Kentucky Coffeetree
A bold, coarse-textured native tree with enormous twice-compound leaves and thick leathery seedpods that persist into winter.
tree
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.
succulent
Key Lime
A small, thorny citrus tree producing tiny, highly aromatic green-to-yellow fruit. It is a fruiting tropical tree historically grown in the Florida Keys.
tree
False Shamrock
A bulbous plant with deep purple, triangular three-part leaves that fold up at night like butterfly wings. Easy to grow, it also produces dainty pale pink or white flowers.
houseplant
Leek
The leek is a hardy allium grown for its long, blanched white shank of tightly wrapped leaf bases. Cold-tolerant and slow-growing, it is a classic autumn and winter garden vegetable.
herb
Feverfew
Feverfew is a bushy, aromatic herb covered in small white daisy flowers with yellow centers. It is a cheerful, easy cottage-garden plant with feathery, citrus-scented foliage.
herb
Lemon Cypress
Lemon Cypress is a bright chartreuse-yellow cultivar of Monterey Cypress whose foliage smells of lemon when brushed. It is popular as a potted topiary and small landscape conifer.
tree
False Aralia
False aralia is grown for its delicate, lacy foliage - slender, saw-toothed leaflets that radiate like fingers and emerge coppery before darkening to near-black green. It brings a fine, airy texture to bright indoor spaces.
houseplant
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.
succulent
Elderberry
Elderberry is a fast-growing deciduous shrub bearing large creamy flower clusters in early summer and drooping bunches of small dark purple-black berries in late summer.
shrub
Live Oak
Live oak is a massive, sprawling evergreen oak of the American South, famous for wide spreading limbs draped in Spanish moss and an extremely strong, dense wood.
tree
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.
succulent
Leyland Cypress
Leyland cypress is an extremely fast-growing evergreen conifer hybrid widely planted for hedges and privacy screens. Dense and columnar, it offers quick cover but can quickly outgrow its space if not maintained.
tree
Edamame
Edamame is a warm-season legume in the pea family, a bushy annual grown from young green soybeans. The plant fixes its own nitrogen and forms fuzzy green pods.
herb
Kwanzan Cherry
A flowering cherry prized for its showy, fully double, deep-pink pompom blossoms in mid-spring. Its upright vase shape and dense blooms make it a popular street and lawn tree.
tree
Escallonia
Escallonia is a glossy-leaved evergreen shrub from South America, prized for its long display of small pink, red or white flowers. It makes an excellent hedge in mild, coastal climates.
shrub
Lilac Tree
The Japanese lilac tree is the tree-form member of the lilac family, producing huge creamy-white fragrant flower plumes in early summer. It is a tough, compact street and lawn tree.
tree
English Daisy
The English daisy is a low, cheerful perennial with white-to-pink petaled flowers around a yellow center, beloved in cottage gardens and famous as the daisy of lawns and daisy-chains.
flower
Lettuce
Lettuce is a fast-growing leafy annual in the daisy family, a cool-season garden staple. It comes in loose-leaf, romaine, butterhead, and crisphead types.
herb
Devils Ivy
Devil's ivy, or golden pothos, is one of the world's most popular and indestructible houseplants, a fast-growing tropical vine with glossy, heart-shaped leaves marbled in gold.
houseplant
Lambsquarters
Lambsquarters is a fast-growing annual weed with mealy, diamond-shaped (goosefoot) leaves and a whitish, mealy coating on new growth.
herb
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
Liquidambar
A large deciduous shade tree known for its star-shaped leaves that blaze red, purple, and orange in autumn, and its spiky round seed balls. It is a classic American street and park tree.
tree
Dragon Blood Tree
The dragon blood tree is a strange, umbrella-shaped tree endemic to Yemen's Socotra Island, named for the deep-red resin it exudes. Its dense canopy of upturned branches resembles an inside-out umbrella.
tree
Licorice
A deep-rooted leguminous perennial grown for its long taproot system. It thrives in warm climates and rich, sandy soils.
herb
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a fast-growing, aromatic Australian tree prized for its fragrant, oil-rich foliage and distinctive peeling bark. The blue gum is one of the most widely planted species worldwide for timber and ornamental use.
tree
Lipstick Plant
A trailing tropical epiphyte named for its tubular red flowers that emerge from dark, lipstick-tube-shaped buds. It makes a lush, flowering hanging-basket plant when given warmth and bright light.
houseplant
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.
succulent
Lemon Lime Dracaena
Lemon Lime Dracaena is a vivid cultivar with chartreuse-and-green striped leaves that brighten any room. Easy and upright-growing, it offers the durability of Dracaena with a punch of color.
houseplant
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.
succulent
Iris
Irises are elegant perennials with sword-like leaves and intricate flowers featuring upright "standards" and drooping "falls." The bearded iris is the most widely grown garden type.
flower
Dutchman's Breeches
A delicate spring ephemeral whose white, pantaloon-shaped flowers hang in a row like tiny upside-down breeches. It blooms early in woodlands then vanishes by summer.
flower
Jalapeno
The jalapeno is a chili pepper, a cultivar of Capsicum annuum that bears green pods ripening to red. It is easy to grow and productive in warm, sunny conditions.
herb
Dog Fennel
Dog fennel is a tall, feathery-leaved native weed of the southeastern United States that forms dense stands in old fields and roadsides and has an aromatic, somewhat unpleasant scent.
herb
Italian Cypress
Italian Cypress is a tall, narrow columnar conifer iconic of Mediterranean landscapes. Its slender pillar form makes it a dramatic vertical accent in gardens.
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
Joseph's Coat
Joseph's coat is a colorful foliage plant grown for its vividly variegated leaves in shades of red, orange, yellow, pink, and green. It is widely used for low edging, patterns, and container accents.
houseplant
Dianthus
Dianthus, commonly called pinks or carnations, are flowering plants known for their fringed, clove-scented blooms in shades of pink, red, white and bicolor. They are classic cottage-garden favorites that bloom prolifically in cool weather.
flower
Japanese Stiltgrass
Japanese stiltgrass is an aggressive annual grass from Asia that has become one of the most damaging invasive plants in eastern North American forests and shaded yards. It forms dense, sprawling mats that crowd out native ground flora.
grass
Diascia
Diascia, or twinspur, is a low, free-flowering plant covered in delicate coral, pink, or apricot blooms. It is a popular cool-season filler for containers, baskets, and edging.
flower
Jack-in-the-Pulpit
An unusual woodland perennial named for its hooded flower structure resembling a preacher (Jack) standing in a canopied pulpit. It can change sex from year to year and produces a cluster of bright red berries in fall.
flower