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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Sweet Woodruff

Sweet woodruff is a low, spreading groundcover herb with whorls of slender green leaves and clusters of tiny white star-shaped flowers in spring. When dried, its foliage releases a sweet, hay-and-vanilla scent and it carpets shady ground beautifully.

herb

Clematis

Clematis is a versatile climbing vine renowned for its large, showy flowers that cover trellises, fences, and arbors in a spectacular seasonal display.

shrub

Fringe Tree

A small native tree or large shrub that produces airy, cloud-like clusters of fragrant, fringe-like white flowers in late spring. Its feathery blooms give it the name old man's beard.

tree

Flowering Dogwood

Flowering dogwood is a beloved small ornamental tree whose spring branches are clouded in showy white or pink bracts. It offers four-season interest with summer berries, scarlet fall color, and tiered branching.

tree

Meadowsweet

Meadowsweet is a graceful wetland perennial topped with frothy, almond-scented cream flowers carried in branched plumes above pinnate foliage.

herb

Old Man Cactus

A columnar cactus famously cloaked in long, shaggy white hairs that resemble an old man's beard. The wool shields the plant from sun and cold while hiding sharp spines beneath.

succulent

Staghorn Fern

The staghorn fern is a dramatic epiphytic fern whose fertile fronds branch like antlers. It grows mounted on wood or in baskets rather than in ordinary soil.

fern

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

Blue Flame Cactus

A fast-growing, heavily branching columnar cactus with powdery blue-green ribbed stems. Its many upright arms cluster like dancing flames, hence the name.

succulent

Saucer Magnolia

A deciduous magnolia famous for large, goblet-shaped pink-and-white blooms that open on bare branches in early spring. It is one of the most widely planted flowering trees in temperate gardens.

tree

Firesticks

A pencil-thin, branching succulent whose cylindrical stems turn brilliant orange, red, and yellow in cool, sunny weather. It is a dramatic landscape and container plant with slender, leafless stems.

succulent

Weeping Cherry

The weeping cherry is an ornamental flowering cherry with gracefully cascading branches smothered in pink or white blossoms each spring. Its waterfall silhouette makes it a popular specimen and lawn focal point.

tree

Persian Ironwood

Persian ironwood is a tough, slow-growing tree celebrated for spectacular multicolored fall foliage and beautiful flaking bark. Its tiny red flowers appear on bare branches in late winter.

tree

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

Stevia

Stevia is a tender perennial herb in the daisy family, native to South America. It forms a bushy, branching plant grown in gardens and containers.

herb

Weeping Willow

Weeping willow is a graceful, fast-growing tree famous for its long, cascading branches that sweep the ground. It thrives beside ponds and streams, where its moisture-loving roots feel at home.

tree

Forsythia

A tough deciduous shrub that bursts into brilliant yellow flowers along bare branches in early spring, before its leaves appear. One of the earliest and most reliable harbingers of spring in temperate gardens.

shrub

Norfolk Island Pine

Norfolk Island Pine is a tropical conifer with symmetrical tiers of soft, feathery branches, popular as a houseplant and living Christmas tree. It is not a true pine.

houseplant

Hollywood Juniper

Hollywood Juniper is a sculptural Chinese juniper cultivar famous for its dramatically twisted, irregular branches and rich green scale-like foliage.

shrub

Jabuticaba

A slow-growing Brazilian tree remarkable for producing its grape-like purple-black fruit directly on the trunk and main branches (cauliflory).

tree

Pin Oak

Pin oak is a fast-growing deciduous oak known for its distinctive layered branching, deeply lobed bristle-tipped leaves, and brilliant red fall color, making it a popular street and park tree.

tree

Medlar Tree

The medlar is an ancient, gnarled deciduous tree in the rose family, grown for its large white spring flowers, twisted branches, and distinctive russet-brown fruit with a wide open calyx. Hardy and low-maintenance.

tree

Baobab Tree

The baobab is an iconic African tree with a massive, swollen, water-storing trunk and stout branches that look like roots, earning it the name upside-down tree. Some specimens live over a thousand years.

tree

Pencil Cactus

A nearly leafless succulent shrub whose mass of slender, pencil-thick green branches gives it a coral-like silhouette. It is striking and easy to grow.

succulent