Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Bear's Paw
Bear's paw is a fuzzy succulent named for its plump, fleshy leaves tipped with tooth-like 'claws.' The chubby, hairy leaves and reddish tips give it a paw-like, animal appearance.
succulent
Dutchman's Breeches
A delicate spring ephemeral whose white, pantaloon-shaped flowers hang in a row like tiny upside-down breeches. It blooms early in woodlands then vanishes by summer.
flower
Blue Star Fern
An epiphytic fern with broad, deeply lobed fronds in a soft blue-green hue and fuzzy golden-brown rhizomes. It is more forgiving than many ferns and tolerates average household humidity.
fern
Baby's Breath
Baby's breath is an airy perennial producing clouds of tiny white or pink flowers on wiry, branching stems. It's a florist's staple as a delicate filler in bouquets and a soft accent in the garden.
flower
Cholla Cactus
A group of shrubby to treelike desert cacti with cylindrical, jointed segments and barbed spines that detach easily. Iconic plants of the American Southwest deserts.
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
Elephant Ear Cactus
A prickly pear with flat, rounded green pads that branch into ear-like shapes. Instead of long spines it bears dense tufts of tiny barbed glochids that detach at the lightest touch.
succulent
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
Red Currant
A hardy deciduous shrub that bears glistening strings of translucent red berries in summer, grown in gardens as an ornamental and fruiting shrub.
shrub
Soapwort
Soapwort is a vigorous perennial whose roots and leaves lather in water, historically used as a gentle natural soap. It bears fragrant pink-to-white flowers and spreads readily by runners.
herb
Goji Berry
A hardy, sprawling deciduous shrub in the nightshade family grown for its bright red-orange berries. It tolerates poor soils and drought and bears long, arching, thorny canes.
shrub
Jalapeno
The jalapeno is a chili pepper, a cultivar of Capsicum annuum that bears green pods ripening to red. It is easy to grow and productive in warm, sunny conditions.
herb
Star Cactus
A small, flattened, spineless cactus divided into neat segments that resemble a star or sand dollar, dotted with white woolly flecks. It bears yellow flowers with red centers and is a coveted collector's plant.
succulent
Bearberry
A hardy, mat-forming evergreen groundcover shrub of cold northern regions, with glossy leaves, pink bell flowers, and red berries favored by bears and birds.
shrub
Privet
A fast-growing, dense deciduous-to-semi-evergreen shrub long used for clipped hedges. It bears panicles of small white flowers and black berries, but is invasive in many regions.
shrub
Jacob's Ladder
Jacob's ladder is a graceful perennial named for its neat, ladder-like rows of paired leaflets. In late spring it bears clusters of bell- to cup-shaped blue, white or pink flowers, making it a fine choice for cottage and woodland-edge gardens.
flower
Monterey Pine
Monterey Pine is a fast-growing California coastal pine that, though limited in the wild, has become the world's most widely planted plantation pine. It bears needles in threes and asymmetrical, long-lasting cones.
tree
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
Franklin Tree
The Franklin tree is a rare deciduous tree extinct in the wild, surviving only in cultivation from seed collected in the 1700s. It bears fragrant white camellia-like flowers in late summer and fiery red fall color.
tree
Four O'Clock
A bushy tuberous perennial famous for fragrant trumpet flowers that open in late afternoon and stay open through the night, then close by morning. A single plant can bear differently colored blooms, sometimes flecked on the same flower.
flower
Threadleaf False Cypress
Threadleaf false cypress is an evergreen conifer with long, drooping, whip-like thread foliage that gives a soft, mounding, weeping texture. Golden forms are especially popular as garden accents.
tree
Sweet Woodruff
Sweet woodruff is a low, spreading groundcover herb with whorls of slender green leaves and clusters of tiny white star-shaped flowers in spring. When dried, its foliage releases a sweet, hay-and-vanilla scent and it carpets shady ground beautifully.
herb
Astilbe
A shade-loving perennial topped with feathery, plume-like flower panicles in pink, red, lavender, or white above fern-like foliage. Prized for bringing color and softness to moist, dappled gardens.
flower
Goatsbeard
Goatsbeard is a robust, shade-loving perennial that produces tall, feathery plumes of creamy-white flowers, resembling a giant astilbe. It is a striking native woodland plant for moist, partly shaded gardens.
shrub