Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Chickweed
Chickweed is a low, sprawling annual often dismissed as a lawn weed, with weak stems and tiny white star-shaped flowers that give it the name starwort.
herb
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
Bull Thistle
Bull thistle is a spiny biennial weed with sharp, prickly leaves and large rose-purple flower heads that is both a pasture nuisance and a pollinator magnet.
flower
Wormwood
Wormwood is a silvery, aromatic perennial herb best known as the signature botanical associated with absinthe and vermouth. Its finely divided gray-green foliage is aromatic and drought-tough.
herb
Thyme
A low, woody Mediterranean herb with tiny aromatic leaves, valued as a drought-tolerant ground cover and a superb bee plant.
herb
Sow Thistle
A leafy annual resembling a soft thistle, with milky sap, lobed prickle-edged leaves and small dandelion-like yellow flowers. It is a widespread garden and field weed.
herb
Purslane
Purslane is a low, succulent annual with fleshy paddle-shaped leaves and trailing reddish stems. A widespread plant of warm, sunny ground, it grows both wild and as a cultivated garden vegetable.
succulent
Privet
A fast-growing, dense deciduous-to-semi-evergreen shrub long used for clipped hedges. It bears panicles of small white flowers and black berries, but is invasive in many regions.
shrub
Nettle
A vigorous perennial herb famous for the stinging hairs on its leaves and stems. It thrives in rich, damp soils across temperate regions.
herb
Horse Chestnut
Horse chestnut is a large deciduous shade tree famous for its showy upright spikes of spring flowers and shiny brown conkers in spiky husks.
tree
Jasmine
A climbing shrub famous for intensely fragrant, star-shaped white flowers that perfume summer evenings. Common jasmine is vigorous and grown on trellises and walls.
shrub
Hyacinth
Hyacinth is a spring bulb that produces dense, upright spikes of waxy, star-shaped flowers in vivid colors, prized for their powerful sweet fragrance.
flower
Henbit
Henbit is a low winter annual in the mint family that carpets lawns, fields and gardens in early spring with pinkish-purple tubular flowers. It is closely related to purple deadnettle and, like it, is a bee-friendly weed of cool seasons.
herb
Holly
A classic evergreen shrub or small tree with glossy, spiny leaves and bright red berries, long associated with winter and Christmas. Most hollies need separate male and female plants for berries to form.
shrub
Groundsel
Common groundsel is a fast-growing annual weed with ragged leaves and small, rayless yellow flower heads that turn into fluffy seed tufts. Wind-borne seeds let it colonize gardens and disturbed ground rapidly.
herb
Hawthorn Tree
The hawthorn is a thorny deciduous tree or shrub bearing fragrant white spring blossoms and clusters of red autumn berries called haws. Long used for hedging, it is steeped in folklore and supports abundant wildlife.
tree
Ginger
Ginger is a tropical perennial herb grown for its knobbly, aromatic underground rhizome, cultivated across the warm regions of the world.
herb
English Oak
English oak is the iconic, long-lived oak of Europe, with short-stalked lobed leaves and acorns on long stalks. A symbol of strength, it can live for centuries and supports vast biodiversity.
tree
Calendula
Pot marigold is an easy cool-season annual with cheerful daisy-like orange and yellow flowers, long grown in cottage gardens and herb beds.
herb
Zinnia
Zinnias are fast-growing, heat-loving annuals that produce bold, daisy-like flowers in vivid colors all summer. They are easy from seed, beloved by pollinators, and excellent cut flowers.
flower
Turmeric
Turmeric is an aromatic tropical perennial in the ginger family, grown for its vivid orange rhizome.
herb
Spearmint
Spearmint is a fast-spreading, aromatic perennial herb grown in gardens. Vigorous and easy to grow, it is best contained in a pot to keep it from taking over the garden.
herb
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
Primrose
Primroses are low, clump-forming perennials that bring some of the earliest color to spring with their soft pastel flowers above rosettes of crinkled leaves. They thrive in cool, moist, partly shaded spots.
flower