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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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

Velvet Calathea

A prayer-plant relative with long, wavy-edged leaves that are velvety to the touch and flushed deep maroon underneath. Beautiful but thirsty for humidity and sensitive to hard water.

houseplant

Tarragon

Tarragon is an aromatic culinary herb grown in gardens for its slender, glossy, anise-scented foliage. The 'French' type rarely sets viable seed and is propagated by division or cuttings.

herb

Silk Oak

The silk oak is a fast-growing Australian tree with fern-like silvery foliage and showy golden-orange, comb-shaped flowers in spring. It is widely grown for shade, timber and ornament, but can be weedy outside its range.

tree

Quaking Aspen

A fast-growing native tree whose flat-stalked leaves tremble in the slightest breeze and turn brilliant gold in fall. It forms vast clonal groves and is the most widely distributed tree in North America.

tree

Nordmann Fir

Nordmann Fir is the world's most popular Christmas tree, prized for its soft, glossy, dark green needles that resist dropping. Native to the Caucasus, it forms a dense, symmetrical pyramid.

tree

Inchplant

A vigorous trailing plant with small, glossy, pointed leaves that root readily along the stem about every inch. Easy to grow and propagate, it comes in plain green and variegated cream-striped forms.

houseplant

Goldenseal

A shade-loving woodland perennial with a brilliant yellow root, now threatened by overharvesting from the wild. It is a sensitive plant requiring rich, moist forest conditions.

herb

Flapjack Plant

A striking rosette succulent with large, flat, rounded leaves that blush deep red along their edges when grown in bright sun. It is prized as an architectural accent in pots and water-wise gardens.

succulent

Flowering Almond

Flowering almond is a small deciduous ornamental shrub prized for its profuse pink or white pompom-like blossoms that smother the bare branches in early spring. It is grown purely for ornamental display.

shrub

Coral Bark Maple

Coral bark maple is a Japanese maple cultivar famous for its glowing coral-red young stems that brighten the winter landscape. Its spring leaves emerge soft green and turn golden-yellow in fall.

tree

African Milk Tree

The African milk tree is a fast-growing, upright succulent with ridged, branching green stems that resemble a cactus. Despite the look, it is a Euphorbia that exudes milky white sap when cut, not a true cactus.

succulent

Tangerine Tree

A type of mandarin orange producing small, easy-to-peel fruit with a deep reddish-orange rind. It is a compact, productive citrus tree well suited to home gardens.

tree

Sweet Pea

Sweet pea is a climbing annual cherished for its ruffled, intensely fragrant flowers in soft pastel shades, a classic of cottage gardens and cut-flower beds.

flower

Weeping Fig

A popular indoor tree with a graceful, weeping canopy of small glossy leaves. It is attractive but notorious for dropping leaves when stressed or moved.

tree

Subalpine Fir

Subalpine Fir is a narrow, spire-shaped western fir of high mountains, instantly recognizable by its slender steeple crown adapted to shed heavy snow.

tree

Swamp Milkweed

A moisture-loving native milkweed bearing fragrant clusters of pink flowers, a vital host plant for monarch butterflies and a magnet for pollinators.

flower

Ranunculus

Ranunculus is a cool-season tuber producing densely layered, rose-like flowers in jewel and pastel tones, a darling of cut-flower growers and spring gardens.

flower

Poison Oak

Poison oak is a woody shrub or climbing vine native to North America, recognized by its compound leaves of three lobed leaflets that resemble oak foliage.

shrub

Pentas

Pentas bears rounded clusters of star-shaped flowers that bloom all summer and are a magnet for butterflies and hummingbirds in warm climates.

shrub

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

Mayapple

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

flower

Guava Tree

A hardy tropical fruiting tree producing fragrant fruit and recognizable smooth, peeling bark. It is fast-growing, adaptable, and tolerant of a range of soils.

tree

Fox Tail Agave

A soft, spineless agave with pale blue-green rosettes and a curving, foxtail-like flower spike. Unusual among agaves for its lack of sharp spines and tolerance of light shade.

succulent