Random Plant Generator: Trees, Houseplants, Herbs and Flytraps

One press gives five plants, each with its botanical name and a fact or a care note.

Random Plant Generator: Trees, Houseplants, Herbs and Flytraps

  1. Burro's tail
  2. Spearmint
  3. Parsley
  4. Sage
  5. Haircap moss

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Tip: the space bar makes new ones.

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Random Plant Generator: Trees, Houseplants, Herbs and Flytraps: how it works

This random plant generator leaves the flowers out: its 150 plants are grown for leaf, wood, flavor or oddity. One press gives five, perhaps a baobab, a ZZ plant and a Venus flytrap. Each card gives the botanical name and one fact, and houseplants add light and watering notes.

Give me a random plant to draw, grow or write about

For a sketchbook, tap Succulents and cacti and start the two minute timer: rosettes, ribs and flat pads are quick to block in. Shopping for a windowsill? Tap Copes with low light for the 6 houseplants that put up with a dim room, snake plant, ZZ plant and pothos among them. Writers can tap Trees for one that fixes a place. A baobab means African savanna, and a bald cypress means a swamp in the American South.

Why no roses or tulips come up, and what poisonous means here

Plants grown mainly for their flowers live on the random flower generator, and no plant is on both lists. A card says poisonous only where NC State rates the plant High, as it does dieffenbachia and the sago palm. Many common houseplants are rated lower and still harm a child or pet that chews them, pothos, ZZ plant and peace lily among them.

Tips

  • Several names mislead. Lucky bamboo is a dracaena, the ponytail palm and the sago palm are not palms, and Spanish moss belongs to the pineapple family.
  • Botanical names move. Until 2017 the snake plant was a Sansevieria and rosemary a Rosmarinus. They now sit in Dracaena and Salvia.
  • Classroom sort: draw 10 and split them into seed makers and spore makers. The ferns, mosses, horsetail, clubmoss and liverwort all make spores.

Questions and answers

How is the list of 150 plants split?

150 plants: 34 trees, 34 houseplants, 18 succulents and cacti, 15 ferns, mosses and ancient plants, 20 herbs and flavor plants, 11 carnivorous plants and 18 grasses, crops, vines and weeds. No plant returns until the whole list, or the group you picked, has been seen.

Can I choose a houseplant from the care notes alone?

Use them as a first filter. Each note gives the light the plant wants and how to water it, condensed from its page in the NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox. Before you buy, open the full page, which also covers humidity, final size and how poisonous the plant is to pets or children.

Does it work for a plant identification quiz?

Yes. Press Hide all facts and each card shows the common name alone: ask for the botanical name, then tap Show fact to check. Tap Carnivorous plants for a lesson on traps: snap traps, pitchers, sticky leaves and suction bladders.

