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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Oleander

Oleander is a heat- and drought-loving evergreen shrub with showy clusters of pink, white, or red flowers all summer. Beautiful and tough, it is a mainstay of warm-climate landscapes.

shrub

Daffodil

A cheerful spring bulb with trumpet-centered yellow or white flowers, among the first to bloom after winter. Daffodils are hardy, deer-resistant, and reliably perennial.

flower

Turnip

The turnip is a fast-growing cool-season root crop with a white-and-purple swollen root, grown widely in vegetable gardens.

herb

Rutabaga

Rutabaga is a hardy root crop, a cross between cabbage and turnip, grown for its large, dense, yellow-fleshed root. It is very cold-tolerant and stores well.

herb

Heavenly Bamboo

An evergreen-to-semi-evergreen shrub with lacy, bamboo-like foliage that flushes red in cool weather, plus white summer flowers and showy red winter berries. Despite the name, it is not a true bamboo.

shrub

Australian Willow

Australian Willow is a graceful evergreen tree with weeping, willow-like foliage that is not a true willow but a member of the citrus family. Prized as a tough, low-litter street and shade tree for hot, dry climates.

tree

American Beech

A majestic, slow-growing native hardwood with smooth silvery-gray bark and golden fall leaves that often cling through winter. A dominant tree of eastern forests.

tree

Watercress

Watercress is a fast-growing semi-aquatic perennial in the cabbage family, with crisp dark-green leaves on sprawling, rooting stems. It naturally grows in cool, clean flowing water.

herb

Kumquat

A small evergreen citrus producing tiny oval orange fruit. It is among the most cold-hardy citrus and a popular compact container plant.

tree

Ironweed

A tall, robust native perennial crowned in late summer with clusters of intensely purple flowers. Its tough, wiry stems and iron-hard durability give it its name.

flower

String of Dolphins

A trailing succulent whose curved leaves look like tiny leaping dolphins. A hybrid of string of pearls and candle plant, it makes a charming, sun-loving hanging plant.

succulent

Musk Thistle

Musk thistle is a spiny biennial weed with large, nodding rose-purple flower heads; native to Eurasia, it is an aggressive invader of pastures and rangelands across North America.

flower

Parlor Palm

A compact, slow-growing palm that thrives in low light, making it a classic indoor plant since Victorian times. It forms delicate clumps of feathery green fronds.

houseplant

Coleus

Coleus is a vibrant foliage plant grown for its endlessly varied leaves in shades of red, pink, green, purple, and gold. Easy to grow and propagate, it is a favorite for containers and shady beds.

houseplant

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

Impatiens

Impatiens are shade-loving annuals that smother themselves in flat, colorful flowers all summer, thriving where few other bedding plants will bloom. Their name refers to seed pods that burst open at a touch.

flower

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.

tree

Kentucky Coffeetree

A bold, coarse-textured native tree with enormous twice-compound leaves and thick leathery seedpods that persist into winter.

tree

Money Tree

A tropical tree often sold with a braided trunk and a crown of hand-shaped leaves, popular as a feng shui symbol of prosperity. It is easy-going and low-maintenance.

tree

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.

tree

Collard Greens

Collard greens are a hardy, non-heading form of cabbage grown for their large, broad blue-green leaves. A leafy garden vegetable, they are cold-tolerant and productive over a long season.

herb

Love-in-a-Mist

A delicate cottage-garden annual whose blue, white or pink flowers nestle in a misty halo of thread-like foliage, followed by ornamental inflated seed pods. Both the airy blooms and the balloon-like pods are prized for fresh and dried arrangements.

flower

Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squash is a winter squash that grows as an oval yellow fruit on vigorous summer vines. The fruit stores well into fall and winter.

herb

Loblolly Pine

Loblolly pine is a fast-growing evergreen conifer of the southeastern United States and the region's most important timber tree. Tall and straight with long needles, it dominates southern forests and plantations.

tree