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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Black Locust

Black locust is a fast-growing deciduous tree with fragrant white spring flowers and extremely hard, rot-resistant wood. A nitrogen-fixing legume, it is valued for timber and erosion control but can be invasive.

tree

Black Currant

An aromatic deciduous shrub in the genus Ribes, grown in gardens for its dark purple-black berries. Its strongly scented foliage and upright, thornless habit make it easy to recognize.

shrub

Black Cherry

Black cherry is a native North American hardwood valued for its fine reddish furniture timber, drooping clusters of white spring flowers, and small dark fruits borne in late summer.

tree

Black Walnut

A large, valuable native hardwood prized for its rich, dark timber. Its roots release juglone, a compound that inhibits the growth of many nearby plants.

tree

Black Spruce

Black Spruce is a slow-growing boreal conifer of cold northern bogs, recognizable by its narrow crown, short needles, and small persistent cones.

tree

Black Medic

Black medic is a low, clover-like legume weed with small yellow flower clusters and distinctive coiled black seed pods, common in lawns and disturbed soils.

herb

Black Oak

Black oak is a large red-oak-group tree of eastern North America with dark, blocky bark and bristle-tipped lobed leaves. Its inner bark once yielded the yellow dye quercitron.

tree

Alocasia Black Velvet

A compact jewel Alocasia prized for its near-black, velvety heart-shaped leaves veined in striking silvery-white. Its small stature and dramatic contrast make it a collector favorite, though it is fussy about humidity.

houseplant

Black-Eyed Susan

Black-eyed Susan is a cheerful North American wildflower with golden-yellow petals around a dark brown center, blooming abundantly from summer into fall.

flower

Japanese Black Pine

Japanese Black Pine is a rugged coastal conifer with dark bark, stiff needles, and a picturesque irregular form. It is a classic bonsai and ornamental tree highly tolerant of salt and wind.

tree

Black-Eyed Susan Vine

A cheerful twining vine from Africa bearing masses of flat, five-petaled flowers in orange, yellow or white, each with a dark chocolate-purple center 'eye.' It quickly covers trellises and trails from baskets through the warm season.

flower

Blackberry

Blackberries are vigorous, often thorny cane plants in the rose family, bearing glossy black aggregate berries in late summer. Famously tough, they grow wild as brambles and in many improved garden varieties.

shrub

Snakeroot

Snakeroot, also called black cohosh, is a tall woodland perennial bearing dramatic white bottlebrush spires of fragrant flowers above ferny foliage. It is a striking native for moist, shady gardens.

flower

Chokeberry

Chokeberry is a hardy North American native shrub with white spring flowers, glossy berries, and fiery fall foliage. It is exceptionally adaptable and wildlife-friendly.

shrub

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is a fast-growing, aromatic Australian tree prized for its fragrant, oil-rich foliage and distinctive peeling bark. The blue gum is one of the most widely planted species worldwide for timber and ornamental use.

tree

River Birch

A fast-growing native birch famous for its showy, peeling cinnamon-and-cream bark and tolerance of wet soils. The most heat-tolerant of North American birches.

tree

Lodgepole Pine

Lodgepole Pine is a slender, adaptable western North American pine with paired needles and small prickly cones. Many populations have serotinous cones that open only after fire.

tree

Henbane

Henbane is a foul-smelling, sticky-haired herb of the nightshade family with funnel-shaped, purple-veined flowers, long associated with witchcraft and folklore.

herb

Scarlet Oak

A red-oak celebrated for brilliant scarlet autumn color, with deeply C-shaped sinuses between sharply bristle-tipped lobes and a graceful open crown.

tree

Philodendron Melanochrysum

A climbing philodendron famed for its long, velvety, dark blackish-green leaves shot through with golden veins. As it matures and climbs, its heart-shaped juvenile leaves elongate dramatically.

houseplant

Culver's Root

Culver's root is a tall, elegant North American prairie perennial with whorled leaves and slender, candelabra-like spires of white to pale-lilac flowers. It is a magnet for bees and butterflies in summer.

flower

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

Blue Jacaranda

The blue jacaranda is a subtropical tree celebrated for its spectacular spring display of violet-blue trumpet flowers that blanket the canopy and carpet the ground beneath. Its fine, fern-like foliage makes it a graceful landscape and avenue tree.

tree

ZZ Raven

ZZ Raven is a dramatic cultivar of the ZZ plant whose new growth emerges bright green then matures to a near-black purple. It is exceptionally tough and drought-tolerant.

houseplant