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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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

Toad Lily

Toad lily is a shade perennial bearing exotic, orchid-like flowers heavily speckled with purple in late summer and fall. Its intricate blooms reward a close look in the woodland garden.

flower

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

Yellow Trumpet Tree

The yellow trumpet tree erupts in brilliant golden-yellow trumpet flowers in spring, usually while leafless, making it one of the most dazzling tropical flowering trees. It is the national tree of Brazil.

tree

Red Clover

Red clover is a short-lived perennial legume with rounded pinkish-purple flower heads, widely grown as a nitrogen-fixing cover crop and forage plant.

herb

Trumpet Tree

The trumpet tree is a tropical American tree that bursts into a mass of pink-to-magenta trumpet-shaped flowers, often while leafless. Known as pink ipê, it is a prized ornamental.

tree

Rat Tail Cactus

A trailing epiphytic cactus with long, slender, spiny stems that hang like rat tails and burst into vivid pink-magenta flowers in spring. It is a spectacular choice for hanging baskets.

succulent

Virginia Bluebells

A beloved spring ephemeral whose pink buds open into clusters of nodding, sky-blue trumpet flowers. It blooms in woodland shade then dies back by summer, vanishing until the next spring.

flower

Red Pagoda

A low, spreading crassula with leaves stacked in tight, triangular tiers like a pagoda. Stressed in sun it blazes bright red, fading to green-yellow in shade.

succulent

Wild Mustard

Wild mustard, or charlock, is a fast-growing annual weed of fields and roadsides with bright yellow four-petaled flowers. It is an aggressive crop weed.

herb

Pokeweed

Pokeweed is a tall, robust native perennial with striking magenta stems and drooping clusters of dark purple-black berries in late summer and fall.

herb

Sweet Pea

Sweet pea is a climbing annual cherished for its ruffled, intensely fragrant flowers in soft pastel shades, a classic of cottage gardens and cut-flower beds.

flower

Rattlesnake Plant

A prayer plant with long, wavy leaves patterned in alternating dark and light green spots and rich purple undersides. Its dramatic markings come with calathea-typical demands for humidity and clean water.

houseplant

Weeping Fig

A popular indoor tree with a graceful, weeping canopy of small glossy leaves. It is attractive but notorious for dropping leaves when stressed or moved.

tree

Raven ZZ Plant

The Raven ZZ Plant is a dramatic cultivar whose new growth emerges bright green then matures to near-black, glossy foliage. As tough and drought-tolerant as the classic ZZ, it adds bold, dark color with almost no effort.

houseplant

Subalpine Fir

Subalpine Fir is a narrow, spire-shaped western fir of high mountains, instantly recognizable by its slender steeple crown adapted to shed heavy snow.

tree

Radicchio

Radicchio is a leafy chicory grown for its striking red-and-white heads. Cool weather deepens their rich, vivid color.

herb

Sweet Potato Vine

Ornamental sweet potato vine is a vigorous trailing plant grown for its bold chartreuse, purple-black, or variegated foliage that cascades from containers all season.

houseplant

Poppy

The poppy is a delicate-petaled wildflower, most iconic in its scarlet form, that blooms in sunny meadows and has become a symbol of remembrance.

flower

Sweetbay Magnolia

Sweetbay magnolia is a graceful native North American tree with creamy, lemon-scented summer flowers and silvery-backed leaves. Unusually for a magnolia, it thrives in wet, swampy ground.

tree

Radish

Radish is a fast-growing root vegetable in the cabbage family, grown for its crisp, brightly colored roots. Many varieties go from seed to harvest in under a month, making it a favorite for impatient and beginner gardeners.

herb

Wild Columbine

Wild columbine is a graceful native woodland wildflower with nodding red-and-yellow flowers whose backward-pointing spurs hold nectar prized by hummingbirds.

