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 »
The three wise men in the story of Christmas carried gold, frankincense and myrrh. What are frankincense and myrrh? Can you still get them these days?
See more »White Fir, a timber tree that grows in the United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast, chiefly in California.
See more »Wild Carrot, or Queen Anne's Lace, a wildflower found throughout the world. It is considered a weed.
See more »Wild Ginger, a stemless perennial herb. It is not related to true ginger, but like ginger, it has a spicy smell, and its roots and rootstocks are eaten, as an aid to digestion.
See more »Wild Pink, a small perennial wildflower that blossoms from April to June in the eastern part of North America.
See more »Willow, a group of shrubs and trees that grow chiefly in temperate areas of the Northern Hemisphere.
See more »Winter Heliotrope, or Sweet Coltsfoot, a hardy perennial garden herb that grows throughout the year and flowers in early spring.
See more »Winterberry, a North American shrub of the holly family that grows east of the Mississippi River.
See more »Wintergreen (also called Teaberry; Checkerberry; and Ground Holly), a low, fragrant plant of the heath family.
See more »Witch Hazel, an ornamental shrub that grows 6 to 30 feet (1.8 to 9 m) in height. "Witch" comes from the Old English word "wych," used to describe a plant whose branches bend easily; "hazel" refers to the flowers, which are dull yellow or golden-yellow.
See more »Witchweed, a destructive parasitic plant that preys on crop plants of the grass family, such as corn, sorghum, and sugarcane.
See more »Woad, an herb of the mustard family. The ancient Britons ground woad to get blue dye, which they used to stain their bodies before battle.
See more »Xanthisma, also called Star of Texas and Sleepy Daisy, an attractive wildflower native to the Great Plains of the United States.
See more »Xanthorrhoea, also called Blackboy and Grass Tree, a group of about 14 species of long-lived desert plants native to Australia and New Zealand.
See more »Yarrow, or Milfoil, a strong-smelling medicinal plant native to Europe and Asia but common also in North America.
See more »Yellow Pine, a name sometimes given to the ponderosa pine, found in the western United States, and also to such southern pine trees as the longleaf, slash, shortleaf, and loblolly.
See more »Yew, an evergreen shrub or tree that is widely grown as an ornamental. Although its small, red fruits resemble berries, they are actually fleshy cones, each encasing a single seed.
See more »Yucca, a group of about 30 species of plants native chiefly to the deserts of the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Central America.
See more »Zinnia, the name of about 20 species of annual and perennial plants. They are native to the region from the southwestern United States to Chile, but chiefly to Mexico.
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