Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Strawflower
An Australian annual prized for its papery, daisy-like bracts that keep their bright color long after cutting, making it a favorite for dried-flower arrangements. The crisp, straw-textured petals come in gold, orange, red, pink and white.
flower
Globe Amaranth
A heat-loving annual grown for its round, clover-like flower heads of papery bracts in magenta, purple, pink, white or orange. The everlasting blooms keep their color when dried and stand up beautifully to summer heat and humidity.
flower
Rainbow Eucalyptus
A towering tropical tree whose smooth bark sheds in patches to reveal streaks of green, blue, orange, purple, and maroon, like a living rainbow. It is the only eucalyptus native to the Northern Hemisphere.
tree
Prickly Lettuce
Prickly lettuce is a tall annual or biennial weed and the closest wild relative of cultivated lettuce. It is recognized by spiny leaf midribs, milky sap, and leaves that twist to align vertically like a compass.
herb
Plum Yew
Plum Yew is a shade-tolerant evergreen conifer resembling a yew but with longer needles and plum-like fleshy seed cones. It is valued as a tough, deer-resistant landscape shrub for shady gardens.
shrub
Pinstripe Calathea
The Pinstripe Calathea is a striking prayer plant with dark green leaves finely lined in pink or white, like delicate pinstripes. Beautiful but demanding, it rewards careful humidity and watering with vivid foliage.
houseplant
Lawson Cypress
Lawson Cypress, or Port Orford Cedar, is a tall, graceful conifer of the Pacific Northwest with flattened, fern-like fragrant foliage. It has produced hundreds of garden cultivars in many colors and forms.
tree
Hoya Carnosa
Hoya Carnosa is an easygoing trailing houseplant with thick, waxy leaves and clusters of star-shaped, sweetly scented flowers. Long-lived and forgiving, it rewards patience with stunning porcelain-like blooms.
houseplant
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
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
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
Coreopsis
Coreopsis, or tickseed, is a cheerful, sun-loving plant smothered in daisy-like flowers, usually golden yellow, from early summer to fall. It's tough, drought-tolerant and a magnet for pollinators.
flower
Weeping Birch
Weeping birch is the European white or silver birch, prized for its chalky white peeling bark and slender pendulous branchlets that sway in the breeze. Cultivars like 'Youngii' form a strongly weeping dome.
tree
Saguaro Cactus
The saguaro is the iconic giant columnar cactus of the Sonoran Desert, growing into a towering tree-like form with upraised arms. It is slow-growing and extraordinarily long-lived, reaching well over 150 years.
succulent
Monstera Esqueleto
A climbing Monstera whose mature leaves develop enormous, elongated fenestrations that open all the way to the leaf edge, leaving a skeletal, lace-like blade. It is a dramatic large-leaved collector's aroid.
houseplant
Lamb's Ear
Lamb's ear is a drought-tolerant perennial grown for its soft, silvery, densely woolly leaves that feel like felt. It forms low spreading mats topped by fuzzy flower spikes in summer.
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
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
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
Buddhist Pine
Buddhist Pine is a versatile evergreen conifer with long, soft, strap-like leaves, widely grown as a hedge, container plant, houseplant, and bonsai. Native to East Asia, it tolerates pruning and shade well.
shrub
Bee Balm
A fragrant North American native with shaggy, crown-like flowers in red, pink, or purple that are irresistible to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Its aromatic leaves release a citrusy, minty scent when crushed.
herb
Natal Plum
Natal plum is a glossy, spiny evergreen shrub from South Africa with fragrant white flowers and red plum-like fruit. It is a tough, salt-tolerant choice for warm-climate hedges and coastal gardens.
shrub
Foxtail Pine
Foxtail Pine is a long-lived, high-elevation pine of California, named for its dense bottlebrush-like foliage. A close relative of the bristlecone pines, it survives harsh alpine conditions for over a thousand years.
tree
Stokes' Aster
Stokes' aster is a clump-forming perennial bearing large, frilly, cornflower-like blooms in blue, purple, white, or pink atop neat evergreen foliage. It is a long-blooming, heat-tolerant native of the southeastern US.
flower