A virtually stemless, broadleaf-evergreen native of central and eastern North America: a basal rosette of rigid, sword-shaped, spine-tipped leaves up to 30 inches long, fringed along the margins with the curly white threads that give the species its name. In early summer a flowering stalk shoots from the center to 5-8 feet, carrying nodding, bell-shaped, creamy-white flowers. Tough enough for poor sandy soil, heat, drought, and salt spray, it earns its keep as architectural structure in dry and seaside gardens.

A tall, bold warm-season annual from Mexico and Guatemala (the "African" name is a misnomer of its European garden history) grown for large, fully double, pompon-like flowerheads in saturated yellow, gold, and orange over strongly aromatic, finely divided foliage. Plants reach 12-48 inches and bloom from early summer to frost in full sun. The petals are edible and used as a culinary garnish and natural dye, and the flowers are the iconic "flor de muerto" of Mexican Day of the Dead. Despite the wide listed zone range it is frost-tender and grown for a single warm season.

A native Southeastern North American semi-evergreen woodland groundcover (Pachysandra procumbens), prized for its blue-green to bronze mottled leaves and fragrant white-to-pinkish bottlebrush flower spikes that open at ground level in late winter to early spring. Unlike the widely planted invasive Asian Pachysandra terminalis, this native spreads slowly by rhizomes into well-behaved clumping colonies, making it a low, restrained groundcover for shaded native plantings.

A fast, suckering native shrub of streambanks and moist thickets across eastern North America, grown for huge flat-topped cymes of tiny lemon-scented white flowers in early summer and the clusters of dark elderberry drupes that follow. Spreads by root suckers into naturalized colonies 5-12 feet tall and wide; the flowers feed butterflies and the showy fruit feeds birds. The raw berries are not eaten fresh — they are cooked into jelly, pie, and wine.

American germander, also called wood sage, is a widespread North American native perennial in the mint family that runs steadily underground on creeping rhizomes. From early to midsummer it sends up erect, softly hairy stems topped with one-sided spikes of pale pink-to-lavender flowers, each with the distinctive deeply lobed lower lip that gives the germanders their look and makes a generous landing platform for bees. It is a plant of moist open ground - wet meadows, streambanks, ditches, and the edges of thickets - across most of the contiguous United States into southern Canada, which tells you exactly what it wants: sun and a soil that does not dry out. The honest caveat is its vigor: those same rhizomes that fill a bank or a rain garden so readily will also colonize a tidy perennial border and crowd politer neighbors. Site it where it can run, or give it a root barrier, and it rewards you with a long, dependable bee-friendly bloom rather than a maintenance fight.

A rounded, multi-stemmed deciduous shrub native across eastern and central North America, grown for its edible nuts and its season-opening catkins. Showy 2-3 inch yellowish-brown male catkins dangle from bare branches in early spring before the ovate, double-toothed leaves emerge; small egg-shaped edible nuts ripen inside leafy husks by mid- to late summer. Easygoing in average soil and tolerant of clay and black walnut, it suckers into thickets that screen and shelter wildlife.

The only native U.S. holly with both spiny green leaves and bright red berries — an upright, pyramidal, broadleaf evergreen tree that slowly matures to 15-30 feet in cultivation (to 50 feet in the wild). Thick, leathery, deep green leaves bear spiny marginal teeth, and pollinated female trees carry showy red-to-orange drupes that ripen in fall and persist through winter as bird food. This is the classic "Christmas holly" of wreaths and decorations.

A small-to-medium understory tree of dry, rocky eastern-North-American woods, named for its drooping clusters of papery, sac-like seed pods that resemble the fruit of hops. The birch-like, sharply-serrated leaves turn an undistinguished yellow in fall, and reddish-brown male catkins persist on the bare branches through winter. Also called ironwood for its extremely hard, dense wood; tough, low-maintenance, and drought-tolerant once established.

