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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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.

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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.

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Scotch Pine

Scotch Pine is a widespread evergreen conifer known for its distinctive orange-red upper bark and blue-green twisted needles. It is one of the most common Christmas trees and a major timber species.

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Ponderosa Pine

Ponderosa pine is a tall, drought-hardy evergreen conifer of western North America, known for its long needles, large cones and puzzle-piece bark that smells of vanilla or butterscotch. It is a major western timber tree.

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Piñon Pine

Piñon Pine is a small, drought-hardy pine of the American Southwest and the state tree of New Mexico. It is a defining species of arid pinyon-juniper woodlands.

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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.

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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.

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Bristlecone Pine

Bristlecone Pine is among the longest-lived organisms on Earth, with individuals exceeding 4,800 years old. These gnarled, weathered conifers cling to harsh, high-elevation mountains of the American West.

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Japanese Larch

Japanese Larch is a fast-growing deciduous conifer whose soft needles turn brilliant gold before dropping in autumn. Native to Japan, it is a popular timber tree and a favorite for bonsai.

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Japanese Cedar

Japanese Cedar, or sugi, is a tall, fast-growing evergreen conifer native to Japan and the national tree of that country. It has soft, awl-shaped needles and reddish, fibrous, peeling bark.

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Japanese Maple

A small, elegant ornamental tree prized for delicate, deeply lobed leaves in shades of red, green and purple, and spectacular fall color. A centerpiece of Japanese gardens.

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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.

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Bloodgood Japanese Maple

Bloodgood is the classic deep-red Japanese maple, holding its dark burgundy-purple leaf color through summer better than most cultivars before turning crimson in fall. It is an elegant upright specimen tree.

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Eastern White Pine

A tall, fast-growing native conifer with soft blue-green needles in bundles of five and long, slender cones. The largest conifer of the northeastern forests and a historic timber tree.

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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.

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Skimmia

Skimmia is a compact, shade-loving evergreen shrub valued for fragrant spring flowers, ornamental red winter berries, and showy red flower buds that decorate the plant all winter.

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Loquat Tree

An evergreen subtropical fruit tree bearing clusters of orange fruit in late winter and spring. Ornamental and easy to grow, it offers lush foliage and unusually timed blossoms.

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Wisteria

Wisteria is a vigorous woody climbing vine famous for dramatic cascades of fragrant purple, blue, or white flowers in spring. It is beautiful but can become invasive and needs firm pruning.

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Plum Tree

The plum tree is a deciduous stone-fruit tree grown for its fruit and early spring blossom. European plums (Prunus domestica) and Japanese plums (Prunus salicina) are the main cultivated types.

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Lilac Tree

The Japanese lilac tree is the tree-form member of the lilac family, producing huge creamy-white fragrant flower plumes in early summer. It is a tough, compact street and lawn tree.

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Camellia

Camellias are elegant evergreen shrubs with glossy dark foliage and large, rose-like blooms in winter and early spring. Their long flowering season and lush leaves make them prized in shade gardens.

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Kerria

Kerria is a graceful deciduous shrub in the rose family, grown for its arching green stems and cheerful golden-yellow spring flowers. It is one of the few flowering shrubs that blooms well in shade.

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Pineapple Guava

Pineapple guava (feijoa) is a fruiting evergreen shrub with showy red-stamened flowers and aromatic green fruit. It is hardy, drought-tolerant, and ornamental.

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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.

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