Plant Encyclopedia
Search and identify 1,000+ plants, flowers, trees, and succulents — with care, light, water, and how to tell them apart.
Wild Onion
A native North American perennial onion with flat, grass-like leaves and bulbs that emit a clear onion scent. It commonly appears in lawns, meadows and woodland edges and is regarded as both a wildflower and a lawn weed.
herb
Wild Bergamot
An aromatic North American mint-family perennial topped with ragged lavender flower heads that are magnets for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.
herb
Wild Mustard
Wild mustard, or charlock, is a fast-growing annual weed of fields and roadsides with bright yellow four-petaled flowers. It is an aggressive crop weed.
herb
Wild Columbine
Wild columbine is a graceful native woodland wildflower with nodding red-and-yellow flowers whose backward-pointing spurs hold nectar prized by hummingbirds.
flower
Wild Garlic
A pungent perennial bulb in the onion family that spreads aggressively through lawns and fields, recognized by its hollow, grass-like leaves and strong garlic odor. It is a common turf weed.
herb
Wild Violet
Wild violet is a low-growing perennial wildflower with heart-shaped leaves and five-petaled blue-purple blooms, beloved by some and considered a stubborn lawn weed by others.
flower
Wild Ginger
A low, spreading woodland groundcover with heart-shaped leaves and curious maroon flowers hidden at soil level. Its ginger-scented roots inspired the common name, though it is unrelated to true ginger.
flower
Wild Indigo
A long-lived native prairie perennial that forms a shrub-like mound of blue-green foliage topped by spikes of indigo-blue, pea-like flowers. Its deep taproot makes it exceptionally drought tolerant and nearly permanent in the garden.
flower
Wild Geranium
A graceful woodland perennial bearing saucer-shaped pink to lavender flowers above deeply lobed leaves in late spring. It is a true hardy geranium, distinct from the tender garden 'geraniums' that are actually pelargoniums.
flower
Arugula
Arugula is a fast-growing, cool-season leafy green in the brassica family. It goes from seed to a low rosette of lobed leaves in a matter of weeks.
herb
Larkspur
A cool-season annual related to delphinium, bearing tall spikes of spurred blue, purple, pink or white flowers above feathery foliage. It is a cottage-garden classic and an excellent cut flower.
flower
Carrot
The carrot is a popular root vegetable grown for its taproot, most familiar in orange but also available in purple, red, yellow, and white. It is a biennial usually harvested in its first year.
herb
Parsnip
The parsnip is a hardy biennial root vegetable grown for its long, tapering, cream-colored taproot. A long-season crop, it is a classic of autumn and winter gardens.
herb
California Lilac
California lilac is a western North American shrub celebrated for its dense clusters of intensely blue flowers in spring. It is a magnet for bees and a backbone of water-wise native gardens.
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
Mayapple
A woodland wildflower forming colonies of umbrella-like leaves, with a single white flower hidden beneath that ripens into a yellow fruit.
flower
Feverfew
Feverfew is a bushy, aromatic herb covered in small white daisy flowers with yellow centers. It is a cheerful, easy cottage-garden plant with feathery, citrus-scented foliage.
herb
Common Sunflower
The common sunflower is a fast-growing annual famous for its large golden flower heads that track the sun; it is grown worldwide as an ornamental and oilseed crop.
flower
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
Lambsquarters
Lambsquarters is a fast-growing annual weed with mealy, diamond-shaped (goosefoot) leaves and a whitish, mealy coating on new growth.
herb
Queen Anne's Lace
Queen Anne's lace is a biennial wildflower with delicate, flat-topped clusters of tiny white flowers and a single dark floret in the center. It is the wild ancestor of the cultivated carrot.
flower
Pineapple Weed
A small annual weed with feathery leaves and cone-shaped greenish-yellow flower heads that smell like pineapple when crushed. Closely related to chamomile, it is fragrant and common in compacted, disturbed ground.
herb
Oregano
A hardy, sun-loving Mediterranean herb with small aromatic leaves, valued as a drought-tolerant ground cover and bee plant and grown widely in gardens.
herb
False Indigo
A long-lived, shrubby perennial legume with spires of indigo-blue, lupine-like flowers in late spring and attractive blue-green foliage all season.
flower