Eastern Plant Identification Guide

Below you will find a guide to many of the plants found in the eastern United States.  You will notice that this guide is divided into families, and the individual plants are grouped within the appropriate family.  While this may seem confusing at first, this is done for scientific clarity and to help illustrate how various species within the same family share many of the same characteristics.

You will also notice that the plants in this guide are referred to first by their Latin name and then their common name.  This is because common names often vary, there may be more than one common name for a particular plant, and the same common name is sometimes used to refer to more than one plant species.  The use of the scientific name to refer to plants is common practice among botanists and wildflower experts in order to facilitate communication and avoid confusion.

Many botanical terms are used in the description of the plants that are included here.  If you are new to botany, then some of these terms may be unfamiliar.  Here is a link to a concise collection of botanical terms and their explanations.

Please use the search box below to search for a particular species if you are not sure to which family it belongs.
This guide is a work in progress.  More species will be added regularly.

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