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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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

White Spruce

White Spruce is a hardy, widespread conifer of the northern forests of North America, valued for its dense conical form and tolerance of cold and poor soils. It is an important timber and Christmas tree species.

tree

Pignut Hickory

Pignut hickory is a tall, upland hickory of eastern North America with smooth gray bark and pear-shaped nuts. It is valued for tough wood, brilliant golden fall color, and as wildlife habitat.

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Green Ash

Green ash is a tough, adaptable deciduous tree once widely planted for shade, with compound leaves and yellow fall color; its survival is now threatened across North America by the emerald ash borer.

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Winterberry

Winterberry is a deciduous holly native to eastern North America, prized for the dense clusters of brilliant red berries that cling to its bare branches through winter. Unlike most hollies it drops its leaves, leaving a striking show of fruit against snow.

shrub

Teasel

Teasel is a tall, spiny biennial topped with egg-shaped, prickly flower heads ringed by tiny lavender blooms. Once used to raise the nap on woolen cloth, it is now considered an invasive weed in much of North America.

herb

Shore Pine

Shore Pine is the coastal form of the lodgepole pine, a tough, twisted two-needle pine of the Pacific coast. Its irregular, picturesque shape makes it popular for seaside gardens and bonsai.

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Avocado Tree

The avocado is a broadleaf evergreen fruiting tree. Frost-tender and vigorous, it is a popular subtropical orchard tree and a fun, if slow-fruiting, houseplant from a sprouted pit.

tree

Garlic Mustard

Garlic mustard is an aggressive biennial herb with garlic-scented leaves and small white flowers, and one of North America's most damaging invasive plants.

herb

Gladiolus

Gladiolus is a tall summer bulb that sends up dramatic spikes of funnel-shaped flowers in nearly every color, a staple of cutting gardens and floral arrangements.

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.

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Red Maple

Red maple is one of North America's most widespread and adaptable trees, prized for its brilliant scarlet fall color and early red flowers. It thrives in a remarkable range of soils, from swamps to dry ridges.

tree

Hosta

The premier foliage perennial for shade, grown for bold mounds of ribbed leaves in greens, blues, golds, and variegated patterns. Lavender or white flower spikes are a summer bonus.

houseplant

Amaryllis

The popular indoor amaryllis is a bulb (genus Hippeastrum) that produces towering stalks topped with huge, trumpet-shaped flowers, often forced for winter bloom. True Amaryllis is a separate South African genus.

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Red Hot Poker

Red hot poker is a bold perennial sending up torch-like spikes of tubular flowers that grade from fiery red at the top to yellow below. Its grassy clumps and dramatic blooms attract hummingbirds and bees.

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Japanese Andromeda

Japanese andromeda is an elegant evergreen shrub with cascading clusters of urn-shaped flowers in early spring and colorful new growth. It pairs beautifully with azaleas and rhododendrons.

shrub

Flamingo Flower

A tropical plant famous for its glossy, heart-shaped red 'flowers' (actually spathes) with a protruding spadix. Long-lasting blooms make it a popular gift plant.

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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

Desert Rose

The desert rose is a striking caudex succulent with a swollen trunk and clusters of showy, trumpet-shaped pink to red flowers. It is widely grown as a bonsai-like ornamental.

succulent

Juniper

A tough, evergreen coniferous shrub (some species small trees) with needle-like or scale-like foliage and blue berry-like cones. Junipers range from low groundcovers to upright forms and thrive in poor, dry soils.

shrub

Celosia

Celosia produces striking flame-like plumes or brain-like crested heads in vivid colors, holding both fresh and dried for long-lasting display.

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Lifesaver Cactus

A low, clumping stem succulent famous for bizarre flowers with a thick, glossy red ring at the center that looks exactly like a candy lifesaver. The flowers are striped like a zebra.

succulent

Carnation

A classic frilled flower with a spicy, clove-like scent, available in many colors and prized as a long-lasting cut flower. Carnations like sun and well-drained soil.

flower

Masterwort

Masterwort is a clump-forming perennial with intricate, pincushion-like flower heads surrounded by a papery collar of petal-like bracts. It brings cottage-garden charm to moist, partly shaded borders.

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