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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American Elm

American elm is a stately deciduous tree famous for its graceful vase-shaped canopy, once a beloved street tree until Dutch elm disease devastated populations; disease-resistant cultivars now revive its use.

tree

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

Silver Maple

Silver maple is a fast-growing deciduous tree named for the silvery undersides of its deeply cut leaves, which flash in the wind; it is hardy and adaptable but has brittle wood prone to storm damage.

tree

Sassafras

An aromatic native tree known for its three differently shaped leaves on the same plant, spicy fragrance, and brilliant fall color.

tree

Mexican Giant

A large, statuesque echeveria forming a single chalky-white rosette that can span a foot or more. Heavy farina coating gives it a frosted, almost porcelain look.

succulent

Paper Birch

Paper birch is a northern tree famous for its peeling, chalky-white bark used historically for canoes and writing. It brings bright bark and golden fall color to cool, moist landscapes.

tree

Marshmallow

Marshmallow is a soft, downy wetland perennial in the mallow family, with velvety gray-green foliage and pale pink to white flowers. It grows in damp meadows and along riverbanks.

herb

Engelmann Spruce

Engelmann Spruce is a tall, narrow conifer of high western mountains, often forming dense subalpine forests near treeline. Its soft, resonant wood is prized for musical instrument soundboards.

tree

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

Plantain

Broadleaf plantain is a tough, low-growing lawn and trail-side herb (not the banana relative) with broad ribbed leaves arranged in a flat rosette. It is one of the most common colonizers of compacted ground.

herb

Lambsquarters

Lambsquarters is a fast-growing annual weed with mealy, diamond-shaped (goosefoot) leaves and a whitish, mealy coating on new growth.

herb

Bok Choy

Bok choy is a fast-growing Asian leafy green with crisp white stalks and tender dark leaves. A cool-season vegetable, it matures quickly and is widely grown in gardens.

herb

Anthurium Clarinervium

Anthurium Clarinervium is a striking foliage aroid with large, heart-shaped, velvety dark green leaves dramatically veined in contrasting silvery-white. Native to Mexican limestone forests, it is grown for its bold, textured foliage rather than flowers.

houseplant

Sweetbay Magnolia

Sweetbay magnolia is a graceful native North American tree with creamy, lemon-scented summer flowers and silvery-backed leaves. Unusually for a magnolia, it thrives in wet, swampy ground.

tree

Moonflower

A fast-growing tropical vine whose large, fragrant white flowers unfurl at dusk and bloom through the night, closing by morning. Related to morning glory, it is grown on trellises for evening fragrance and night-garden drama.

flower

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

Weeping Birch

Weeping birch is the European white or silver birch, prized for its chalky white peeling bark and slender pendulous branchlets that sway in the breeze. Cultivars like 'Youngii' form a strongly weeping dome.

tree

Broadleaf Plantain

Broadleaf plantain is a tough, low-growing perennial weed with a rosette of broad, ribbed leaves and slender flower spikes, found in lawns, paths and compacted ground worldwide. It is unrelated to the banana-like plantain fruit despite the shared name.

herb

Showy Lady's Slipper

Showy Lady's Slipper is a large, slow-growing native orchid prized for its inflated white pouch flushed with rose-pink. It is the state flower of Minnesota and one of the most spectacular wild orchids of North America.

flower

Red Twig Dogwood

A hardy deciduous shrub prized for its brilliant red winter stems, white spring flowers, and white berries. Especially striking in snowy landscapes when the bare crimson twigs glow.

shrub

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

Spring Beauty

A tiny spring ephemeral carpeting woodlands and lawns with starry white-to-pink flowers delicately striped in darker pink.

flower

Chamomile

Chamomile is a daisy-like aromatic herb famous for its small, apple-scented white-and-yellow flowers.

herb

Mayapple

A woodland wildflower forming colonies of umbrella-like leaves, with a single white flower hidden beneath that ripens into a yellow fruit.

flower