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All 150 plants

Trees 34

  • Bald cypress Taxodium distichum. A conifer that drops its needles in fall. Woody knees often rise around the trunk.
  • Banyan Ficus benghalensis. Aerial roots grow down from the branches, reach the ground and become extra trunks.
  • Baobab Adansonia digitata. African savanna tree that stores water in its very broad trunk for the dry season.
  • Black walnut Juglans nigra. Roots, husks and leaves give off juglone, a chemical that holds back other plants.
  • Bristlecone pine Pinus longaeva. One tree, named Methuselah, is more than 4,800 years old.
  • Cacao Theobroma cacao. Flowers and pods grow straight from the trunk. The seeds are made into chocolate.
  • Cedar of Lebanon Cedrus libani. The tree on the flag of Lebanon. Old trees spread wide, level branches.
  • Coast redwood Sequoia sempervirens. The tallest living trees, topping 115 meters on the foggy coast of California.
  • Coconut palm Cocos nucifera. A thick, light husk keeps the fruit afloat, so the sea can carry it to new shores.
  • Douglas fir Pseudotsuga menziesii. Not a true fir. A three-pointed bract sticks out above each cone scale.
  • Dragon blood tree Dracaena cinnabari. Umbrella-shaped tree of the Socotra islands, named for its dark red resin.
  • English oak Quercus robur. European oak whose acorns hang on long stalks. It often lives for over 500 years.
  • English yew Taxus baccata. Evergreen found in old churchyards. Every part but the red flesh of the fruit is poisonous.
  • European beech Fagus sylvatica. Smooth silver-gray bark. Clipped as a hedge, it holds its dead leaves until spring.
  • Giant sequoia Sequoiadendron giganteum. The largest trees on Earth, wild only on the western Sierra Nevada of California.
  • Ginkgo Ginkgo biloba. The last living species of its order. Fan-shaped leaves turn yellow in fall.
  • Holly Ilex aquifolium. Evergreen with spiny leaves. Only female plants carry the red berries.
  • Horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum. Also called the conker tree, after its glossy brown seeds, which are poisonous if eaten.
  • Japanese maple Acer palmatum. Small tree from Japan, Korea and China with hand-shaped leaves and strong fall color.
  • Joshua tree Yucca brevifolia. A tree-sized yucca found mostly in the Mojave Desert.
  • London plane Platanus × hispanica. A cross of two plane trees, planted in cities around the world. Its bark peels off.
  • Monkey puzzle Araucaria araucana. Conifer from Chile and Argentina. Its tough, triangular leaves have sharp tips.
  • Norway spruce Picea abies. Used as a Christmas tree in several countries. Its cones are the longest of any spruce.
  • Olive Olea europaea. Evergreen with silver-gray leaves. A pruned tree can keep fruiting for centuries.
  • Pará rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis. Amazon tree whose milky latex is the main source of natural rubber.
  • Quaking aspen Populus tremuloides. Flattened leaf stalks let the leaves shake in a light wind. A grove is often one clone.
  • Rainbow eucalyptus Eucalyptus deglupta. Bark sheds in strips, showing green, red, orange and purple-brown. Eucalyptus leaves and bark are poisonous if eaten.
  • Red mangrove Rhizophora mangle. Salt-tolerant coastal tree that stands on arching prop roots above the water.
  • Scots pine Pinus sylvestris. Needles in pairs and orange-red bark. Ranges from western Europe to eastern Siberia.
  • Silver birch Betula pendula. White bark with black cracks, and thin twigs that often hang down.
  • Sugar maple Acer saccharum. The main source of maple syrup, also known for its bright fall leaves.
  • Umbrella thorn acacia Vachellia tortilis. The umbrella-shaped tree of the African savanna and the Sahel.
  • Weeping willow Salix babylonica. Native to northern China. Known for branches that hang straight down.
  • White oak Quercus alba. Long-lived oak of eastern North America. Some trees are more than 450 years old.

Houseplants 34

  • Air plant Tillandsia ionantha. Needs no soil. Bright light; soak or rinse the whole plant at least once a week.
  • Areca palm Dypsis lutescens. Bright indirect light; keep the soil moist but not soggy while it grows.
  • Arrowhead plant Syngonium podophyllum. Bright spot out of direct sun, which bleaches the leaves. Leaf shape changes with age.
  • Baby rubber plant Peperomia obtusifolia. Bright indirect light; likes its soil on the dry side. Tolerates low light for months.
  • Cast iron plant Aspidistra elatior. Shade and no direct sun; water regularly spring to fall, sparingly in winter.
  • Chinese evergreen Aglaonema commutatum. Good indirect light, copes with low; keep the potting mix moist spring to fall.
  • Chinese money plant Pilea peperomioides. Bright indirect light; moist, well-drained potting mix. From Yunnan in China.
  • Coleus Coleus scutellarioides. Grown for its painted leaves. Bright light as a houseplant, in moist, rich soil.
  • Corn plant Dracaena fragrans. Bright to moderate filtered light; keep the soil moist in the growing season.
  • Croton Codiaeum variegatum. Bright light with some direct sun for leaf color; water freely spring to fall.
  • Dieffenbachia Dieffenbachia seguine. Indirect light; let the top inch of soil dry. Also sold as dumb cane. Poisonous: the sap burns the mouth if chewed.
  • Fiddle-leaf fig Ficus lyrata. Bright indirect light; moist, well-drained soil. Too much or too little water drops leaves.
  • Heartleaf philodendron Philodendron hederaceum. Medium light, tolerates low; keep the soil slightly moist.
  • Inch plant Tradescantia zebrina. Filtered sun; water regularly but let the soil dry out between waterings.
  • Lucky bamboo Dracaena sanderiana. Not a bamboo. Bright indirect light; grows in potting mix or in chlorine-free water.
  • Money tree Pachira aquatica. Indirect light; moist, well-drained potting mix and never standing water.
  • Monstera Monstera deliciosa. Medium light, no direct sun; let the top third of the soil dry. Young leaves lack holes.
  • Nerve plant Fittonia albivenis. Bright to medium light, no direct sun. Wilts when dry, then recovers once watered.
  • Parlor palm Chamaedorea elegans. Bright indirect light, tolerates low; let the soil dry slightly between waterings.
  • Peace lily Spathiphyllum wallisii. Shade and no direct sun; keep the soil moist but never soggy.
  • Polka dot plant Hypoestes phyllostachya. From Madagascar. Bright, filtered light keeps its pink, red or white spots strong.
  • Ponytail palm Beaucarnea recurvata. Not a true palm. Full sun; water deeply, then let it dry. Its thick stem stores water.
  • Pothos Epipremnum aureum. Bright indirect light, but it survives low light; let the soil dry out between waterings.
  • Prayer plant Maranta leuconeura. Bright indirect light; keep the soil evenly moist. Leaves fold upright at night.
  • Purple shamrock Oxalis triangularis. Let the soil surface dry between waterings. The leaves fold down at night.
  • Rattlesnake plant Goeppertia insignis. Limited sun to bright shade; keep the soil moist but not wet.
  • Rubber plant Ficus elastica. Bright indirect light; water regularly but do not overwater, or leaves drop.
  • Sensitive plant Mimosa pudica. Leaves fold inward and droop when touched, then open again a few minutes later.
  • Snake plant Dracaena trifasciata. Tolerates very low light; let the soil dry out between waterings.
  • Spider plant Chlorophytum comosum. Keep out of direct sun; likes moist soil but forgives a dry spell.
  • String of hearts Ceropegia woodii. Bright indirect light; let the soil dry out completely between waterings.
  • Umbrella plant Heptapleurum arboricola. No direct sun indoors, which burns the leaves; let the soil dry out, then soak it.
  • Weeping fig Ficus benjamina. Bright indirect light; never let the soil dry out fully. It may drop leaves when moved.
  • ZZ plant Zamioculcas zamiifolia. Grows in very low light; water only when the soil is fully dry. Rhizomes store water.

