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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Scarlet Sage

A bold bedding salvia famous for its dense spikes of fiery red tubular flowers, a magnet for hummingbirds and a mainstay of summer color schemes.

flower

Sage

Sage is a hardy Mediterranean shrub-herb with soft, gray-green aromatic leaves, widely grown as a culinary herb and ornamental in sunny gardens.

herb

Salvia

Salvia is the huge genus of sages, spanning the culinary herb of the kitchen, aromatic shrubs, and a vast range of ornamental perennials with vivid flower spikes that hummingbirds and bees adore.

herb

Texas Sage

Texas sage is a silvery-leaved desert shrub that erupts in purple flowers after rain or humidity—earning the nickname barometer bush. It thrives on heat, sun, and minimal water.

shrub

Russian Sage

An airy, silver-stemmed subshrub topped with hazy clouds of tiny lavender-blue flowers all summer. Aromatic, heat- and drought-proof, and a favorite of bees in hot, sunny gardens.

shrub

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

Scarlet Runner Bean

A vigorous climbing bean grown for its showy scarlet flowers and long, flat pods, equally at home on an ornamental fence or a garden trellis.

herb

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

Fire Pink

A short-lived native wildflower of eastern North American woodlands, prized for its brilliant scarlet, star-shaped flowers that lure hummingbirds in spring.

flower

Sago Palm

An ancient, palm-like cycad with a stout trunk and a symmetrical crown of stiff, feathery dark-green fronds. Despite the name it is not a true palm.

shrub

Lantana

Lantana is a tough, heat- and drought-tolerant flowering shrub whose rounded clusters of tiny blooms often shift color as they age. It is a magnet for butterflies but is invasive in many warm regions.

shrub

Lungwort

Lungwort is a shade-loving perennial grown for its silver-spotted leaves and early spring flowers that often open pink and age to blue on the same plant. It is an excellent groundcover for woodland and shady gardens.

flower

Red Maple

Red maple is one of North America's most widespread and adaptable trees, prized for its brilliant scarlet fall color and early red flowers. It thrives in a remarkable range of soils, from swamps to dry ridges.

tree

Indian Paintbrush

A vivid North American wildflower whose flame-colored display comes not from petals but from brightly tipped leaf-like bracts. It is a hemiparasite that taps the roots of neighboring plants, making it notoriously difficult to cultivate.

flower

Poppy

The poppy is a delicate-petaled wildflower, most iconic in its scarlet form, that blooms in sunny meadows and has become a symbol of remembrance.

flower

Sourwood

Sourwood is a graceful native North American tree with drooping clusters of white lily-of-the-valley-like summer flowers and outstanding scarlet fall foliage.

tree

Cardinal Flower

Cardinal flower is a moisture-loving native perennial bearing tall spikes of brilliant scarlet-red flowers in late summer. Its intense color is a magnet for hummingbirds.

flower

Illawarra Flame Tree

The Illawarra flame tree is a striking Australian native that sheds its leaves and covers itself in masses of brilliant scarlet bell-shaped flowers in early summer. It is one of Australia's most spectacular flowering trees.

tree

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

Flame Bottle Tree

The flame bottle tree, or Illawarra flame tree, is an Australian tree that blazes with masses of scarlet bell-shaped flowers on bare branches in early summer. It belongs to the bottle tree family, with a stout trunk and maple-like leaves.

tree

Sassafras

An aromatic native tree known for its three differently shaped leaves on the same plant, spicy fragrance, and brilliant fall color.

tree

Satin Pothos

A trailing tropical vine with heart-shaped, matte green leaves splashed in shimmering silver. Despite the name it is not a true pothos, but it shares the same easygoing, low-light tolerance.

houseplant

Yellow Nutsedge

Yellow nutsedge is a grass-like perennial sedge, not a true grass, that infests lawns, gardens and crops by spreading through underground tubers called 'nutlets'. The same tubers are also cultivated in some regions, where they are known as chufa or tiger nuts.

grass

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