AMERICAN GARDENER

Plants with thick leaves owe that trait almost entirely to one evolutionary problem: surviving somewhere water doesn’t reliably show up. According to California State University, Stanislaus, succulent leaves contain specialized parenchyma cells that act as a water reservoir, along with mucilage cells that give cut leaves their characteristic slimy texture, and species like aloe vera … Read more

Weeds that grow from bulbs share a genuine advantage over their seed-only relatives, since a bulb stores enough energy to let the plant emerge, flower, and go dormant again within just a few weeks each year while remaining completely invisible and untouched underground the rest of the time. That underground survival strategy is exactly why … Read more

Invasive trees in Florida share a common origin story more often than not, since the overwhelming majority were deliberately introduced as ornamentals, shade trees, or even as a deliberate land-management tool before their spread proved impossible to contain. According to a UF/IFAS Pest Alert, Brazilian peppertree alone now occupies more than 700,000 acres across the … Read more

A pergola gives a vine something most garden structures can’t: a sturdy, elevated framework built specifically to be climbed rather than merely tolerated. According to University of Missouri Extension, growing grapes on an arbor combines fruit production, shade, and ornamental effects all at once, and vines trained this way generally produce less low-quality fruit than … Read more

Invasive vines in Florida have an unusually easy path to becoming a serious problem, since the state’s warm, humid, nearly frost-free climate lets tropical and subtropical species grow year-round instead of dying back each winter the way they would almost anywhere else in the continental United States. A surprising number of the vines on this … Read more

The best flowering vines for hummingbirds tend to share a specific flower shape, a long, narrow, tubular bloom that fits a hummingbird’s bill and tongue far better than the wide, flat flowers most bees and butterflies prefer. Red and orange tones are an added draw, since hummingbirds see that part of the color spectrum especially … Read more

Invasive vines that kill trees generally rely on one of 3 mechanisms to do it, and according to Mississippi State University Extension, a vine like bushkiller can grow into dense mats over a host’s canopy that block or reduce the quality and quantity of sunlight reaching the tree below. Others kill more slowly through sheer … Read more

Weeds that grow tall reach that height through a few genuinely different strategies, and according to University of Illinois Extension, some of the tallest native prairie plants in North America, the Silphiums, achieve their impressive stature through deep taproots and rough, sturdy stems built to survive decades in the same spot rather than the explosive … Read more

Types of weeds that grow like vines share a single defining trait, a climbing or trailing growth habit that lets them reach light and space other plants can’t, but the mechanisms behind that habit vary enormously from one species to the next. Some twine their entire stem around a support, some cling with adhesive tendrils … Read more

Weeds that grow in wet areas have adapted to conditions that would drown or rot the roots of most ordinary garden and lawn plants, from waterlogged ditches and pond margins to the soggy, poorly drained corner of a yard that never quite dries out. Several of the plants on this list are genuinely dangerous, since … Read more