Succulents and cacti 18

  • Aloe vera Aloe vera. Full sun to part shade; let the soil dry completely between waterings.
  • Bunny ears cactus Opuntia microdasys. It has no spines. Its dots are tufts of barbed bristles finer than a human hair.
  • Burro's tail Sedum morganianum. Trailing stems of plump leaves that fall at the lightest touch and root where they land.
  • Century plant Agave americana. Flowers only once, on a tall stalk at the end of a life of 10 to 30 years, then dies.
  • Golden barrel cactus Kroenleinia grusonii. Ball-shaped Mexican cactus, rare and endangered in the wild. Long sold as Echinocactus.
  • Hens and chicks Sempervivum tectorum. Full sun, sharp drainage. The first rosette is the hen and its offsets are the chicks.
  • Jade plant Crassula ovata. Bright light; water in moderation once the soil is dry. Overwatering makes leaves fall.
  • Living stones Lithops. Pairs of fat leaves disguised as pebbles, so grazing animals pass them by.
  • Mexican snowball Echeveria elegans. Pale blue-green rosette from Mexico. Sun to part shade; its main enemy is overwatering.
  • Moon cactus Gymnocalycium mihanovichii. The red or yellow top has no chlorophyll, so it is grafted onto a green cactus.
  • Mother of thousands Kalanchoe daigremontiana. Tiny plantlets form along the leaf edges, drop off and take root.
  • Old man cactus Cephalocereus senilis. A column wrapped in long white hairs that shield it from frost and sun.
  • Panda plant Kalanchoe tomentosa. Felted silver-gray leaves with brown tips. Bright indirect light; let the soil dry out.
  • Prickly pear Opuntia ficus-indica. The most widely farmed cactus. Its fruit is eaten, and so are its flat green pads.
  • Saguaro Carnegiea gigantea. Giant cactus of the Sonoran Desert. It can pass 12 meters and often lives over 150 years.
  • String of pearls Curio rowleyanus. Pea-shaped leaves on trailing stems. Bright indirect light; too much water rots the roots.
  • Tree aeonium Aeonium arboreum. Flat rosettes sit at the tips of bare, upright stems. The cultivar Zwartkop is purple.
  • Zebra haworthia Haworthiopsis attenuata. Tapered leaves banded with white bumps. Bright indirect light; let the soil dry out.

