Flowering plants, shrubs and trees provide the environment with much needed oxygen and fight soil erosion. They also provide food and shelter for many animals, as well as contribute to the fertility of soil with their dead leaves and flowers.
Plants that eat other creatures? It sounds like a genetic experiment gone awry. But there's actually nothing unnatural about it; carnivorous plants have been around for thousands of years. Find out all about the Venus Flytrap. See more »
Pansy, a garden flower. Its three-petaled blossom, with dark center markings, somewhat resembles a wistful human face.
See more »Papyrus, p$a-pī'rŭs, an aquatic plant. Papyrus is a straight, tough, tall, reedlike plant that grows in shallow water.
See more »Pasqueflower, an early-blooming plant that is native to the northern temperate and mountainous regions of North America and Europe.
See more »Passionflower, a woody vine with showy flowers, cultivated for its edible fruit. There are 400 species, native to tropical America, Asia, and Australia.
See more »Peony, a perennial plant cultivated for its showy, fragrant flowers. The many garden varieties of peony are descended from a few wild species of Asia and southern Europe.
See more »Pepper Tree, an evergreen tree with red, berrylike fruits, drooping branches, narrow leaflets, and clusters of small, yellowish-white flowers.
See more »Petunia, a popular garden flower. The funnel-shaped blossoms, 2 to 41/2 inches (511 cm) across, are white or a shade of blue, red, or purple, and may be marked with bars or stripes.
See more »Peyote, or Mescal, a cactus of the southwestern United States and Mexico. Most of the plant grows below ground and resembles a carrot root in size and shape.
See more »Philodendron, an ornamental plant native to tropical America. It is a popular potted plant in the United States.
See more »Phlox, a hardy herb with clusters of small, brightly colored flowers. It is related to the gilia.
See more »Pickerelweed, a water plant native to eastern North America. It roots in the mud of shallow pools and grows in clumps about four feet (1.2 m) tall.
See more »Pimento, an aromatic tree of the West Indies and Central America. It is closely related to the true bayberry, or bay rum tree.
See more »Pimpernel, a sprawling herb with many small, five-pointed flowers. It also is called poor man's weatherglass, because the flowers close in cloudy weather.
See more »Pine, an evergreen tree of great economic importance. Pines are conifers (cone-bearing trees) related to firs, cedars, larches, hemlocks, and araucarias.
See more »Pink, the name of several low-growing herbs with small, usually pink or red flowers.
See more »Pipal, Peepul, or Bo Tree, a tree sacred to Buddhism. While meditating under a pipal, Prince Siddhartha Gautama (563?–483? B.C.) became bodhi—the Buddha ("Enlightened One").
See more »Pitcher Plant, the name of carnivorous plants belonging to two separate families.
See more »Plumbago, a low-growing garden plant of the leadwort family. It is about a foot (30 cm) high, with cobalt-blue flowers that bloom in late fall.
See more »Poinsettia, a tropical American plant with long, pointed, colorful bracts. (A bract is a modified leaf attached to a flower stalk.
See more »Poison Ivy, a plant native to North America. It grows along fences, in dry fields, and in open woodlands.
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