flower

Quince Tree

A small deciduous tree bearing fragrant, golden, pear-shaped fruit, also valued for its lovely white-to-pink spring blossom and twisted, gnarled form.

tree

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

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

Southern Live Oak

Southern Live Oak is a massive, spreading evergreen oak of the American Deep South, famous for its broad canopy draped in Spanish moss. It is among the longest-lived and most iconic trees of the region.

tree

Rainbow Eucalyptus

A towering tropical tree whose smooth bark sheds in patches to reveal streaks of green, blue, orange, purple, and maroon, like a living rainbow. It is the only eucalyptus native to the Northern Hemisphere.

tree

Staghorn Fern

The staghorn fern is a dramatic epiphytic fern whose fertile fronds branch like antlers. It grows mounted on wood or in baskets rather than in ordinary soil.

fern

Prickly Lettuce

Prickly lettuce is a tall annual or biennial weed and the closest wild relative of cultivated lettuce. It is recognized by spiny leaf midribs, milky sap, and leaves that twist to align vertically like a compass.

herb

Strawberry

The garden strawberry is a low-growing perennial in the rose family, known for its red fruit. It spreads by runners and is one of the most popular plants for home gardens and containers.

herb

Purple Deadnettle

Purple deadnettle is a low winter annual in the mint family, recognized by its triangular, reddish-purple-tinged upper leaves and small pink-purple flowers. A close relative of henbit, it is a harmless, bee-friendly weed that carpets gardens and fields in early spring.

herb

String Of Hearts

A delicate trailing succulent with heart-shaped, silver-marbled leaves strung along thread-like purple stems. Prized as an easy, fast-growing hanging plant.

succulent

Ponderosa Pine

Ponderosa pine is a tall, drought-hardy evergreen conifer of western North America, known for its long needles, large cones and puzzle-piece bark that smells of vanilla or butterscotch. It is a major western timber tree.

tree

Strawflower

An Australian annual prized for its papery, daisy-like bracts that keep their bright color long after cutting, making it a favorite for dried-flower arrangements. The crisp, straw-textured petals come in gold, orange, red, pink and white.

flower

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

Sweet William

Sweet William is a short-lived cottage-garden classic bearing dense, flat clusters of fringed, often bicolored flowers with a clove-like fragrance. It's typically grown as a biennial, blooming in its second year.

flower

Prickly Pear Cactus

Prickly pear cacti have flat, paddle-shaped pads and produce showy flowers followed by colorful fruit. Tough and drought-hardy, several species are widely grown for landscaping.

succulent

Syngonium Albo

A striking variegated arrowhead plant with arrow-shaped green leaves splashed and marbled in pure white. The bold, unpredictable variegation makes it a coveted collector's houseplant.

houseplant

Pickerelweed

A native aquatic perennial of pond margins and marshes, bearing glossy heart-shaped leaves and spikes of violet-blue flowers all summer long.

flower

Sneezeweed

Sneezeweed is a cheerful late-summer perennial bearing masses of daisy-like flowers with raised central cones in warm shades of yellow, orange, red and bronze. Despite its name, it doesn't cause sneezing from pollen; the name comes from old use of its dried leaves as snuff.

flower

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

Spring Beauty

A tiny spring ephemeral carpeting woodlands and lawns with starry white-to-pink flowers delicately striped in darker pink.

flower

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

Smokebush

A deciduous shrub famous for the airy, smoke-like haze of fluffy flower stalks that envelop the plant in summer. Many cultivars add dramatic purple or gold foliage and fiery fall color.

shrub

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

Silver Dollar Eucalyptus

A fast-growing eucalyptus famous for its round, silvery blue-green juvenile leaves, widely cut for fresh and dried floral arrangements. It carries the signature menthol-like eucalyptus fragrance.

tree

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

Siberian Fir

Siberian Fir is an extremely cold-hardy conifer of the Russian taiga, with soft fragrant needles. Its aromatic needle oil is used in perfumes and fragrances.

tree