Ferns, mosses and ancient plants 15

  • Bird's nest fern Asplenium nidus. Large, undivided fronds that look more like banana leaves than a fern.
  • Boston fern Nephrolepis exaltata. Bright indirect light and high humidity; never let the soil dry out.
  • Bracken Pteridium aquilinum. Spores light enough to carry it worldwide. Fronds rise singly from underground stems.
  • Common liverwort Marchantia polymorpha. Flat and leafless. It spreads from lentil-shaped buds that rain washes out of cups.
  • Field horsetail Equisetum arvense. Jointed stems with rings of thin side shoots. Little changed since the Carboniferous.
  • Haircap moss Polytrichum commune. Very tall for a moss: its stems often pass 30 centimeters.
  • Maidenhair fern Adiantum raddianum. Leaves shed water, hence Adiantum, from the Greek for unwetted. Roots must stay moist.
  • Ostrich fern Matteuccia struthiopteris. Its tightly coiled young fronds are the fiddleheads eaten as a cooked vegetable.
  • Resurrection fern Pleopeltis polypodioides. In drought it curls up gray-brown and looks dead, then revives with a little water.
  • Sago palm Cycas revoluta. A slow-growing cycad from Japan, not a palm. Every part is poisonous if eaten, the seeds most of all.
  • Soft tree fern Dicksonia antarctica. From eastern Australia. A fibrous trunk of matted roots usually reaches about 5 meters.
  • Sphagnum moss Sphagnum. Bog moss, the builder of peat. It holds 16 to 26 times its dry weight in water.
  • Stag's-horn clubmoss Lycopodium clavatum. Not a moss: a spore-bearing vascular plant that creeps along the ground.
  • Staghorn fern Platycerium bifurcatum. Grows on trees, not in soil. Its hanging fronds fork two or three times.
  • Welwitschia Welwitschia mirabilis. Namib Desert plant with only two leaves, which keep growing for its whole life.

Herbs and flavor plants 20

  • Arabica coffee Coffea arabica. Wild only in Ethiopia, South Sudan and Yemen. Each red fruit usually holds two beans.
  • Basil Ocimum basilicum. A tender herb in the mint family with square stems. Leaves may be green or purple.
  • Bay laurel Laurus nobilis. Evergreen Mediterranean tree. Its leaves are the bay leaves used in cooking.
  • Catnip Nepeta cataria. Its oil, nepetalactone, sets off playful rolling in about two-thirds of cats.
  • Chives Allium schoenoprasum. An onion relative with hollow, tube-shaped stems.
  • Cilantro Coriandrum sativum. In the US the leaves are called cilantro and the dried seeds are called coriander.
  • Dill Anethum graveolens. Annual herb of the celery family. Its leaves and seeds flavor pickles and fish.
  • Ginger Zingiber officinale. The spice is the rhizome, an underground stem, though it is called ginger root.
  • Lemongrass Cymbopogon citratus. A tropical member of the grass family, sold as stems. Frost kills it.
  • Oregano Origanum vulgare. A mint-family herb whose leaves can taste stronger dried than fresh.
  • Parsley Petroselinum crispum. A biennial in cool climates: leaves in the first year, flowers and seed in the second.
  • Peppermint Mentha × piperita. A cross between watermint and spearmint, and a source of menthol.
  • Rosemary Salvia rosmarinus. Mediterranean shrub with evergreen, needle-like leaves. Moved into the sage genus in 2017.
  • Sage Salvia officinalis. Evergreen Mediterranean subshrub with woody stems and grayish leaves.
  • Spearmint Mentha spicata. Spreads wide by fleshy underground stems. Used to flavor food and herbal teas.
  • Stevia Stevia rebaudiana. Its leaves hold compounds 200 to 300 times as sweet as sugar.
  • Tarragon Artemisia dracunculus. French tarragon, the kitchen kind, has sterile flowers and is grown by dividing roots.
  • Tea plant Camellia sinensis. White, green, oolong and black tea are all made from the leaves of this evergreen shrub.
  • Thyme Thymus vulgaris. Low, woody herb native to southern Europe, from the western Mediterranean to Italy.
  • Turmeric Curcuma longa. A ginger relative. Its rhizome is boiled, dried and ground into orange-yellow powder.

Carnivorous plants 11

  • Albany pitcher plant Cephalotus follicularis. Found only in peaty swamps in the southwest corner of Western Australia.
  • Cape sundew Drosera capensis. From the Cape of South Africa. Its sticky leaves curl around the insects they catch.
  • Cobra lily Darlingtonia californica. Its hooded tube and forked leaf look like a rearing cobra with its tongue out.
  • Common bladderwort Utricularia vulgaris. A rootless, free-floating water plant. Its genus traps tiny prey in suction bladders.
  • Common butterwort Pinguicula vulgaris. Leaf glands ooze a sticky fluid that traps insects, then enzymes digest them.
  • Purple pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea. Insects fall in, drown in the rainwater held by each leaf and are digested.
  • Rajah pitcher plant Nepenthes rajah. Grows on two mountains in Borneo. Its pitchers are probably the largest of its genus.
  • Round-leaved sundew Drosera rotundifolia. Bog plant found around the north of the globe: Europe, Siberia and North America.
  • Venus flytrap Dionaea muscipula. Wild only in the Carolinas. The trap shuts if a second hair is touched within 20 seconds.
  • Waterwheel plant Aldrovanda vesiculosa. Floats free in water, with whorls of snap traps like those of the Venus flytrap.
  • Yellow pitcher plant Sarracenia flava. Native to the coastal plain of the southeastern US, from Alabama to Virginia.