A tough, medium-sized native tree of the eastern and midwestern United States, grown as much for its showy edible orange fruit as for its distinctive thick, dark gray bark broken into rectangular blocks. Small urn-shaped white-to-greenish-yellow flowers open in May and June, and the sweet fruit ripens after frost. Largely dioecious — a female tree needs a male pollinizer nearby to set fruit — and notably drought- and walnut-tolerant once established.

A native canopy tree of eastern North American forests with iconic star-shaped 5-lobed leaves displaying outstanding red-purple-orange fall color, distinctive corky wing-bark on twigs, and spiky round seed pods that famously litter lawns ("gumballs"). The seed pods are the design-defining drawback — Liquidambar is rarely planted in formal landscapes for this reason. Choose seedless cultivars ('Rotundiloba', 'Slender Silhouette') for residential planting.

A massive native deciduous canopy tree of eastern North American floodplain forests producing distinctive mottled white-tan-gray exfoliating bark (the design-defining trait — sycamore bark looks like military camouflage), large palmate maple-like leaves, and persistent spherical seed balls. Among the largest deciduous trees in eastern North America — old-growth specimens exceed 150 feet tall + 10 feet trunk diameter. Site only where massive scale is acceptable.

A native eastern-US deciduous shrub — 'Annabelle' is a sterile-flowered cultivar of smooth hydrangea — with very large white snowball blooms in summer. Blooms on new wood so spring frost cannot destroy the flower display, and serves as the larval host for the hydrangea sphinx moth.

A fast cool-season annual of the mustard family grown for its peppery, mustard-like salad greens — irregular, pinnately-lobed basal leaves in a low rosette, each with 4 to 10 small lateral lobes and a large terminal lobe (Missouri Botanical Garden). First cultivated by the ancient Greeks and Romans and still widely grown across Europe, it is best grown in the cooler spring and fall months rather than summer heat; leaves are harvested young and tender before they turn strong and bitter. Pale-yellow four-petalled flowers with dark brown or purple veins appear in corymbs if plants are left to bloom.

A deciduous Eastern-Asian fruit tree with a rounded, spreading crown that the Missouri Botanical Garden lists at 20-30 feet tall and wide. Oval leaves emerge yellowish-green, mature to glossy green, and turn gold to red in fall; fragrant but insignificant late-spring flowers give way to showy orange persimmons (3-4 inches) that ripen in late fall and may persist on bare branches into winter. Winter hardy to USDA Zones 7-10 and drought tolerant once established.

A long-lived herbaceous perennial vegetable grown for the tender young spears harvested in April and May before they unfurl. Native to Europe and temperate Asia, it grows from a crown that takes 2-3 years to come into production but then yields for fifteen years or more. Spears left uncut grow into airy 3-4 foot summer ferns; the plants are dioecious, and female plants ripen ornamental red berries in late summer.

A clump-forming herbaceous perennial grown for its showy late-season flower heads: masses of tiny star-like flowers borne in flattened cymes 3-6 inches across that emerge rosy pink, deepen to rose-red, and fade to coppery-rust as they die. Gray-green, fleshy, succulent-like leaves form upright clumps to about 2 feet. Easily grown in dry-to-medium, well-drained soil in full sun, it is drought tolerant and attracts butterflies, and its foliage and dead inflorescences persist into winter for added interest.

A long-lived, pyramidal deciduous conifer of southeastern North American swamps, bayous, and riverbanks — same family as the redwoods, but "bald" because it drops its soft, feathery, two-ranked needles each fall after a coppery display. Trunks flare into a buttressed base, and trees standing in water often raise the knobby "knees" that make this species unmistakable. Despite its swamp reputation it grows very well in ordinary, even somewhat dry, upland soil, which makes it a tough, large-scale shade tree for parks, lawns, and rain gardens.

The Mediterranean evergreen whose leathery, glossy dark-green leaves are the bay leaf of the kitchen. Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder describes it as a pyramidal, aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub that can reach 60 feet but is usually seen at 10-30 feet and is often pruned to 8 feet or less for garden use. Trees are dioecious: small yellowish-green spring flowers on female plants, if pollinated, give way to single-seeded purple-black berries. Winter hardy only to USDA Zone 8, so it is grown as a clipped container houseplant farther north.

