Plant Encyclopedia

Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.

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Lilac

Lilacs are hardy deciduous shrubs cherished for their intensely fragrant spring flower clusters in shades of purple, lavender, pink, and white. They are long-lived and easy to grow in cold climates.

shrub

Lantana

Lantana is a tough, heat- and drought-tolerant flowering shrub whose rounded clusters of tiny blooms often shift color as they age. It is a magnet for butterflies but is invasive in many warm regions.

shrub

London Plane Tree

The London plane is a large, pollution-tolerant hybrid shade tree famous for its mottled, peeling camouflage bark and spherical seed balls, making it one of the world's most planted urban street trees.

tree

Heucherella

Heucherella, or foamy bells, is a colorful hybrid perennial combining the bold foliage of coral bells with the airy flower sprays of foamflower. It offers striking leaves in many colors plus dainty spring blooms.

flower

Jade Plant

The jade plant is a long-lived succulent with thick, glossy, oval leaves and woody stems that give it a miniature tree appearance. It is easy to grow, drought-tolerant, and often kept as a symbol of good luck.

succulent

Japanese Black Pine

Japanese Black Pine is a rugged coastal conifer with dark bark, stiff needles, and a picturesque irregular form. It is a classic bonsai and ornamental tree highly tolerant of salt and wind.

tree

Horseweed

Horseweed is a tall, weedy native annual with a single bristly stalk topped by clouds of tiny flowers; it is a prolific seeder and one of the first weeds to evolve widespread herbicide resistance.

herb

Japanese Aucuba

Japanese aucuba is a shade-loving evergreen shrub with bold, glossy leaves, often speckled gold, earning it the name gold dust plant. It brings light and color to dark, difficult corners.

shrub

Golden Shower Tree

The golden shower tree is a tropical flowering tree that drapes itself in long, hanging chains of brilliant golden-yellow blossoms in summer. It is the national tree and flower of Thailand and a beloved ornamental across the tropics.

tree

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

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

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

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

Coral Bells

A versatile mounding perennial grown chiefly for vivid foliage in shades of purple, amber, lime, and silver, accented by airy sprays of tiny bell-shaped flowers. A modern shade-garden favorite.

flower

Chaste Tree

The chaste tree is a Mediterranean deciduous shrub or small tree with aromatic, palmate foliage and slender spikes of lavender-blue summer flowers that attract bees and butterflies.

shrub

Barrenwort

Barrenwort is a tough, low groundcover for dry shade, with delicate spring flowers and heart-shaped leaves that often emerge and finish the season tinted red. It thrives where little else will.

flower

Bellflower

Bellflowers are a large group of perennials and biennials bearing bell- or star-shaped flowers, usually in blue, purple or white. They range from low rock-garden creepers to tall border plants.

flower

Baby's Breath

Baby's breath is an airy perennial producing clouds of tiny white or pink flowers on wiry, branching stems. It's a florist's staple as a delicate filler in bouquets and a soft accent in the garden.

flower

American Holly

American Holly is a slow-growing evergreen tree of the eastern United States, prized for its spiny leathery leaves and bright red winter berries. It is a classic source of holiday greenery.

tree

White Spruce

White Spruce is a hardy, widespread conifer of the northern forests of North America, valued for its dense conical form and tolerance of cold and poor soils. It is an important timber and Christmas tree species.

tree

Sweet Corn

Sweet corn is a tender annual grass and a variety of maize grown as a warm-season garden crop. It forms a tall, single stalk topped by a feathery tassel, with husk-wrapped ears lower down.

grass

Tulip Tree

One of the tallest eastern hardwoods, named for its showy tulip-shaped greenish-orange flowers and uniquely four-lobed leaves. A fast-growing member of the magnolia family.

tree

Virginia Bluebells

A beloved spring ephemeral whose pink buds open into clusters of nodding, sky-blue trumpet flowers. It blooms in woodland shade then dies back by summer, vanishing until the next spring.

flower

St. John's Wort

St. John's wort is a hardy yellow-flowered perennial with masses of five-petaled summer blooms. Tough and drought-tolerant, it is also a noxious weed in many grazing regions.

herb