Grasses, crops, vines and weeds 18

  • Cattail Typha latifolia. Wetland plant with a brown, sausage-shaped seed head that lasts through winter.
  • Common duckweed Lemna minor. Floating leaves 1 to 8 millimeters long, each with a single root hanging in the water.
  • Cotton Gossypium hirsutum. The fluffy fiber grows in a boll, a protective case around the seeds.
  • Eelgrass Zostera marina. A flowering plant that lives submerged in the sea. Seagrasses form wide meadows.
  • English ivy Hedera helix. Evergreen vine that climbs 20 meters or more with clinging rootlets along its stems.
  • Kudzu Pueraria montana. East Asian vine. It climbs over other plants so fast that it blocks their light.
  • Mistletoe Viscum album. Evergreen half-parasite. It grows on tree branches and draws water from the tree.
  • Moso bamboo Phyllostachys edulis. A giant bamboo that reaches up to 28 meters. Edulis refers to its edible shoots.
  • Pampas grass Cortaderia selloana. Named for the Pampas of South America. Planted worldwide and invasive in places.
  • Papyrus Cyperus papyrus. An African wetland sedge. Ancient Egyptians made one of the first kinds of paper from it.
  • Poison ivy Toxicodendron radicans. Leaves of three leaflets. Its oil, urushiol, gives most people an itchy rash.
  • Rice Oryza sativa. A grass. Lowland fields are kept flooded a few centimeters deep until just before harvest.
  • Spanish moss Tillandsia usneoides. Neither a moss nor from Spain. It is a bromeliad that hangs from trees.
  • Stinging nettle Urtica dioica. Hollow hairs on the leaves and stems act like needles and inject chemicals that sting.
  • Sugarcane Saccharum officinarum. A tall grass with sugar-rich stalks. Sugarcane supplies most of the world's sugar.
  • Tumbleweed Salsola tragus. The dry plant breaks free and rolls in the wind, scattering up to 200,000 seeds.
  • Wheat Triticum aestivum. Bread wheat, a grass that arose about 8,000 years ago as a cross of older wheats.
  • White clover Trifolium repens. Its root nodules fix nitrogen, so clover pasture needs little nitrogen fertilizer.

How this list was compiled: List and wording are own work. Botanical names: all 150 checked against the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy name match service, https://api.gbif.org/v1/species/match (149 returned as accepted names; golden barrel cactus is listed under the accepted name Kroenleinia grusonii, with its older name Echinocactus in the fact line). Names and native status of 14 United States natives (white oak, sugar maple, quaking aspen, bald cypress, giant sequoia, coast redwood, Joshua tree, bristlecone pine, black walnut, saguaro, Venus flytrap, purple pitcher plant, cobra lily, poison ivy): USDA PLANTS Database, https://plants.usda.gov/. Light and water lines for the houseplants, succulents, cacti and indoor ferns: NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, one page per plant at https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ (for example https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/monstera-deliciosa/; peace lily, Chinese evergreen, air plant and tree aeonium from the genus pages). Every other fact line: the English Wikipedia article for the species, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ plus the botanical name, and the articles Olive, Coconut, Cotton, Rice, Sugarcane, Kudzu, Utricularia, Seagrass, Tumbleweed and Cycad. All checked 2026-09-18. Changed 2026-09-19. Poison rule: a card says so when the Poison Severity field of its own NC State page reads High, or that of its genus page where NC State has no page for the species. All 150 pages were read on 2026-09-19 and five cards qualify on their own page: English yew (https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/taxus-baccata/) and poison ivy (toxicodendron-radicans), which already said so, and horse chestnut (aesculus-hippocastanum, Poison Part includes seeds), dieffenbachia (dieffenbachia-seguine, sap and juice, burning and swelling of the lips, tongue and throat) and sago palm (cycas-revoluta, all parts contain cycasin, the seeds most), which now do. Rainbow eucalyptus has no page of its own and takes the line from the genus page (https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/eucalyptus/, High, Poison Part bark and leaves). Cards NC State rates Medium (pothos, ZZ plant, arrowhead plant, panda plant, mother of thousands, English ivy, and peace lily on its genus page) or Low say nothing about poison, and a card that says nothing is no statement that the plant is safe. The sago palm line about cycad fossils was dropped to make room. x.lowLight marks the 6 houseplants whose x.light mentions low light, so the page can filter on it. Licence: own work