Plant Encyclopedia

Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.

all houseplant flower tree shrub succulent herb fern grass

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

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

Rhubarb

Rhubarb is a hardy herbaceous perennial grown for its thick, ruby-to-green leaf stalks rising from a ground-level crown. It is a robust, long-lived cool-season garden plant.

herb

Queen of the Night

An epiphytic jungle cactus famous for its enormous, fragrant white flowers that open for a single night before wilting by dawn. It grows on flattened, leaf-like stems and is a celebrated rare bloomer.

succulent

Rainbow Cactus

A small barrel cactus whose closely set spines form colored bands of pink, white, and red that wrap the stem like a rainbow. Crowned in spring with large, vivid magenta flowers.

succulent

Panda Plant

The panda plant is a fuzzy, felt-leaved succulent covered in soft silvery hairs with brown-tipped edges. Its plush, ear-like leaves make it a charming, low-maintenance houseplant.

succulent

Painted Daisy

Painted daisy is a hardy perennial bearing cheerful daisy flowers in pink, red, and white with golden centers over fern-like foliage. Its flowers are the natural source of the insecticide pyrethrum.

flower

Lupine

A striking cottage-garden perennial with tall, dense spires of pea-like flowers in vivid blues, purples, pinks, and bicolors above palmate leaves. A nitrogen-fixing legume beloved by bees.

flower

Kousa Dogwood

Kousa dogwood is an elegant small tree with pointed white bracts in late spring, raspberry-like fruit, and striking exfoliating bark. It is more disease-resistant than the native flowering dogwood.

tree

Horsetail

An ancient, fern-related plant with jointed, hollow stems and whorls of needle-like branches that resemble a horse's tail. It is a persistent weed of damp ground, spreading by deep rhizomes and reproducing by spores.

fern

Eastern Red Cedar

Eastern Red Cedar is a tough, aromatic evergreen juniper native to North America, known for its reddish, fragrant wood and blue berry-like cones. It thrives in poor, dry soils.

tree

Corn Plant

The corn plant is a sturdy indoor tree with thick woody canes topped by arching, corn-like leaves, often with a yellow-green center stripe. It is famously tolerant of low light and neglect.

houseplant

Carpetweed

A low, mat-forming summer annual that spreads flat across the ground in a star-like pattern of whorled leaves. It is a common weed of gardens, lawns and bare soil, germinating in warm weather.

herb

Bishop's Cap Cactus

A spineless, star-shaped cactus with a rounded body of distinct ribs flecked with tiny white scales, resembling a bishop's mitre. It produces yellow daisy-like flowers from its crown.

succulent

Sourwood

Sourwood is a graceful native North American tree with drooping clusters of white lily-of-the-valley-like summer flowers and outstanding scarlet fall foliage.

tree

Zebra Cactus

A small rosette succulent with stiff, dark green leaves banded by raised white stripes, like a zebra. Compact, slow-growing, and beginner-friendly.

succulent

Pencil Cactus

A nearly leafless succulent shrub whose mass of slender, pencil-thick green branches gives it a coral-like silhouette. It is striking and easy to grow.

succulent

Joshua Tree

An iconic, slow-growing tree-sized yucca of the Mojave Desert, with spiky bayonet-like leaves and branched, shaggy arms that define the desert skyline.

succulent

Jacaranda

A subtropical tree famous for spectacular clouds of violet-blue trumpet flowers in spring, paired with delicate fern-like foliage and a broad, airy canopy.

tree

Floss Flower

Floss flower is a compact annual covered in fluffy, thread-like clusters of blue, lavender, pink, or white blooms that flower nonstop all summer.

flower

Angelonia

Often called summer snapdragon, angelonia produces upright spikes of orchid-like flowers that thrive in heat and humidity all season without deadheading.

flower

Western Red Cedar

Western red cedar is a large, aromatic evergreen conifer of the Pacific Northwest, famed for its rot-resistant, fragrant wood and flat sprays of scale-like foliage. It is a cultural and ecological cornerstone of the region.

tree

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.

tree

Heavenly Bamboo

An evergreen-to-semi-evergreen shrub with lacy, bamboo-like foliage that flushes red in cool weather, plus white summer flowers and showy red winter berries. Despite the name, it is not a true bamboo.

shrub