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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Barberry

A dense, thorny deciduous shrub grown for colorful red, gold, or purple foliage and bright red berries. Tough and adaptable, though invasive in parts of North America.

shrub

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

Wintercreeper

Wintercreeper is an extremely tough evergreen groundcover or climbing shrub, often grown for its variegated foliage. It tolerates harsh sites but is invasive in many regions.

shrub

String Of Pearls

A trailing succulent prized for its cascading strands of round, pea-like leaves. Its bead-shaped foliage stores water, making it drought-tolerant but prone to rot if overwatered.

succulent

Tickseed

A cheerful, sun-loving daisy-family wildflower bearing masses of golden-yellow blooms over a long summer season, beloved for its toughness and pollinator appeal.

flower

Swamp White Oak

Swamp white oak is an adaptable white oak of moist North American bottomlands, with two-toned leaves that are green above and silvery beneath. It is a popular, easy-to-grow shade and street tree.

tree

Sitka Spruce

Sitka Spruce is the largest spruce in the world, a towering conifer of the cool, wet Pacific Northwest coast. Its strong, lightweight wood is prized for aircraft, boats, and musical instruments.

tree

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.

tree

Sorrel

Sorrel is a leafy perennial herb in the dock family, grown in herb and vegetable gardens for its bright green, arrow-shaped leaves. It grows from a deep taproot and is among the earliest greens to emerge in spring.

herb

Rose Mallow

A vigorous perennial hibiscus native to North American wetlands, famous for its enormous dinner-plate-sized blooms in white, pink, or red with a contrasting eye.

flower

Salmonberry

Salmonberry is a Pacific Northwest bramble with magenta spring flowers and golden-to-red raspberry-like fruit. It thrives in moist, shaded coastal habitats.

shrub

Plum Yew

Plum Yew is a shade-tolerant evergreen conifer resembling a yew but with longer needles and plum-like fleshy seed cones. It is valued as a tough, deer-resistant landscape shrub for shady gardens.

shrub

Prickly Pear Cactus

Prickly pear cacti have flat, paddle-shaped pads and produce showy flowers followed by colorful fruit. Tough and drought-hardy, several species are widely grown for landscaping.

succulent

Peperomia Raindrop

Peperomia Raindrop has glossy, heart-to-teardrop-shaped leaves that resemble large green raindrops. Compact and semi-succulent, it's an easy and attractive choice for desks and shelves.

houseplant

Moon Cactus

The moon cactus is a brightly colored grafted novelty cactus, with a red, yellow, orange, or pink top fused onto a green rootstock. The colorful top lacks chlorophyll and depends on the host cactus to survive.

succulent

Nectarine Tree

A smooth-skinned variety of peach, the nectarine produces juicy fruit on a compact deciduous tree. It is genetically nearly identical to the peach, differing mainly in its fuzz-free skin.

tree

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

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.

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

Lobelia

Edging lobelia is a low, mounding or trailing annual smothered in tiny, intensely blue flowers from spring to frost. It's a staple of hanging baskets, window boxes and bedding borders.

flower

Johnsongrass

Johnsongrass is a tall, aggressive perennial grass spread by both seed and creeping rhizomes; it is a major agricultural weed that is very difficult to eradicate.

grass

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.

tree

Hydrangea

A leafy garden shrub famous for big rounded clusters of summer flowers that can shift between blue and pink depending on soil pH. Hydrangeas are showy, thirsty, and shade-tolerant.

shrub

Globe Thistle

Globe thistle is a bold, architectural perennial topped with spherical, steel-blue flower heads above spiny, gray-green foliage. It is drought-tolerant and irresistible to bees.

flower