Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
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
Pinstripe Calathea
The Pinstripe Calathea is a striking prayer plant with dark green leaves finely lined in pink or white, like delicate pinstripes. Beautiful but demanding, it rewards careful humidity and watering with vivid foliage.
houseplant
Coulter Pine
A rugged southern California and Baja conifer famous for producing the heaviest pine cones in the world, sometimes weighing up to 5 pounds. Its stout, spiny cones and long blue-green needles make it unmistakable.
tree
Rhodiola
Rhodiola is a hardy, succulent alpine perennial of cold northern mountains, forming low rosettes of fleshy blue-green leaves and clusters of yellow flowers. Cut roots smell faintly of rose.
succulent
Powder Puff Cactus
A clustering pincushion cactus wrapped in silky white hairs, with hooked central spines hidden beneath. Rings of small creamy or pink flowers appear readily, even on young plants.
succulent
Plumeria Tree
A small tropical tree beloved for its intensely fragrant, waxy flowers used in Hawaiian leis. Plumeria blooms in shades of white, yellow, pink, and red atop thick, sculptural branches.
tree
Ragweed
A common annual weed that produces large amounts of lightweight, wind-blown pollen in late summer and fall. It has fern-like, deeply divided leaves and inconspicuous greenish flower spikes.
herb
Geum
Geum, or avens, is a clump-forming perennial with airy stems of cheerful red, orange, or yellow flowers above hairy basal foliage. It blooms from late spring into summer in cottage borders.
flower
Japanese Black Pine
Japanese Black Pine is a rugged coastal conifer with dark bark, stiff needles, and a picturesque irregular form. It is a classic bonsai and ornamental tree highly tolerant of salt and wind.
tree
Gaura
Gaura is an airy, long-blooming perennial whose delicate pink or white flowers dance on slender, wiry stems like a cloud of butterflies. It is heat- and drought-tolerant and blooms for months.
flower
Fireweed
A tall, magenta-flowered perennial famous for blanketing burned and disturbed land, which gives it its name. Its spires of pink-purple flowers make it both a pioneer species and a showy garden plant.
flower
Escallonia
Escallonia is a glossy-leaved evergreen shrub from South America, prized for its long display of small pink, red or white flowers. It makes an excellent hedge in mild, coastal climates.
shrub
Devil's Backbone
A shrubby succulent euphorbia famous for its distinctive zigzagging stems and small red-bracted flowers shaped like tiny birds. Often grown indoors for its sculptural, jointed form.
succulent
Coral Bells
A versatile mounding perennial grown chiefly for vivid foliage in shades of purple, amber, lime, and silver, accented by airy sprays of tiny bell-shaped flowers. A modern shade-garden favorite.
flower
Buckhorn Plantain
A common perennial lawn and field weed with a basal rosette of narrow, ribbed leaves and bullet-shaped flower heads on tall leafless stalks. It is widespread and persistent in lawns, pastures and roadsides.
herb
Blue Glow Agave
A compact hybrid agave forming a tidy rosette of blue-green leaves edged with a glowing red-and-yellow margin that lights up when backlit by sun. It is a refined, slow-growing landscape gem.
succulent
Sweet Corn
Sweet corn is a tender annual grass and a variety of maize grown as a warm-season garden crop. It forms a tall, single stalk topped by a feathery tassel, with husk-wrapped ears lower down.
grass
St. John's Wort
St. John's wort is a hardy yellow-flowered perennial with masses of five-petaled summer blooms. Tough and drought-tolerant, it is also a noxious weed in many grazing regions.
herb
Russian Sage
An airy, silver-stemmed subshrub topped with hazy clouds of tiny lavender-blue flowers all summer. Aromatic, heat- and drought-proof, and a favorite of bees in hot, sunny gardens.
shrub
Prostrate Spurge
A fast-growing summer annual that forms flat, ground-hugging mats with small oval leaves often marked by a maroon spot. It exudes a milky sap and is a widespread weed of lawns, cracks and gardens.
herb
Oleander
Oleander is a heat- and drought-loving evergreen shrub with showy clusters of pink, white, or red flowers all summer. Beautiful and tough, it is a mainstay of warm-climate landscapes.
shrub
Goldenrod
A tough, late-season perennial wildflower that lights up fields and roadsides with plumes of tiny golden flowers. Its heavy, sticky pollen is spread by insects rather than wind.
flower
Fire Pink
A short-lived native wildflower of eastern North American woodlands, prized for its brilliant scarlet, star-shaped flowers that lure hummingbirds in spring.
flower
Common Mallow
A sprawling annual or biennial with rounded, scalloped leaves, small pinkish-white flowers, and flat round seed pods that resemble tiny wheels of cheese. It is a common garden and lawn weed.
herb