Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Dogwood
Flowering dogwood is a small ornamental tree beloved for its spring display of showy white or pink bracts. Native to eastern North America, it offers four-season interest with berries and red fall foliage.
tree
Japanese Knotweed
Japanese knotweed is an aggressive bamboo-like perennial that spreads by powerful rhizomes, damaging pavement and buildings and ranking among the world's worst invasive plants.
shrub
Dwarf Umbrella Tree
The Dwarf Umbrella Tree has glossy leaflets arranged like the spokes of an umbrella radiating from each stem. It is a popular, fast-growing indoor plant and a favorite subject for bonsai.
houseplant
Kale
Kale is a hardy leafy green in the cabbage family that forms loose leaves rather than a head. It tolerates cold weather well.
herb
Engelmann Spruce
Engelmann Spruce is a tall, narrow conifer of high western mountains, often forming dense subalpine forests near treeline. Its soft, resonant wood is prized for musical instrument soundboards.
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
Daisy
The classic low-growing daisy with white petals and a yellow center, often seen dotting lawns and meadows. Cheerful, hardy, and easy to grow.
flower
Jewelweed
A native North American annual with dangling orange spotted flowers and seed pods that burst open at a touch. Jewelweed forms colonies in moist, shady habitats.
flower
Cumin
Cumin is a small annual herb in the carrot family grown for its seeds, a widely used culinary spice. It needs a long, hot, sunny season to ripen.
herb
Kentia Palm
The kentia palm is an elegant, slow-growing feather palm from Australia's Lord Howe Island, famed since Victorian times as one of the most durable and graceful indoor palms.
houseplant
Cucumber
Cucumber is a warm-season vining plant in the gourd family, grown for its long green fruits. It is fast-growing and productive when given heat, sun, and steady moisture.
herb
Jasmine
A climbing shrub famous for intensely fragrant, star-shaped white flowers that perfume summer evenings. Common jasmine is vigorous and grown on trellises and walls.
shrub
Dawn Redwood
A fast-growing 'living fossil' conifer that drops its feathery needles each fall, once known only from fossils until living trees were discovered in China in the 1940s.
tree
Juniper
A tough, evergreen coniferous shrub (some species small trees) with needle-like or scale-like foliage and blue berry-like cones. Junipers range from low groundcovers to upright forms and thrive in poor, dry soils.
shrub
Delphinium
Delphiniums are stately cottage-garden perennials famed for their towering spires of intensely blue (or purple, pink, and white) flowers. Their dramatic vertical form makes them a classic centerpiece of the summer border.
flower
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
Culver's Root
Culver's root is a tall, elegant North American prairie perennial with whorled leaves and slender, candelabra-like spires of white to pale-lilac flowers. It is a magnet for bees and butterflies in summer.
flower
Jujube Tree
The jujube is a hardy, drought-tolerant fruiting tree whose fruit turns from green to mahogany red. It is among the easiest trees to grow in hot, dry climates.
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
Hyssop
An aromatic, semi-evergreen Mediterranean shrub-herb in the mint family, bearing spikes of deep blue flowers loved by bees.
herb
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.
succulent
Irish Yew
Irish Yew is a distinctive columnar cultivar of English yew with a tight, upright form, dark needles whorled around the stems, and red arils.
shrub
Coulter Pine
A rugged southern California and Baja conifer famous for producing the heaviest pine cones in the world, sometimes weighing up to 5 pounds. Its stout, spiny cones and long blue-green needles make it unmistakable.
tree
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
Dahlia
A tuberous flower prized for spectacular, intricate blooms ranging from small pompoms to dinner-plate giants. Dahlias bloom from summer to frost in a huge color range.
flower
Holy Basil
Holy basil, or tulsi, is an aromatic herb in the mint family, sacred in Hinduism. More clove-scented than sweet basil, it is grown in gardens and containers and traditionally near homes and temples.
