Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Avocado Tree
The avocado is a broadleaf evergreen fruiting tree. Frost-tender and vigorous, it is a popular subtropical orchard tree and a fun, if slow-fruiting, houseplant from a sprouted pit.
tree
Black-Eyed Susan Vine
A cheerful twining vine from Africa bearing masses of flat, five-petaled flowers in orange, yellow or white, each with a dark chocolate-purple center 'eye.' It quickly covers trellises and trails from baskets through the warm season.
flower
Bishop's Cap Cactus
A spineless, star-shaped cactus with a rounded body of distinct ribs flecked with tiny white scales, resembling a bishop's mitre. It produces yellow daisy-like flowers from its crown.
succulent
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
Bachelor's Button
Bachelor's button, or cornflower, is an easy cottage-garden annual famous for its intense true-blue, fringed flowers that are excellent for cutting.
flower
Black Locust
Black locust is a fast-growing deciduous tree with fragrant white spring flowers and extremely hard, rot-resistant wood. A nitrogen-fixing legume, it is valued for timber and erosion control but can be invasive.
tree
Bitterroot
A low, fleshy-leaved alpine succulent of western North America, bitterroot produces showy pink-to-white flowers on otherwise nearly leafless plants. It is the state flower of Montana.
succulent
Bacopa
Trailing bacopa is a delicate spiller covered in small five-petaled white, pink, or blue flowers, ideal for cascading from baskets and containers.
flower
Bird's Nest Fern
An epiphytic fern that forms a rosette of broad, undivided, ripple-edged fronds around a central nest-like crown. Unlike lacy ferns, its simple glossy leaves make it forgiving and bold indoors.
fern
Balsam Fir
A fragrant northern evergreen with flat, soft needles and resin-blistered bark, beloved as a Christmas tree for its classic spire shape and lasting pine scent.
tree
Bindweed
Bindweed is a fast-twining perennial vine with arrowhead leaves and small white-to-pink morning-glory flowers that smothers gardens and crops. Its deep, persistent root system makes it one of the hardest weeds to eradicate.
herb
Basil
A fragrant, warmth-loving aromatic herb in the mint family, grown for its highly aromatic leaves.
herb
Bishop Pine
Bishop Pine is a hardy two-needle pine of the California and Baja coast, with persistent, prickly cones that often stay closed on the tree for years until fire opens them. It tolerates wind, salt, and poor soils.
tree
Baobab Tree
The baobab is an iconic African tree with a massive, swollen, water-storing trunk and stout branches that look like roots, earning it the name upside-down tree. Some specimens live over a thousand years.
tree
Bell Pepper
Bell pepper is a blocky-fruited variety of Capsicum annuum grown as a warm-season garden crop, bearing glossy fruit in shades of green, red, yellow, and orange. It is a colorful, productive plant for sunny beds and containers.
herb
Begonia Maculata
Begonia maculata is the iconic polka dot begonia, with olive-green angel-wing leaves dotted in silver and backed in deep red. It produces clusters of white flowers under good conditions.
houseplant
Bearberry
A hardy, mat-forming evergreen groundcover shrub of cold northern regions, with glossy leaves, pink bell flowers, and red berries favored by bears and birds.
shrub
Annual Bluegrass
A low-growing, light-green annual grass that is one of the most widespread lawn and turf weeds in the world. It forms clumps, seeds prolifically even when mowed short, and turns unsightly in summer heat.
grass
Aster
Asters are daisy-like perennials that burst into clouds of starry purple, pink, blue, or white blooms in late summer and autumn. They are pollinator magnets prized for extending color into the season's end.
flower
Anthurium
A tropical aroid famous for its glossy, heart-shaped, waxy bracts in red, pink, or white surrounding a slender flower spike. With bright light and humidity it can bloom nearly year-round.
houseplant
Balloon Flower
Balloon flower is a long-lived perennial named for its puffy, balloon-like buds that pop open into star-shaped blue, pink or white blooms. It is an easy, deer-resistant plant that flowers reliably through summer.
flower
Bermuda Grass
Bermuda grass is a tough, sun-loving warm-season turfgrass prized for lawns and sports fields in warm climates, but notorious as an aggressive weed elsewhere. It spreads rapidly by both stolons and rhizomes.
grass
Baby Toes
A curious dwarf succulent that forms clusters of upright, club-shaped leaves with translucent 'windows' on their flat tops, looking like rows of tiny baby toes. It bears white or yellow daisy-like flowers.
succulent
Black Cherry
Black cherry is a native North American hardwood valued for its fine reddish furniture timber, drooping clusters of white spring flowers, and small dark fruits borne in late summer.
tree
Artichoke
The globe artichoke is a striking thistle grown in gardens for its large, scaly flower buds. Left unharvested, the buds open into large, vivid purple blooms.
herb
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
American Sycamore
The American sycamore is one of the largest hardwoods in eastern North America, known for its mottled, peeling bark that reveals creamy-white inner layers. It grows fast and massive along rivers and bottomlands.
tree
Apple Tree
The apple tree is a deciduous fruit tree grown worldwide for its familiar fruit. With thousands of cultivars and the need for cross-pollination, it is a rewarding but slightly demanding garden and orchard tree.
tree
Aluminum Plant
A compact foliage plant with quilted green leaves splashed with shimmering silver patches that look like brushed aluminum. Fast, bushy, and easy to grow.
houseplant
Asparagus
Asparagus is a long-lived perennial grown for the tender shoots, or spears, that emerge in spring. Once established, a bed can persist for 15-20 years or more.
herb
Amaryllis
The popular indoor amaryllis is a bulb (genus Hippeastrum) that produces towering stalks topped with huge, trumpet-shaped flowers, often forced for winter bloom. True Amaryllis is a separate South African genus.
flower
Apache Pine
A southwestern pine of the Sierra Madre and Arizona–New Mexico borderlands, notable for very long, drooping needles and a grass-like seedling stage. Young trees resemble a tuft of grass before the trunk elongates.
tree
Anthurium Warocqueanum
Known as the Queen Anthurium, this collector's aroid grows enormous, elongated velvety leaves with bold silvery-white veins. It is prized but demanding, needing high humidity and airy media.
houseplant
Alocasia Zebrina
An elephant ear grown as much for its stems as its leaves — distinctive yellow-and-black zebra-striped petioles support glossy, arrow-shaped green leaves held aloft like umbrellas.
houseplant
Alocasia Frydek
A velvet-leaved elephant ear with deep emerald-green arrow-shaped leaves and bold white veins. It is dramatic and upright but notoriously demanding about humidity and watering.
houseplant
Arrowhead Plant
The arrowhead plant is an easy, fast-growing tropical vine whose leaves shift from arrowhead-shaped to deeply lobed as the plant matures. It comes in green, variegated, and pink-tinged forms.
houseplant
Agrimony
Agrimony is an upright perennial herb topped with slender spires of small yellow flowers that smell faintly of apricot. It produces bur-like seeds that cling to passersby.
herb
African Tulip Tree
The African tulip tree is a fast-growing tropical tree topped with vivid orange-red, tulip-shaped flowers held above glossy foliage. Its showy blooms make it a popular ornamental, though it is invasive in many tropical regions.
tree
Allium
Ornamental alliums are bulbs grown for their dramatic spherical flower heads on tall, leafless stems. Related to onions and garlic, they add bold architectural interest and are largely pest-proof.
flower
Fenugreek
Fenugreek is a fast-growing legume herb grown in gardens, with clover-like leaves, small pale flowers and slender, sickle-shaped seed pods. It is easy to grow and enriches soil as a nitrogen-fixer.
herb