Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
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
Century Plant
A massive rosette-forming agave with thick, spiny, blue-grey leaves that grows for decades before sending up a towering flower stalk and then dying. It is an iconic architectural plant of arid gardens.
succulent
Abelia
Abelia is a tough, semi-evergreen shrub with arching branches, glossy leaves, and a long summer-to-fall show of small, fragrant, bell-shaped flowers. It is a magnet for bees and butterflies.
shrub
Chokeberry
Chokeberry is a hardy North American native shrub with white spring flowers, glossy berries, and fiery fall foliage. It is exceptionally adaptable and wildlife-friendly.
shrub
Alocasia Polly
Alocasia Polly is a compact hybrid houseplant with dramatic dark green, arrow-shaped leaves edged in wavy margins and boldly veined in silvery-white. It is striking but somewhat fussy, demanding warmth and humidity.
houseplant
Cherimoya Tree
A subtropical fruit tree from the Andean highlands, recognized by its large, heart-shaped fruits with green, scale-patterned skin. It tolerates light frost better than most tropical fruit trees.
tree
Aloe Vera
Aloe vera is a hardy succulent with thick, fleshy leaves arranged in a rosette and filled with a clear inner gel. It is easy to grow on a sunny windowsill and needs very little water.
succulent
Cherry Blossom Tree
Cherry blossom trees are ornamental flowering cherries famed for their spectacular spring bloom of pink or white blossoms. Central to Japanese hanami tradition, they are short-lived but beloved worldwide.
tree
Cast Iron Plant
An exceptionally tough foliage plant that tolerates deep shade, neglect and poor conditions, hence its name. It forms clumps of broad, glossy, dark green lance-shaped leaves.
houseplant
Catalpa Tree
The catalpa is a fast-growing deciduous shade tree famous for its huge heart-shaped leaves, showy clusters of frilly white flowers, and long slender seed pods resembling beans or cigars. It is a popular ornamental for large lawns and street plantings.
tree
Blue Spruce
Blue Spruce is a striking conifer famous for its stiff, silvery-blue needles and classic pyramidal form. It is a popular ornamental and Christmas tree in cold climates.
tree
Alocasia Black Velvet
A compact jewel Alocasia prized for its near-black, velvety heart-shaped leaves veined in striking silvery-white. Its small stature and dramatic contrast make it a collector favorite, though it is fussy about humidity.
houseplant
Boston Fern
The Boston fern is a lush, graceful fern with arching fronds of small leaflets, popular for hanging baskets and shaded porches. It needs consistent moisture and humidity to thrive.
fern
Calla Lily
Calla lilies are elegant plants grown for their sculptural, trumpet-shaped flower bracts in white and rich jewel tones above arrow-shaped leaves. Despite the name, they are not true lilies.
flower
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.
shrub
Calathea Medallion
Calathea Medallion is admired for its rounded leaves painted with concentric rings of green and a deep maroon-purple underside. It folds its leaves upward at night, a prayer-plant trait.
houseplant
Calathea Orbifolia
Calathea Orbifolia is a striking foliage houseplant with large, rounded, silvery-green leaves banded in darker stripes. Humidity-loving, it is grown for its bold, decorative foliage.
houseplant
Butterfly Bush
A fast-growing deciduous shrub bearing long, fragrant flower spikes that are magnets for butterflies and bees. Vigorous and easy, it is also invasive in some regions, so non-seeding cultivars are recommended.
shrub
Bur Oak
Bur oak is a massive, long-lived North American oak known for its huge, fringe-capped acorns, deeply furrowed bark and exceptional toughness. Drought- and fire-resistant, it is a stately tree for large landscapes.
tree
Burros Tail
A trailing succulent with long, rope-like stems densely packed with plump, blue-green leaves that resemble a braided tail. It makes a spectacular hanging plant but its leaves drop at the slightest touch.
succulent
Butternut Squash
Butternut squash is a winter squash with a tan, bell-shaped rind grown on vigorous trailing vines. The hard-skinned fruit stores well for months.
herb
Cabbage
Cabbage is a cool-season leafy garden vegetable that forms a dense, rounded head of tightly packed leaves. A staple worldwide, it comes in green, red, and crinkled savoy types.
herb
California Poppy
The official state flower of California, a hardy annual or short-lived perennial with silky, cup-shaped orange to gold blooms above ferny blue-green foliage. It thrives in poor, dry soil and closes its petals at night and on cloudy days.
