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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Janet Craig Dracaena

Janet Craig is a popular Dracaena cultivar with glossy, solid dark-green strap leaves on upright canes. Exceptionally tolerant of low light and neglect, it's a staple of homes and offices.

houseplant

Bradford Pear

Bradford pear is a fast-growing ornamental cultivar of Callery pear known for a uniform teardrop shape and clouds of white spring flowers. It is now widely regarded as an invasive species with notoriously weak, breakage-prone branching.

tree

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

Moon Valley Pilea

Moon Valley pilea is a compact tropical houseplant grown for its deeply textured, quilted bright green leaves with bronze sunken veins that resemble a lunar landscape.

houseplant

Heliotrope

A tender shrubby perennial loved for dense clusters of tiny purple flowers with an intense vanilla-cherry fragrance, earning it the nickname 'cherry pie plant.' It is grown as a fragrant bedding and container plant in most climates.

flower

Bromeliad

Bromeliads are tropical rosette plants grown for their long-lasting, brilliantly colored flower bracts. Many hold water in a central cup formed by their overlapping leaves.

houseplant

Tangerine Tree

A type of mandarin orange producing small, easy-to-peel fruit with a deep reddish-orange rind. It is a compact, productive citrus tree well suited to home gardens.

tree

Fishbone Cactus

An epiphytic jungle cactus with flat, deeply zigzagged stems resembling a fish skeleton. Easy to grow and capable of producing large, fragrant night-blooming flowers in autumn.

succulent

Allium

Ornamental alliums are bulbs grown for their dramatic spherical flower heads on tall, leafless stems. Related to onions and garlic, they add bold architectural interest and are largely pest-proof.

flower

Salvia

Salvia is the huge genus of sages, spanning the culinary herb of the kitchen, aromatic shrubs, and a vast range of ornamental perennials with vivid flower spikes that hummingbirds and bees adore.

herb

Haworthia

A small, slow-growing rosette succulent often called the zebra plant for the raised white bands on its dark green leaves. Compact and slow-growing, it thrives on neglect and tolerates lower light than most succulents.

succulent

Mullein

Mullein is a striking biennial that forms a rosette of soft, woolly leaves the first year and a towering yellow flower spike the second. It is a classic wildflower herb of dry, open ground.

herb

Dumb Cane

Dumb cane is a popular tropical houseplant with large, variegated cream-and-green leaves. It grows easily into a bushy, upright specimen and tolerates typical indoor conditions.

houseplant

Douglas Fir

Douglas fir is a towering western North American conifer prized as a timber and Christmas tree, recognizable by its soft flat needles and distinctive three-pointed bracts protruding from the cones.

tree

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

Peperomia

A diverse genus of compact, slow-growing houseplants with thick, often succulent-like leaves in a huge range of textures and colors. Their small size makes them ideal for desks and shelves.

houseplant

Pennyroyal

Pennyroyal is a low, creeping mint with a sharp, spearmint-like aroma. It forms a dense ground-hugging mat and produces whorls of small lilac flowers in summer.

herb

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

Lily

True lilies are summer-blooming bulbs with large, often fragrant, trumpet-shaped flowers on tall stems. They are easy garden perennials prized in borders and as cut flowers.

flower

Woolly Senecio

A striking succulent whose cylindrical leaves are wrapped in dense, silvery-white felt, like little woolly cocoons. The bright white woolly coating makes it one of the whitest of all succulents.

succulent

Japanese Aucuba

Japanese aucuba is a shade-loving evergreen shrub with bold, glossy leaves, often speckled gold, earning it the name gold dust plant. It brings light and color to dark, difficult corners.

shrub

Pothos

Pothos is a trailing tropical vine with glossy, heart-shaped leaves, famous for being almost impossible to kill. It thrives in a huge range of light conditions and roots easily from cuttings, making it a top choice for beginners.

houseplant

Heartleaf Philodendron

An easy trailing vine with glossy, heart-shaped leaves that thrives in a wide range of conditions. Often confused with pothos but with softer, thinner leaves.

houseplant

Candelabra Cactus

A tall, tree-like succulent euphorbia with upright branching ridged stems that form a candelabra silhouette. Though cactus-like, it is a spurge that exudes milky latex.

succulent