The classic German or common-flag iris — the presumed parent of most modern bearded-iris cultivars, probably native to southern Europe and the Mediterranean and naturalized widely. Each stalk carries up to six large, usually fragrant flowers in spring: three erect lilac standards above three purple falls marked with brown veins, white bases, and the signature yellow "beard." It has no bulb, spreading instead by creeping rhizomes that form large clumps, with sword-shaped basal foliage to about two feet.

The signature grass of the North American tallgrass prairie — a tall, deep-rooted warm-season bunchgrass named "turkey-foot" for its three-parted purplish-red seedheads. Blue-green summer foliage rises 4-8 feet and turns maroon-tan for fall and winter. Deeply drought- and erosion-resistant once established; a larval host for skipper butterflies and cover for two dozen songbird species.

A woody, deciduous flowering shrub in the Hydrangeaceae, native to Japan, China, Korea, and Southeast Asia and long grown as the classic "hortensia" or French hydrangea. NC State Extension describes a rounded shrub 3 to 6 feet tall and wide with large opposite, simple, toothed leaves (4-8 inches long) and big rounded mop-head or flat lacecap flower clusters in late spring and summer in white, pink, blue, or purple. Famously, flower color tracks soil chemistry — acidic soils push the blooms blue and alkaline soils turn them pink. It wants protection from hot afternoon sun and steady moisture, making it a mainstay of shaded foundation plantings and woodland borders.

The largest native cherry of eastern North America — a medium-to-large deciduous shade tree that hangs elongated racemes of small white flowers in spring, then ripens drooping strings of pea-sized fruit from red to near-black in late summer. The fragrant white bloom feeds bees while the fruit is eaten by 33 species of birds and many mammals; it is also a workhorse larval host, supporting the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and a string of giant silk and sphinx moths. Every part except the ripe fruit is cyanide-bearing and toxic.

A long-lived native deciduous canopy tree of eastern North American bottomland and upland forests with brilliant scarlet-orange fall color (often considered among the finest fall colors of any North American tree) and small dark-blue drupes that feed migrating songbirds + black bears. Dioecious — only female trees produce fruit. Tolerates wet feet but also drought once established; among the most adaptable native canopy trees for residential landscapes.

A large deciduous timber and nut tree of eastern North America, growing 75-100 feet tall with an oval to rounded crown and dark, deeply furrowed diamond-patterned bark. Pinnately compound leaves carry 13-23 strongly aromatic leaflets, and yellowish-green flowers in May-June ripen into hard-shelled edible nuts inside green husks. Its roots and tissues release juglone, a compound that suppresses azaleas, rhododendrons, blueberries, peonies, and tomato-family crops planted nearby.

A native eastern + central North American thicket-forming shrub producing arching thorny canes + clusters of large sweet black berries in mid-to-late summer. Among the most important wildlife fruit producers in eastern forests — birds, mammals, + insects all depend on the fruit. Like raspberry, biennial-caned (primocane year 1, fruits in year 2 as floricane, then dies back). Spreads via root suckers + tip-rooting cane tips; manage with annual pruning.

A medium-to-large native shade tree of central and eastern North America, reaching 50-80 feet with an ovate-rounded crown and large, asymmetric heart-shaped leaves. In June it carries pale-yellow, intensely fragrant flowers on pendulous cymes — each cluster hung from a distinctive strap-like leafy bract — that ripen into pea-sized nutlets. The fragrant June bloom is a premier nectar source: Missouri Botanical Garden lists it as attracting bees and butterflies, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center flags it as having special value to both native and honey bees.

