Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Warneckii Dracaena
Warneckii Dracaena is a cultivar with sword-shaped green leaves edged and striped in white and gray-green. Architectural and tough, it's a long-standing favorite for low-maintenance interior greenery.
houseplant
Thimbleberry
Thimbleberry is a thornless North American shrub with large maple-like leaves, white flowers, and soft red berries shaped like thimbles. It thrives in cool, shaded woodlands.
shrub
Verbena
Verbenas are sun-loving plants that produce dense clusters of small, vivid flowers over long seasons, attracting butterflies and bees. They range from low spreading bedding types to tall airy border perennials.
flower
Virginia Pine
A small, scrubby pine of the eastern United States that readily colonizes old fields and poor soils. Its short, twisted needles and persistent cones make it a common early-successional and Christmas-tree species.
tree
Woolly Senecio
A striking succulent whose cylindrical leaves are wrapped in dense, silvery-white felt, like little woolly cocoons. The bright white woolly coating makes it one of the whitest of all succulents.
succulent
Wax Plant
The wax plant is a long-lived trailing vine with thick, waxy leaves and clusters of star-shaped, sweetly scented flowers that look almost like porcelain.
houseplant
Yarrow
Yarrow is a tough, drought-tolerant perennial with feathery foliage and flat-topped clusters of tiny flowers. It is a popular low-maintenance plant for pollinator and meadow gardens.
herb
Wild Geranium
A graceful woodland perennial bearing saucer-shaped pink to lavender flowers above deeply lobed leaves in late spring. It is a true hardy geranium, distinct from the tender garden 'geraniums' that are actually pelargoniums.
flower
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
Red Oak
Northern red oak is a fast-growing, adaptable shade tree with pointed, bristle-tipped leaf lobes and reddish fall color. Its strong wood is a leading commercial hardwood across eastern North America.
tree
Zebra Cactus
A small rosette succulent with stiff, dark green leaves banded by raised white stripes, like a zebra. Compact, slow-growing, and beginner-friendly.
succulent
Tickseed
A cheerful, sun-loving daisy-family wildflower bearing masses of golden-yellow blooms over a long summer season, beloved for its toughness and pollinator appeal.
flower
Sugar Pine
Sugar Pine is the world's tallest and most massive pine, native to the western U.S. and famous for its enormous, foot-plus-long cones.
tree
Sourwood
Sourwood is a graceful native North American tree with drooping clusters of white lily-of-the-valley-like summer flowers and outstanding scarlet fall foliage.
tree
Spirea
A versatile, easy-care deciduous shrub grown for clusters of pink or white flowers and often colorful foliage. Compact and reliable, spirea suits borders, mass plantings and low informal hedges.
shrub
Snowball Cactus
A clustering pincushion cactus wrapped in soft white, hair-like spines that give it a fluffy, snowball appearance. Easy to grow and quick to form charming colonies.
succulent
Tarragon
Tarragon is an aromatic culinary herb grown in gardens for its slender, glossy, anise-scented foliage. The 'French' type rarely sets viable seed and is propagated by division or cuttings.
herb
Shepherd's Purse
Shepherd's purse is a common annual weed of the mustard family named for its distinctive heart-shaped seed pods, found in gardens, fields, and roadsides worldwide.
herb
Summersweet
A late-summer-blooming deciduous shrub with upright spikes of intensely fragrant white or pink flowers that draw bees and butterflies. Native to eastern North America, it thrives in moist, shady spots.
shrub
Yellow Woodsorrel
Yellow woodsorrel is a common clover-like weed with heart-shaped leaflets and small yellow flowers. It self-sows aggressively in lawns, gardens, and pots.
herb
String Of Pearls
A trailing succulent prized for its cascading strands of round, pea-like leaves. Its bead-shaped foliage stores water, making it drought-tolerant but prone to rot if overwatered.
succulent
Sweetspire
A North American deciduous shrub with drooping, fragrant white flower spikes in early summer and outstanding long-lasting crimson-to-burgundy fall color. Thrives in moist soils and tolerates shade.
shrub
Toadshade
Toadshade is a woodland trillium with mottled leaves and a stalkless, maroon, upright flower that never fully opens. It is a charming spring ephemeral of eastern North American forests.
flower
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
ZZ Plant
The ZZ plant is an exceptionally tough houseplant with glossy, waxy leaves and thick water-storing rhizomes that let it survive drought and low light. It is nearly indestructible and ideal for beginners or neglectful owners.
