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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Deodar Cedar

Deodar Cedar is a graceful true cedar with gently drooping branches and soft blue-green needles. It is a popular large ornamental tree with an elegant, weeping silhouette.

tree

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

Chinese Evergreen

A tough, colorful foliage plant tolerant of low light, valued for its patterned leaves in green, silver, pink or red. A reliable beginner-friendly houseplant.

houseplant

Christmas Cactus

The Christmas cactus is a Brazilian forest cactus that bursts into tubular pink, red, or white blooms in early winter. Unlike desert cacti, it likes humidity and regular water.

succulent

Blanket Flower

A heat-loving, daisy-like perennial in fiery bands of red, orange, and yellow that bloom nonstop all summer. Tough, drought-proof, and beloved by bees and butterflies.

flower

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

Angelonia

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

flower

Air Plant

Air plants are rootless epiphytes that absorb water and nutrients through their leaves, so they can grow mounted on wood, in shells, or simply set on a shelf without any soil.

houseplant

Trillium

A cherished woodland wildflower built entirely in threes: three leaves, three petals, and three sepals. Slow-growing and long-lived, it is a hallmark of healthy spring forests and should never be picked or dug from the wild.

flower

Firesticks

A pencil-thin, branching succulent whose cylindrical stems turn brilliant orange, red, and yellow in cool, sunny weather. It is a dramatic landscape and container plant with slender, leafless stems.

succulent

Rhododendron

A large genus of evergreen and deciduous shrubs famed for spectacular spring trusses of bell- or funnel-shaped flowers. They thrive in acidic, moist, well-drained woodland soils with dappled light.

shrub

Pyracantha

Pyracantha, or firethorn, is a thorny evergreen shrub that bursts with white spring flowers and brilliant masses of red, orange, or yellow berries in fall. It makes a formidable hedge or espalier.

shrub

Ninebark

A rugged North American deciduous shrub named for its peeling, layered bark. Modern cultivars offer striking burgundy, gold, or copper foliage plus clusters of white-to-pink spring flowers.

shrub

Melampodium

Melampodium, or butter daisy, is a tough, heat-loving annual that forms neat mounds covered in small golden-yellow daisies all summer. It thrives in hot, humid conditions and is virtually maintenance-free.

flower

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

Heather

Heather is a low, evergreen shrub that blankets moorlands with a haze of tiny pink, purple or white flowers in late summer. It needs acidic soil and is prized for ground cover and year-round foliage color.

shrub

Flowering Dogwood

Flowering dogwood is a beloved small ornamental tree whose spring branches are clouded in showy white or pink bracts. It offers four-season interest with summer berries, scarlet fall color, and tiered branching.

tree

Crabapple Tree

A small ornamental tree prized for its profuse spring blossoms and colorful, persistent miniature apples. Flowering crabapples are among the most popular landscape trees in temperate climates.

tree

Bell Pepper

Bell pepper is a blocky-fruited variety of Capsicum annuum grown as a warm-season garden crop, bearing glossy fruit in shades of green, red, yellow, and orange. It is a colorful, productive plant for sunny beds and containers.

herb

Aster

Asters are daisy-like perennials that burst into clouds of starry purple, pink, blue, or white blooms in late summer and autumn. They are pollinator magnets prized for extending color into the season's end.

flower

Baby Toes

A curious dwarf succulent that forms clusters of upright, club-shaped leaves with translucent 'windows' on their flat tops, looking like rows of tiny baby toes. It bears white or yellow daisy-like flowers.

succulent

African Tulip Tree

The African tulip tree is a fast-growing tropical tree topped with vivid orange-red, tulip-shaped flowers held above glossy foliage. Its showy blooms make it a popular ornamental, though it is invasive in many tropical regions.

tree

Weeping Cherry

The weeping cherry is an ornamental flowering cherry with gracefully cascading branches smothered in pink or white blossoms each spring. Its waterfall silhouette makes it a popular specimen and lawn focal point.

tree

Star Magnolia

Star magnolia is a slow-growing small tree or large shrub that opens dozens of fragrant, many-petaled white star-shaped flowers in very early spring, often before any other tree blooms. Its compact size suits smaller gardens.

tree