Once the dominant canopy hardwood of the eastern United States forest — an estimated four billion trees, prized for fast growth, rot-resistant timber, and an enormous annual crop of sweet edible nuts that fed people, livestock, and wildlife alike. In the early 1900s an introduced Asian fungus, chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica), swept through and functionally destroyed it: by the 1950s the species was effectively extinct as a mature forest tree. Surviving root systems still send up sprouts from old stumps, but the blight almost always girdles and kills them before they can grow large enough to flower and reproduce. The honest reality for a gardener is that you cannot reliably grow a mature wild-type American chestnut today. The realistic paths are blight-resistant backcross hybrids from The American Chestnut Foundation or transgenic blight-tolerant lines still being deployed — not a pure wild seedling, which the blight will almost certainly kill.

A small native deciduous tree (or thicket-forming, suckering shrub) of eastern and central North America, grown for clouds of fragrant white 5-petaled flowers that open in March before the leaves and for the edible red plums that follow in early summer. It forms a broad, spreading crown with attractive dark reddish-brown twigs that sometimes carry thorny lateral branchlets. A documented larval host for swallowtails and other butterflies, with flowers of special value to native, bumble, and honey bees.

A native bramble (cane) producing red aromatic edible fruit in summer or fall (depending on summer-bearing vs everbearing cultivar). Self-pollinating; spreads vigorously by root suckers + tip-rooting canes. NC State documents extensive Lepidoptera + small mammal + bird wildlife value alongside the edible fruit role. Site where the spreading habit is welcome — naturalized colonies form in sun-exposed open ground.

An upright, clump-forming perennial of the mint family native to the upper Midwest, Great Plains, and into central Canada, named for its anise-scented foliage. From June through September it carries dense terminal spikes of lavender-to-purple two-lipped flowers above square stems and opposite, toothed leaves. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center flags it as a nectar source with special value to native bees, bumble bees, and honey bees, and it also draws butterflies and hummingbirds.

The domesticated orchard apple — a deciduous Rosaceae tree grown for its showy, edible fruit and fragrant April blossom of five white-to-pink petals around a ring of yellow stamens. Not native to North America (the genus Malus spans Europe, Asia, and North America, but the cultivated apple is an Old World hybrid lineage). Almost all varieties are self-incompatible: a second, different apple cultivar blooming at the same time must be nearby for fruit to set, and trees are grown on dwarf, semi-dwarf, or standard rootstocks that decide final size.

A small deciduous Rosaceae fruit tree grown for its golden-orange, red-blushed drupes — fragrant, showy, edible, and ripening in summer. Fragrant white flowers (pink in bud) open in early spring before the foliage, two weeks ahead of peaches. That early bloom is also its weakness: the flowers are extremely susceptible to frost injury, so apricots are notoriously hard to crop reliably outside sheltered sites.

A native central + eastern US perennial with intensely aromatic foliage when crushed and dense clouds of small blue-purple flowers in late fall — often the latest-blooming aster in the eastern flora. Drought + clay tolerant; among the toughest native fall pollinator plants.

A native eastern + central North American multi-stemmed deciduous shrub with dentate (toothed) foliage, white spring flower clusters, blue-black drupes, and reliable fall color. Especially valued for wildlife — among the most-cited native shrubs for fall-migration bird forage.

Asiatic hybrids are the easiest lilies to grow and among the first to bloom — rigid, unbranched 3-4 foot stems carry large, mostly upward- and outward-facing flowers 4-6 inches wide in nearly every color but blue, often with dark basal spotting. The flowers are showy and good for cutting but, unlike most other lily groups, usually have little or no fragrance. Every part of the plant is dangerously toxic to cats.

A drought-and-flood-tolerant native shrub of eastern North America with brilliant three-season interest — spring white-pink flowers, glossy black antioxidant-rich late-summer berries, and brilliant wine-red fall foliage — plus an extraordinarily wide cold-hardiness range (USDA 3a-8b). The berries are astringent fresh but the basis of a small but growing commercial industry (juices, wines, jams, supplements) for their exceptionally high anthocyanin content. Spreads by suckers; site where colony formation is welcome.

