Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Sweetgum
A large deciduous shade tree known for its glossy star-shaped leaves, brilliant fall color, and spiky round seed balls. Native to the southeastern United States.
tree
Tulip
A spring-flowering bulb cherished for its goblet-shaped blooms in nearly every color. Tulips are planted in autumn and naturalize best in regions with cold winters.
flower
Torrey Pine
Torrey Pine is the rarest native pine in the United States, found wild in only two coastal California locations. It has long needles in bundles of five and large, heavy cones.
tree
Yoshino Cherry
An ornamental cherry famous for clouds of pale pink-to-white blossoms in early spring. It is the iconic tree of Washington, D.C.'s Tidal Basin and Japan's cherry-blossom season.
tree
String of Buttons
An easy succulent whose triangular leaves are stacked in pairs around the stem, looking like buttons threaded on a string. Forms tidy spirals that sprawl and trail as they lengthen.
succulent
Yucca
A bold, drought-tolerant plant with rosettes of stiff, sword-shaped leaves atop thick woody canes. A tough, architectural choice for indoors and warm gardens.
shrub
Raspberry
Raspberries are thorny, cane-forming shrubs grown for their aggregate berries. With summer- and autumn-fruiting types, a small patch can yield fruit over many weeks.
shrub
Thimbleberry
Thimbleberry is a thornless North American shrub with large maple-like leaves, white flowers, and soft red berries shaped like thimbles. It thrives in cool, shaded woodlands.
shrub
Sourwood
Sourwood is a graceful native North American tree with drooping clusters of white lily-of-the-valley-like summer flowers and outstanding scarlet fall foliage.
tree
Snowball Cactus
A clustering pincushion cactus wrapped in soft white, hair-like spines that give it a fluffy, snowball appearance. Easy to grow and quick to form charming colonies.
succulent
Shore Pine
Shore Pine is the coastal form of the lodgepole pine, a tough, twisted two-needle pine of the Pacific coast. Its irregular, picturesque shape makes it popular for seaside gardens and bonsai.
tree
Polka Dot Plant
A compact, bushy plant grown for its colorfully spotted leaves splashed in pink, white, or red over green. Cheerful and easy, though it gets leggy without pinching.
houseplant
Queen Anne's Lace
Queen Anne's lace is a biennial wildflower with delicate, flat-topped clusters of tiny white flowers and a single dark floret in the center. It is the wild ancestor of the cultivated carrot.
flower
Poison Sumac
Poison sumac is a wetland shrub or small tree of eastern North America, distinguished from harmless sumacs by its smooth-edged leaflets and drooping pale berries.
shrub
Plumeria
Plumeria is a tropical shrub or small tree prized for its intensely fragrant, waxy flowers in shades of white, yellow, pink, and red, famously used to make Hawaiian leis.
shrub
Norfolk Island Pine
Norfolk Island Pine is a tropical conifer with symmetrical tiers of soft, feathery branches, popular as a houseplant and living Christmas tree. It is not a true pine.
houseplant
Mugwort
A tall, aromatic perennial with silvery-backed, deeply cut leaves, long associated with folklore. It is hardy, vigorous, and often weedy along roadsides.
herb
Marigold
A cheerful, easy annual with pompom-like flowers in gold, orange, and red, and pungent foliage. Marigolds bloom all season and are popular for borders and companion planting.
flower
Lovage
Lovage is a tall, robust perennial herb with bold, celery-scented foliage and an architectural form. Long-lived, a single plant makes a striking back-of-border specimen.
herb
Old Man Cactus
A columnar cactus famously cloaked in long, shaggy white hairs that resemble an old man's beard. The wool shields the plant from sun and cold while hiding sharp spines beneath.
succulent
Lucky Bamboo
Despite the name, lucky bamboo is not a bamboo but a Dracaena, often grown in water and trained into curls or stalks. It is a popular feng shui gift symbolizing good fortune.
houseplant
Marble Queen Pothos
Marble Queen is a heavily variegated pothos cultivar with heart-shaped leaves marbled in creamy white and green. It is easy to grow but slower than golden pothos due to its high variegation.
houseplant
Lily
True lilies are summer-blooming bulbs with large, often fragrant, trumpet-shaped flowers on tall stems. They are easy garden perennials prized in borders and as cut flowers.
flower
Ironweed
A tall, robust native perennial crowned in late summer with clusters of intensely purple flowers. Its tough, wiry stems and iron-hard durability give it its name.
flower