flower
Butternut
Butternut is a medium-sized North American walnut relative with elongated, sticky nuts and a pale, lightweight wood. Wild populations have been devastated by butternut canker disease.
tree
Button Fern
The Button Fern is a compact fern with distinctive round, button-like leaflets along arching dark stems. Unlike most ferns it tolerates somewhat drier conditions, making it a charming, manageable choice for small spaces.
fern
Bougainvillea
Bougainvillea is a thorny tropical climbing shrub blanketed in vivid papery bracts of magenta, purple, orange, or red. It thrives in heat and sun and blooms most when kept on the dry side.
shrub
Brussels Sprouts
Brussels sprouts are a cool-season brassica that produces dozens of small, cabbage-like buds along a tall central stalk. Slow to mature, they are a hallmark of autumn and winter gardens.
herb
Boysenberry
A trailing bramble hybrid created by crossing blackberry, raspberry, dewberry and loganberry. It produces large, deep maroon aggregate berries and is famously associated with Knott's Berry Farm.
shrub
Bluebeard
Bluebeard is a compact late-summer shrub smothered in clusters of blue flowers that pollinators adore. It is heat- and drought-tolerant and blooms when most shrubs have finished.
shrub
Buffalo Berry
A tough, thorny North American shrub with silvery leaves and small red berries. Nitrogen-fixing and extremely drought- and cold-hardy, it forms dense thickets on poor soils.
shrub
Boneset
Boneset is a native North American wildflower with clusters of fuzzy white blooms and distinctive leaves that appear pierced by the stem. It is valued as a pollinator plant for moist gardens.
herb
Brain Cactus
A crested form of the ladyfinger cactus whose fused, fan-like growth folds into convoluted ridges resembling a brain. A novelty succulent prized for its sculptural, undulating surface.
succulent
Blue Star Fern
An epiphytic fern with broad, deeply lobed fronds in a soft blue-green hue and fuzzy golden-brown rhizomes. It is more forgiving than many ferns and tolerates average household humidity.
fern
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
Blazing Star
A native prairie perennial sending up tall spikes of fluffy purple flowers that open from the top down. A magnet for butterflies, it is a favorite of pollinator gardens.
flower
Blackberry
Blackberries are vigorous, often thorny cane plants in the rose family, bearing glossy black aggregate berries in late summer. Famously tough, they grow wild as brambles and in many improved garden varieties.
shrub
Boxelder
A fast-growing, weedy native maple unusual for its compound leaves and paired winged seeds, tough and adaptable but often considered a nuisance tree.
tree
Blue Star Juniper
Blue Star Juniper is a compact, mounding dwarf conifer with dense, silvery-blue, awl-shaped needles, prized as a low-maintenance ground-cover shrub.
shrub
Bloodroot
An early spring ephemeral named for the red-orange sap that bleeds from its roots when cut. Each delicate white flower is wrapped in a single curled leaf and lasts only a few days.
flower
Bottlebrush
Bottlebrush is an Australian evergreen shrub famous for its cylindrical brushes of bright red flowers that draw hummingbirds and bees. It is heat- and drought-tolerant and blooms for much of the year.
shrub
Bouncing Bet
A vigorous old-fashioned perennial with clusters of fragrant pink flowers whose roots and leaves lather like soap, long used as a natural cleanser for textiles.
herb
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.
tree
Browallia
Browallia, or bush violet, is a shade-tolerant annual covered in star-shaped blue, violet, or white flowers. It is one of the best flowering plants for adding cool color to shady spots and containers.
flower
Blue-eyed Grass
A dainty native wildflower that, despite its name and grassy leaves, is actually a member of the iris family. It produces small, star-shaped blue-violet flowers with bright yellow centers atop slender, flattened stems.
flower
Bradford Pear
Bradford pear is a fast-growing ornamental cultivar of Callery pear known for a uniform teardrop shape and clouds of white spring flowers. It is now widely regarded as an invasive species with notoriously weak, breakage-prone branching.
tree
Beardtongue
A North American native perennial with upright spikes of tubular, two-lipped flowers in white, pink, purple, or red. Loved by hummingbirds and bees, and tough in lean, well-drained soil.
flower
Bamboo Palm
The Bamboo Palm is a clumping indoor palm with slender, cane-like green stems and feathery fronds. It tolerates low light and is a popular choice for adding tropical height.
houseplant
Black Currant
An aromatic deciduous shrub in the genus Ribes, grown in gardens for its dark purple-black berries. Its strongly scented foliage and upright, thornless habit make it easy to recognize.
shrub