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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Spanish Fir

Spanish Fir is a rare Mediterranean conifer from the mountains of southern Spain, prized for its dense, radially arranged blue-green needles that give branches a bottlebrush look. It is one of the few firs adapted to hot, dry summers.

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Annual Bluegrass

A low-growing, light-green annual grass that is one of the most widespread lawn and turf weeds in the world. It forms clumps, seeds prolifically even when mowed short, and turns unsightly in summer heat.

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Columbine

Columbine is a graceful perennial prized for its intricate, spurred flowers that nod above lacy blue-green foliage in late spring. It self-seeds readily and is a favorite of hummingbirds and bees.

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Potato

The potato is a cool-season nightshade-family plant grown for its starchy underground tubers, among the world's most widely cultivated staple crops. It is grown from 'seed potatoes' that sprout into leafy plants.

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Pasque Flower

Pasque flower is an early-spring perennial bearing silky, bell-shaped purple flowers cloaked in fine hairs, followed by ornamental feathery seed heads. It blooms around Easter, giving it its name.

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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.

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Hairy Bittercress

A small annual weed in the mustard family that forms a basal rosette and shoots tiny white flowers in early spring, followed by seed pods that explosively fling seeds. It is a common nuisance in nursery pots and garden beds.

herb

Franklin Tree

The Franklin tree is a rare deciduous tree extinct in the wild, surviving only in cultivation from seed collected in the 1700s. It bears fragrant white camellia-like flowers in late summer and fiery red fall color.

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Gray Pine

A sparse, open-crowned California pine known for its ghostly gray-green foliage and enormous, heavy cones with large seeds. It is endemic to the dry foothills surrounding California's Central Valley.

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Monkey Puzzle Tree

The monkey puzzle is a striking evergreen conifer from the Andes with stiff, spiral-arranged spiky leaves and a distinctive symmetrical, dome-topped silhouette. It is a living fossil, virtually unchanged for millions of years, and can live over a thousand years.

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Golden Rain Tree

The golden rain tree is a small to medium deciduous shade tree noted for its large sprays of bright yellow summer flowers followed by papery, lantern-like seed capsules. It is tough, adaptable, and popular as a street and lawn tree.

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Butterfly Bush

A fast-growing deciduous shrub bearing long, fragrant flower spikes that are magnets for butterflies and bees. Vigorous and easy, it is also invasive in some regions, so non-seeding cultivars are recommended.

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Honey Locust

Honey locust is a fast-growing deciduous tree with fine, fern-like compound leaves casting light dappled shade; wild forms have fierce branching thorns and long twisted seed pods, but thornless cultivars dominate landscaping.

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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.

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Longleaf Pine

A stately fire-adapted pine that once dominated vast southeastern U.S. forests, prized for its very long needles, durable timber and grass-stage seedlings. Restoration of its open, biodiverse savannas is a major conservation effort.

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