A native eastern North American spring ephemeral wildflower with pristine white 8-12-petaled flowers in early spring (often the first major forest-floor wildflower of the year) wrapped by a single rounded glaucous leaf. Disappears by midsummer to underground rhizomes. The red rhizome sap was historically used by Indigenous peoples as a dye and ceremonial paint.

A native vervain of eastern and central North American wet meadows, stream banks, and rain gardens — a rough, clump-forming perennial with stiff, square hairy stems that branch above into candelabra-like spires. Slender, pencil-like spikes carry tiny purplish-blue tubular flowers that open a few at a time from the bottom up over a long July-to-September bloom. Attracts hummingbirds and butterflies and carries Special Value to Native Bees.

A large, hairy, clump-forming North American native perennial of wet meadows, low woods, stream banks, and prairies. Its most distinctive feature is the perfoliate foliage — pairs of wrinkled, opposite, lance-shaped leaves whose bases fuse around the hairy stem, so the stem appears to pass through the leaf. From July to September, flat-topped clusters of small, fluffy white flowers feed a wide range of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, while all parts of the plant are toxic and bitter.

A deciduous shrub grown almost entirely for its explosion of yellow four-lobed flowers that line the bare arching stems in early spring, before the leaves emerge. A garden hybrid of two Asian species (Forsythia suspensa × F. viridissima) — not native to North America. Missouri Botanical Garden describes it as a "one-season wonder" that fades into the background after bloom, so it earns its place as a late-winter color signal rather than a four-season anchor.

One of the most majestic native North American oaks — a slow-growing, long-lived member of the white oak group that the Missouri Botanical Garden lists at 60-80 feet (occasionally to 150) with an equally broad, rounded crown. Named for its large acorns whose cups are fringed with a mossy, bur-like scale near the rim. Notably drought- and clay-tolerant, it ranges from southeastern Canada through the central United States, and may take up to 35 years to bear its first acorn crop.

A small native tree with white spring flowers, edible summer berries, and copper to red fall color.

A large, rounded, multi-stemmed broadleaf evergreen shrub of the southern Appalachians — typically 6-10 feet tall (rarely to 20) with glossy dark green leaves and showy compact terminal trusses of 15-20 funnel-shaped lavender-pink flowers in mid to late spring. Native from Virginia to Kentucky south to Georgia and Alabama, where it forms dense thickets on rocky high-elevation slopes and ridges. Prefers cool summers, acidic moist-but-well-drained soil, and part shade; all parts are highly toxic if ingested.

A tough, aromatic garden hybrid (Nepeta racemosa x N. nepetella) that forms a low, spreading mound of scalloped gray-green leaves topped by raceme-like spikes of two-lipped lavender-blue flowers from late spring into fall. Sterile and clump-forming rather than weedy, it shrugs off heat, drought, and deer, draws bees all season, and is mildly attractive to cats — a workhorse for border fronts, edging, and dry sunny sites.

A tough, deep-rooted perennial in the daisy family (Asteraceae), grown for both its sky-blue summer flowers and its many edible uses. Native to Europe and now widely naturalized along roadsides and in fields across North America, chicory sends up wiry, branching stems 3-4 feet tall from a long, stout taproot. The ray flowers are a clear sky-blue (occasionally white or pink), opening in the morning and closing again by midday. The same plant gives three classic harvests: bitter young leaves for cooking and salads, a roasted taproot used as a caffeine-free coffee substitute or additive, and forced, blanched shoots known as 'chicons' (Belgian endive / witloof). It thrives on poor, dry, sunny ground where pampered plants would not, and its deep taproot makes it genuinely drought-tolerant once established.

