Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Rhubarb
Rhubarb is a hardy herbaceous perennial grown for its thick, ruby-to-green leaf stalks rising from a ground-level crown. It is a robust, long-lived cool-season garden plant.
herb
Painted Daisy
Painted daisy is a hardy perennial bearing cheerful daisy flowers in pink, red, and white with golden centers over fern-like foliage. Its flowers are the natural source of the insecticide pyrethrum.
flower
Rowan
The rowan, or mountain ash, is a graceful deciduous tree with feathery foliage, creamy spring flower clusters, and vivid orange-red autumn berries. Hardy and wildlife-friendly, it is rich in northern European folklore.
tree
Post Oak
Post oak is a slow-growing, drought-hardy white oak of the southern and central US, recognized by its cross-shaped leaves. Its rot-resistant wood was traditionally used for fence posts.
tree
Pawpaw Tree
A small native North American tree producing the largest fruit native to the continent, borne on a hardy understory tree with large drooping leaves. It is the only temperate member of a largely tropical plant family.
tree
Medlar Tree
The medlar is an ancient, gnarled deciduous tree in the rose family, grown for its large white spring flowers, twisted branches, and distinctive russet-brown fruit with a wide open calyx. Hardy and low-maintenance.
tree
Bishop Pine
Bishop Pine is a hardy two-needle pine of the California and Baja coast, with persistent, prickly cones that often stay closed on the tree for years until fire opens them. It tolerates wind, salt, and poor soils.
tree
Evening Primrose
A hardy biennial wildflower whose fragrant yellow blossoms open at dusk and close by midday, timed to attract night-flying moths. It forms a low rosette in its first year and a tall flowering stalk in its second.
flower
String of Bananas
A fast-growing trailing succulent whose curved, banana-shaped leaves cascade in long strands, making it a popular hanging-basket plant. It is hardier and quicker to fill out than its cousin the string of pearls.
succulent
California Poppy
The official state flower of California, a hardy annual or short-lived perennial with silky, cup-shaped orange to gold blooms above ferny blue-green foliage. It thrives in poor, dry soil and closes its petals at night and on cloudy days.
flower
Sugar Maple
Sugar maple is a hallmark of North America's blazing autumn forests and the maple traditionally tapped for its sap. It is a large, long-lived shade tree with dense, hard wood prized for furniture and flooring.
tree
Cocklebur
Cocklebur is a coarse annual weed famous for its hard, hooked burs that cling to fur and clothing. It is a serious agricultural and pasture pest.
herb
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
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
Butternut Squash
Butternut squash is a winter squash with a tan, bell-shaped rind grown on vigorous trailing vines. The hard-skinned fruit stores well for months.
herb
Puncturevine
Puncturevine is a low, mat-forming summer weed notorious for its hard, spiny seed burs that puncture bicycle tires and bare feet. It thrives in hot, dry, disturbed ground and is widespread in warm regions worldwide.
herb
Black Locust
Black locust is a fast-growing deciduous tree with fragrant white spring flowers and extremely hard, rot-resistant wood. A nitrogen-fixing legume, it is valued for timber and erosion control but can be invasive.
tree
Creeping Charlie
Creeping Charlie is a low, aromatic perennial in the mint family that spreads aggressively by creeping stems to form dense mats in lawns and shady gardens. Its scalloped, round leaves and small blue-violet flowers make it easy to recognize and notoriously hard to eradicate.
herb