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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Bald Cypress

A deciduous conifer of southern swamps, famous for its feathery foliage, buttressed trunk, and 'knees' that poke up from the water. Drops its needles in fall, hence 'bald.'

tree

Barberry

A dense, thorny deciduous shrub grown for colorful red, gold, or purple foliage and bright red berries. Tough and adaptable, though invasive in parts of North America.

shrub

Banana Plant

The banana is a giant tropical herb, not a true tree, grown for its fruit and dramatic paddle-shaped leaves. Its 'trunk' is actually a pseudostem of tightly rolled leaf sheaths.

herb

American Beech

A majestic, slow-growing native hardwood with smooth silvery-gray bark and golden fall leaves that often cling through winter. A dominant tree of eastern forests.

tree

Angelonia

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

flower

Annual Phlox

A bushy Texas native annual that produces dense, rounded clusters of starry flowers in nearly every color, prized for long-lasting summer color in beds and containers.

flower

Thimble Cactus

A tiny clustering cactus that produces masses of little thimble-sized offsets which detach at the slightest touch. The pale spines give the cluster a soft, frosty look.

succulent

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

Umbrella Tree

The umbrella tree is a fast-growing tropical plant whose glossy leaflets radiate from a central point like the spokes of an umbrella. It makes a lush, easy-care indoor tree.

tree

Watermelon

Watermelon is a sprawling, heat-loving vine in the gourd family grown for its very large fruits. It needs a long, hot season and plenty of room to develop well.

herb

Witchgrass

Witchgrass is a native North American annual grass famous for its huge airy seedhead that breaks off and tumbles in the wind, scattering seed as it rolls.

grass

Wood Anemone

A low-growing spring ephemeral of European woodlands that carpets the forest floor with star-shaped white flowers before the tree canopy leafs out.

flower

Trumpet Tree

The trumpet tree is a tropical American tree that bursts into a mass of pink-to-magenta trumpet-shaped flowers, often while leafless. Known as pink ipê, it is a prized ornamental.

tree

Sweet Pea

Sweet pea is a climbing annual cherished for its ruffled, intensely fragrant flowers in soft pastel shades, a classic of cottage gardens and cut-flower beds.

flower

Weeping Fig

A popular indoor tree with a graceful, weeping canopy of small glossy leaves. It is attractive but notorious for dropping leaves when stressed or moved.

tree

Subalpine Fir

Subalpine Fir is a narrow, spire-shaped western fir of high mountains, instantly recognizable by its slender steeple crown adapted to shed heavy snow.

tree

Swamp Milkweed

A moisture-loving native milkweed bearing fragrant clusters of pink flowers, a vital host plant for monarch butterflies and a magnet for pollinators.

flower

Southern Magnolia

An iconic broadleaf evergreen tree of the American South, bearing huge fragrant white flowers and glossy leathery leaves. A symbol of Southern landscapes.

tree

Ranunculus

Ranunculus is a cool-season tuber producing densely layered, rose-like flowers in jewel and pastel tones, a darling of cut-flower growers and spring gardens.

flower

Poison Oak

Poison oak is a woody shrub or climbing vine native to North America, recognized by its compound leaves of three lobed leaflets that resemble oak foliage.

shrub

Pentas

Pentas bears rounded clusters of star-shaped flowers that bloom all summer and are a magnet for butterflies and hummingbirds in warm climates.

shrub

Parsnip

The parsnip is a hardy biennial root vegetable grown for its long, tapering, cream-colored taproot. A long-season crop, it is a classic of autumn and winter gardens.

herb

Money Tree

A tropical tree often sold with a braided trunk and a crown of hand-shaped leaves, popular as a feng shui symbol of prosperity. It is easy-going and low-maintenance.

tree

Mayapple

A woodland wildflower forming colonies of umbrella-like leaves, with a single white flower hidden beneath that ripens into a yellow fruit.

flower