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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Crown of Thorns

A spiny succulent shrub from Madagascar prized for its near year-round display of small, brightly colored bracts surrounding tiny flowers. Tough and drought-tolerant, with thorn-armored stems and milky sap.

succulent

Apple Tree

The apple tree is a deciduous fruit tree grown worldwide for its familiar fruit. With thousands of cultivars and the need for cross-pollination, it is a rewarding but slightly demanding garden and orchard tree.

tree

Jimsonweed

Jimsonweed is a rank-smelling nightshade with large white-to-purple trumpet flowers and spiny seed pods, and one of the most distinctive weeds of North America.

herb

Tomato

The tomato is one of the world's most popular garden plants, a warm-season fruiting member of the nightshade family grown on sprawling or vining stems. It comes in countless cultivars from tiny cherries to giant beefsteaks.

herb

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

Holy Basil

Holy basil, or tulsi, is an aromatic herb in the mint family, sacred in Hinduism. More clove-scented than sweet basil, it is grown in gardens and containers and traditionally near homes and temples.

herb

Puncturevine

Puncturevine is a low, mat-forming summer weed notorious for its hard, spiny seed burs that puncture bicycle tires and bare feet. It thrives in hot, dry, disturbed ground and is widespread in warm regions worldwide.

herb

Cherimoya Tree

A subtropical fruit tree from the Andean highlands, recognized by its large, heart-shaped fruits with green, scale-patterned skin. It tolerates light frost better than most tropical fruit trees.

tree

Soursop

Soursop is a tropical evergreen tree in the custard apple family, bearing large, spiny, dark green heart-shaped fruit. It is sensitive to cold and demands a warm, frost-free climate.

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

Pawpaw Tree

A small native North American tree producing the largest fruit native to the continent, borne on a hardy understory tree with large drooping leaves. It is the only temperate member of a largely tropical plant family.

tree

Guava Tree

A hardy tropical fruiting tree producing fragrant fruit and recognizable smooth, peeling bark. It is fast-growing, adaptable, and tolerant of a range of soils.

tree

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

Chamomile

Chamomile is a daisy-like aromatic herb famous for its small, apple-scented white-and-yellow flowers.

herb

Honey Locust

Honey locust is a fast-growing deciduous tree with fine, fern-like compound leaves casting light dappled shade; wild forms have fierce branching thorns and long twisted seed pods, but thornless cultivars dominate landscaping.

tree

Silk Floss Tree

The silk floss tree is a striking subtropical tree with a bulging, thorn-studded green trunk and large pink-and-cream hibiscus-like flowers in autumn. Its seed pods burst to release silky white fibers, giving the tree its name.

tree

Raspberry

Raspberries are thorny, cane-forming shrubs grown for their aggregate berries. With summer- and autumn-fruiting types, a small patch can yield fruit over many weeks.

shrub

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

Rose

The rose is the world's most beloved flowering shrub, a thorny perennial grown for thousands of years for its fragrant, many-petaled blooms in nearly every color but true blue.

shrub

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

Coral Tree

The coral tree is a thorny deciduous tree or large shrub bearing dramatic spikes of waxy, deep-red, claw-shaped flowers in summer. Native to South America, it is the national tree and flower of Argentina and Uruguay.

tree

Gooseberry

A thorny deciduous shrub in the currant family that produces translucent berries on arching, spiny stems. It is hardy, productive and tolerant of cool climates.

shrub

Key Lime

A small, thorny citrus tree producing tiny, highly aromatic green-to-yellow fruit. It is a fruiting tropical tree historically grown in the Florida Keys.

tree

Dewberry

Dewberry is a low, trailing relative of the blackberry that produces dark berries earlier in the season. Its sprawling thorny canes form ground-hugging mats.

shrub