A massive, fast-growing deciduous woody vine from China, famous for its mid-spring curtains of fragrant, lavender-to-violet (sometimes white) pea-like flowers hanging in long, dense racemes that open all at once before the leaves fully expand. The display is genuinely spectacular — but Chinese wisteria is one of the most aggressive ornamental vines in cultivation, and across the southeastern United States it has escaped gardens to become seriously INVASIVE, twining up and GIRDLING trees, smothering whole canopies, and forming dense thickets that crowd out native plants. It is extremely vigorous, twines counterclockwise with great force, and demands very sturdy support, hard annual pruning, and constant vigilance to keep it off houses, gutters, and trees. The seeds and pods are TOXIC if eaten. For most gardeners the honest recommendation is to plant the native American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens) instead — it gives a similar flowering effect with a fraction of the aggression and none of the invasive ecological cost.

A large, coarse, tuberous-rooted clumping perennial of the borage family, native to Europe and Asia and long cultivated as a healing herb since antiquity. Hairy, dark-green basal leaves to 8 inches frame drooping clusters of tubular, bluebell-like flowers — white to pink to purple — from late spring into early summer. Notoriously hard to remove once established: any root fragment left in the soil can sprout a new plant.

A sun-loving, drought-tolerant short-lived perennial in the daisy family, prized for its long succession of red-and-yellow banded daisy flowers from early summer to frost. Native to western and central North America, it thrives on lean, sharply drained soils and is one of the most reliable pollinator plants for hot, dry full-sun beds — provided it never sits in wet feet.

A tender tropical evergreen shrub grown for its enormous, flamboyant flowers — broad funnels of red, pink, orange, yellow, or white, single or double, each with a long protruding column of fused stamens. Native to tropical Asia (a cultigen of such ancient cultivation that no certain wild origin survives), Hibiscus rosa-sinensis blooms continuously in warmth above glossy, dark green, evergreen leaves. Each flower typically lasts only a day, but a healthy plant opens fresh blooms in steady succession from spring through fall — and year-round in frost-free climates. It is the classic hibiscus of warm-climate landscapes and patio containers: heat- and humidity-loving, frost-tender, and hardy in the ground only in USDA zones 9a-11b.

A warm-season member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) — a relative of tomato, potato, and pepper — grown for its showy, glossy edible berries that range from white and green through deep purple to nearly black depending on cultivar. The plant is technically a tender herbaceous perennial but is grown as an annual vegetable across most of North America, where it demands a long, hot, frost-free season to fruit well. Drooping violet star-shaped flowers give way to the familiar pendant fruit; the leaves, flowers, stems, and roots are toxic and only the fruit is eaten.

The true culinary ginger — a tropical-Asian herbaceous perennial grown for its aromatic, pungent, branched rhizome rather than its rarely-seen bloom. Reed-like pseudostems carry two-ranked lanceolate leaves to 2-4 feet, rising from a fleshy underground rhizome that is the kitchen and apothecary spice. Hardy outdoors only in USDA zones 9-12; in cooler regions it is grown as a warm-season annual or container plant and started from a fresh grocery-store rhizome each spring.

A broadleaf-evergreen citrus tree reaching 15-30 feet tall and wide, with glossy foliage, sharp thorns on its twigs, and highly fragrant white four-petaled flowers. The large fruit (over 3 inches across) ripens pale yellow, often patched with pink, over juicy flesh that ranges from near-white to deep red by cultivar. A subtropical tree hardy only to USDA zone 9a, it is grown outdoors across the citrus belt and as an overwintered container plant farther north.

A vigorous, shade-intolerant small evergreen tree (or large shrub) native to tropical southeastern Asia, grown for very juicy, aromatic green-to-yellow fruit with a thinner rind than Persian lime. Glossy, leathery, distinctively aromatic leaves frame showy five-petaled white flowers — purple-tinged when new — that can appear across all four seasons in warm climates. Strictly tender: NC State lists it for USDA zones 9a-11b, and it does not tolerate standing water, flooding, or shade.

The leading acid citrus — a small broadleaf-evergreen tree to 10-20 feet, usually armed with sharp thorns on the twigs, bearing fragrant white flowers (purplish beneath) that ripen into the familiar oval, nipple-tipped yellow fruit dotted with aromatic oil glands. A tender subtropical: hardy outdoors only in USDA zones 9-11, but a classic large-container plant that can summer outside and overwinter indoors in colder climates. Native to Asia, not North America.

