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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Brunnera

Brunnera is a shade perennial grown for its large, heart-shaped leaves, often beautifully silvered, and its dainty sprays of sky-blue, forget-me-not-like flowers in spring. It is a standout foliage plant for woodland and shady borders.

flower

Catalpa Tree

The catalpa is a fast-growing deciduous shade tree famous for its huge heart-shaped leaves, showy clusters of frilly white flowers, and long slender seed pods resembling beans or cigars. It is a popular ornamental for large lawns and street plantings.

tree

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

Warneckii Dracaena

Warneckii Dracaena is a cultivar with sword-shaped green leaves edged and striped in white and gray-green. Architectural and tough, it's a long-standing favorite for low-maintenance interior greenery.

houseplant

Red Currant

A hardy deciduous shrub that bears glistening strings of translucent red berries in summer, grown in gardens as an ornamental and fruiting shrub.

shrub

Calathea Orbifolia

Calathea Orbifolia is a striking foliage houseplant with large, rounded, silvery-green leaves banded in darker stripes. Humidity-loving, it is grown for its bold, decorative foliage.

houseplant

Globe Amaranth

A heat-loving annual grown for its round, clover-like flower heads of papery bracts in magenta, purple, pink, white or orange. The everlasting blooms keep their color when dried and stand up beautifully to summer heat and humidity.

flower

Mint

A vigorous, cooling aromatic herb that spreads readily by runners, grown as a popular culinary herb for its refreshing, strongly scented foliage.

herb

Peppermint

Peppermint is a vigorous aromatic perennial herb grown in gardens, a natural hybrid of water mint and spearmint with a strong menthol scent.

herb

Live Oak

Live oak is a massive, sprawling evergreen oak of the American South, famous for wide spreading limbs draped in Spanish moss and an extremely strong, dense wood.

tree

Grand Fir

Grand Fir is a fast-growing Pacific Northwest fir with flat, glossy needles arranged in neat flat sprays and a strong citrus scent when crushed.

tree

White Ash

A large native shade tree once widely planted for its strong wood and purple-bronze fall color. Now severely threatened by the invasive emerald ash borer.

tree

Vinca

A heat- and drought-tolerant annual with glossy leaves and pinwheel flowers, annual vinca blooms nonstop through the hottest part of summer.

flower

Lima Bean

Lima beans are a warm-season legume in the pea family, available in bush and pole forms. They are a heat-loving plant native to the Americas.

herb

Black Currant

An aromatic deciduous shrub in the genus Ribes, grown in gardens for its dark purple-black berries. Its strongly scented foliage and upright, thornless habit make it easy to recognize.

shrub

Lemon Verbena

A deciduous shrub with intensely lemon-scented leaves, prized for its fragrance. Native to South America, it is one of the most strongly citrus-scented herbs.

shrub

Plumbago

Plumbago is a sprawling evergreen shrub covered for months in clusters of soft sky-blue, phlox-like flowers. It thrives in heat and is a favorite of butterflies.

shrub

Tamarind Tree

The tamarind is a large, long-lived tropical fruiting tree in the legume family, producing brown seed pods. It is heat- and drought-tolerant but frost-sensitive.

tree

Dusty Miller

Grown for its felted, silvery-white foliage rather than flowers, dusty miller is a versatile foil plant that tolerates heat, drought, and salt.

flower

Angelonia

Often called summer snapdragon, angelonia produces upright spikes of orchid-like flowers that thrive in heat and humidity all season without deadheading.

flower

Tree Aeonium

A branching, shrubby succulent that holds glossy leaf rosettes atop bare woody stems. Popular dark cultivars like 'Zwartkop' turn nearly black in strong sun.

succulent

Sitka Spruce

Sitka Spruce is the largest spruce in the world, a towering conifer of the cool, wet Pacific Northwest coast. Its strong, lightweight wood is prized for aircraft, boats, and musical instruments.

tree

Watermelon

Watermelon is a sprawling, heat-loving vine in the gourd family grown for its very large fruits. It needs a long, hot season and plenty of room to develop well.

herb

River Birch

A fast-growing native birch famous for its showy, peeling cinnamon-and-cream bark and tolerance of wet soils. The most heat-tolerant of North American birches.

tree