houseplant
Threadleaf False Cypress
Threadleaf false cypress is an evergreen conifer with long, drooping, whip-like thread foliage that gives a soft, mounding, weeping texture. Golden forms are especially popular as garden accents.
tree
Viburnum
A large, diverse genus of deciduous and evergreen shrubs grown for showy spring flower clusters, often fragrant, plus colorful berries and fall foliage. Easy, adaptable, and beloved for hedges and borders.
shrub
Winterberry
Winterberry is a deciduous holly native to eastern North America, prized for the dense clusters of brilliant red berries that cling to its bare branches through winter. Unlike most hollies it drops its leaves, leaving a striking show of fruit against snow.
shrub
Thanksgiving Cactus
The Thanksgiving cactus is a forest cactus that blooms in late autumn with colorful, tubular flowers. It is distinguished from the Christmas cactus by the sharp, claw-like teeth on its flattened stem segments.
succulent
Spearmint
Spearmint is a fast-spreading, aromatic perennial herb grown in gardens. Vigorous and easy to grow, it is best contained in a pot to keep it from taking over the garden.
herb
Silver Fir
Silver Fir is a tall European forest conifer with flat, glossy needles bearing two silvery bands beneath. It was the original Christmas tree of central Europe and is an important timber species.
tree
Watermelon Peperomia
A compact houseplant with rounded leaves striped in silver and dark green that mimic watermelon rind, held on slender red stems. Tidy and easy to grow.
houseplant
Sitka Spruce
Sitka Spruce is the largest spruce in the world, a towering conifer of the cool, wet Pacific Northwest coast. Its strong, lightweight wood is prized for aircraft, boats, and musical instruments.
tree
Swamp White Oak
Swamp white oak is an adaptable white oak of moist North American bottomlands, with two-toned leaves that are green above and silvery beneath. It is a popular, easy-to-grow shade and street tree.
tree
Tayberry
A cultivated cross between a blackberry and a red raspberry, producing long, dark-red berries that are larger than either parent. It grows on vigorous, trailing canes.
shrub
Snowberry
Snowberry is a hardy, suckering deciduous shrub best known for its clusters of plump, white, marble-like berries that persist into winter. It is exceptionally tough and thrives almost anywhere.
shrub
Siberian Bugloss
Siberian bugloss is a shade perennial grown for its large, heart-shaped leaves, often silvered, and sprays of dainty blue flowers resembling forget-me-nots in spring. It is a workhorse for woodland gardens.
flower
Tamarind Tree
The tamarind is a large, long-lived tropical fruiting tree in the legume family, producing brown seed pods. It is heat- and drought-tolerant but frost-sensitive.
tree
Starfish Cactus
A clumping stem succulent that produces enormous, hairy, star-shaped maroon flowers resembling a starfish. The blooms smell of carrion to attract flies, earning it the name carrion plant.
succulent
Swiss Chard
Swiss chard is a leafy form of beet grown for its glossy leaves and colorful stalks. Easy, productive and heat- and cold-tolerant, it produces over a long season with cut-and-come-again leaf growth.
herb
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
Snowbell Tree
A graceful small tree that hangs with rows of fragrant, bell-shaped white flowers in late spring. Its horizontal branching shows the dangling blooms off to perfection.
tree
Shore Pine
Shore Pine is the coastal form of the lodgepole pine, a tough, twisted two-needle pine of the Pacific coast. Its irregular, picturesque shape makes it popular for seaside gardens and bonsai.
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
Sorrel
Sorrel is a leafy perennial herb in the dock family, grown in herb and vegetable gardens for its bright green, arrow-shaped leaves. It grows from a deep taproot and is among the earliest greens to emerge in spring.
herb
Thimble Cactus
A tiny clustering cactus that produces masses of little thimble-sized offsets which detach at the slightest touch. The pale spines give the cluster a soft, frosty look.
succulent
Smoke Tree
A deciduous shrub or small tree named for the airy, smoke-like plumes of fading flower stalks that envelop it in summer. Many cultivars also feature striking purple foliage.
shrub
Trout Lily
A delicate spring ephemeral named for its mottled, trout-patterned leaves and nodding yellow lily flowers. It forms vast, slow-spreading woodland colonies that can be over a century old.
flower