The world's most famous holiday plant is, in its homeland, a leggy tropical shrub. Native from Mexico to Guatemala, Euphorbia pulcherrima is grown almost everywhere as a compact potted gift for its blaze of winter color — but that color is not flowers. The showy red, pink, white, or marbled 'petals' are bracts (modified leaves); the true flowers are the small yellow-green cup-like cyathia clustered at the center. The bracts color up only in response to long, uninterrupted nights, which is why poinsettias turn for the winter holidays and why a houseplant in a lamp-lit room often refuses to re-color. It is frost-tender and hardy in the ground only in USDA zones 9a-11b, where it grows into an open, erect, multi-stemmed shrub 3-12 feet tall. A persistent caution: it is MILDLY toxic — the milky white latex (sap) can irritate skin and eyes and cause mild stomach upset if eaten — but its deadly reputation is a long-debunked myth, not a real hazard.

A tender, bushy evergreen subshrub from southern Africa grown almost everywhere for one reason: its deeply lobed, soft, gray-green leaves release an intense rose-with-a-hint-of-mint fragrance the moment you brush or pinch them. The honest point to get right up front is the name. This is a Pelargonium, not a hardy true Geranium (cranesbill) — the two are routinely confused because 'geranium' was attached to both centuries ago, but Pelargonium graveolens is frost-tender, while the perennial border geraniums most gardeners know are cold-hardy. Across most of North America it is grown as a warm-season annual, a patio container plant, or a houseplant overwintered indoors, not as a permanent landscape shrub. The small pinkish flowers are insignificant; the aromatic foliage is the entire point, and it is also the commercial source of rose-geranium essential oil and a kitchen herb for scenting teas, sugar, baked goods, and jellies.

A bold tropical fig from South and Southeast Asia grown almost everywhere as a houseplant for its large, glossy, leathery, deep-green (or cream- and burgundy-variegated) paddle leaves. Honesty first: in its frost-free native habitat and outdoors in USDA zones 9-12 this is a massive strangler-type fig that can reach 50-100 feet with a spreading, aerial-rooting crown — but in the homes, offices, and patio containers where almost everyone grows it, it is kept a fraction of that size by pot confinement and pruning. It is easygoing in bright indirect light and forgiving of average indoor conditions; the one real catch is its milky latex sap, a mild skin, eye, and digestive irritant that also bothers latex-sensitive people. The same latex was historically tapped to make natural rubber, which is where the name comes from.

A tender Mediterranean culinary herb — a bushy little sub-shrub with reddish square stems and rounded, gray-green aromatic leaves that grows in an upright mound to 1-2 feet. Tiny white-to-pale-pink flowers open from knot-like bud clusters in summer, the trait behind the alternate name "knotted marjoram." Hardy only in USDA zones 9-10; everywhere colder it is grown as a warm-season annual or a pot herb brought in before frost.

A small subtropical evergreen tree grown for its sweet, fragrant fruit and glossy aromatic leaves. Originally domesticated in subtropical Asia from a cross between a mandarin and a pomelo, it carries clusters of up to six fragrant creamy-white flowers in early spring that ripen into round-to-oval orange fruit 2-5 inches across. Hardy outdoors only in the warmest US zones (9-11) but readily grown as a container plant brought indoors for winter in colder climates.

A tender, tuberous-rooted morning-glory relative native to tropical America and cultivated for its starchy edible storage roots for over 2,000 years. Trailing stems mound only about 9 inches tall but sprawl 8 to 10 feet wide, rooting at the nodes, with heart-shaped to palmately-lobed leaves. The species occasionally bears pale-pink-to-violet trumpet flowers, though most cultivars rarely bloom. Winter hardy only to USDA Zones 9-11, it is grown as a warm-season annual everywhere colder.