Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
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
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
Peace Lily
The peace lily is a popular flowering houseplant with glossy dark green leaves and elegant white hooded blooms. It thrives in low light and even tells you when it's thirsty by dramatically drooping.
houseplant
Medallion Calathea
The Medallion Calathea has large rounded leaves with intricate feathered patterns of green, cream, and pink over deep purple undersides. A showstopper that demands humidity, clean water, and steady care.
houseplant
Hoya Kerrii
A succulent-leaved hoya whose thick, heart-shaped leaves make it a popular Valentine's gift, often sold as a single rooted leaf. As a full plant it vines and produces clusters of fragrant star-shaped flowers.
succulent
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
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
Cleome
Cleome is a tall, airy annual topped with spidery clusters of pink, white, or purple flowers and long whisker-like seedpods, blooming all summer.
flower
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.
houseplantString of Dolphins
A trailing succulent whose curved leaves look like tiny leaping dolphins. A hybrid of string of pearls and candle plant, it makes a charming, sun-loving hanging plant.
succulent
Philodendron
A large, diverse genus of tropical aroids ranging from easy trailing vines to bold upright specimens. The heartleaf philodendron is the classic, nearly indestructible trailing form beloved by beginners.
houseplant
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
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
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
Dracaena
A large genus of architectural foliage plants with strappy, often colorfully striped leaves on cane-like stems. Tough and drought-tolerant, dracaenas are reliable beginner houseplants that bring height and structure indoors.
houseplant
ZZ Raven
ZZ Raven is a dramatic cultivar of the ZZ plant whose new growth emerges bright green then matures to a near-black purple. It is exceptionally tough and drought-tolerant.
houseplant
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
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
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
Lovage
Lovage is a tall, robust perennial herb with bold, celery-scented foliage and an architectural form. Long-lived, a single plant makes a striking back-of-border specimen.
herb
Lucky Bamboo
Despite the name, lucky bamboo is not a bamboo but a Dracaena, often grown in water and trained into curls or stalks. It is a popular feng shui gift symbolizing good fortune.
houseplant
False Shamrock
A bulbous plant with deep purple, triangular three-part leaves that fold up at night like butterfly wings. Easy to grow, it also produces dainty pale pink or white flowers.
houseplant
Dwarf Umbrella Tree
The Dwarf Umbrella Tree has glossy leaflets arranged like the spokes of an umbrella radiating from each stem. It is a popular, fast-growing indoor plant and a favorite subject for bonsai.
houseplant
Castor Bean
Castor bean is a fast-growing, dramatic plant with huge tropical leaves and spiny seed pods, often used as a bold ornamental for an instant tropical effect in gardens.
shrub