herb
Creeping Charlie
Creeping Charlie is a low, aromatic perennial in the mint family that spreads aggressively by creeping stems to form dense mats in lawns and shady gardens. Its scalloped, round leaves and small blue-violet flowers make it easy to recognize and notoriously hard to eradicate.
herb
Horseradish
A hardy perennial in the cabbage family grown for its thick, white taproot. Vigorous and long-lived, it can become invasive once established.
herb
Cup Plant
A towering North American prairie perennial whose paired leaves fuse around the square stem to form water-holding cups beneath bright yellow daisy flowers.
flower
Jackfruit Tree
A large tropical evergreen tree that produces the biggest tree-borne fruit in the world, with enormous spiky green fruit growing directly on the trunk and main branches.
tree
Deodar Cedar
Deodar Cedar is a graceful true cedar with gently drooping branches and soft blue-green needles. It is a popular large ornamental tree with an elegant, weeping silhouette.
tree
Hoya Rope Plant
A curiously twisted cultivar of the wax plant whose thick, curled and folded leaves cling tightly to trailing stems, resembling braided rope. It produces clusters of fragrant, star-shaped waxy flowers.
houseplant
Cypress Vine
A delicate, fast-growing morning-glory relative with lacy, fern-like foliage and small star-shaped red, pink or white flowers that hummingbirds love. It quickly climbs trellises and fences with feathery, airy growth.
flower
Hosta
The premier foliage perennial for shade, grown for bold mounds of ribbed leaves in greens, blues, golds, and variegated patterns. Lavender or white flower spikes are a summer bonus.
houseplant
Cocklebur
Cocklebur is a coarse annual weed famous for its hard, hooked burs that cling to fur and clothing. It is a serious agricultural and pasture pest.
herb
Horse Chestnut
Horse chestnut is a large deciduous shade tree famous for its showy upright spikes of spring flowers and shiny brown conkers in spiky husks.
tree
Clarkia
A graceful western North American annual bearing satiny, cup-shaped flowers in pink, lavender, and salmon, beloved for cool-season color and as a cut flower.
flower
Hyacinth
Hyacinth is a spring bulb that produces dense, upright spikes of waxy, star-shaped flowers in vivid colors, prized for their powerful sweet fragrance.
flower
Daphne
Daphne is a compact evergreen shrub famous for intensely fragrant late-winter flowers. It is gorgeous but finicky, demanding perfect drainage and resenting disturbance.
shrub
Impatiens
Impatiens are shade-loving annuals that smother themselves in flat, colorful flowers all summer, thriving where few other bedding plants will bloom. Their name refers to seed pods that burst open at a touch.
flower
Corn Poppy
An annual wildflower famed for its papery, blood-red blooms that carpet European fields and serve as the international symbol of wartime remembrance.
flower
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.
succulent
Dandelion
The dandelion is a familiar, resilient perennial with sunny yellow flowers and toothed leaves, widely recognized as both a common lawn weed and a cheerful wildflower.
herb
Janet Craig Dracaena
Janet Craig is a popular Dracaena cultivar with glossy, solid dark-green strap leaves on upright canes. Exceptionally tolerant of low light and neglect, it's a staple of homes and offices.
houseplant
Cloudberry
Cloudberry is a low-growing Arctic and subarctic plant bearing distinctive amber berries. It demands cold, acidic, boggy conditions and is notoriously difficult to cultivate.
herb
Indian Hawthorn
Indian hawthorn is a compact evergreen shrub with leathery leaves, fragrant pink or white spring flowers, and blue-black berries. It is a low-care favorite for warm-climate landscapes.
shrub
Cup and Saucer Vine
Cup and saucer vine is a vigorous climbing plant grown for its large bell-shaped flowers that open green and age to deep purple. It can scramble 15-20 feet in a single season using grasping tendrils.
flower
Horsetail
An ancient, fern-related plant with jointed, hollow stems and whorls of needle-like branches that resemble a horse's tail. It is a persistent weed of damp ground, spreading by deep rhizomes and reproducing by spores.
fern