This document identifies and describes the characteristics of 20 different ornamental plants. It provides the scientific name, common name, family, description of physical appearance and identifying characters such as leaf shape and arrangement, flower color and location, and fruit/seed type for each plant. Key plants mentioned include American Holly, Azalea, Beautyberry, Bougainvillea, Cherokee Bean, Chinese Fringe Bush, Crapemyrtle, Croton, Dogwood, Glossy Abelia, Hibiscus, Indian Hawthorn, Ixora, Liriope, Muhly Grass, Natal Plum, Pine, Podocarpus, Red Maple, and Royal Poinciana.

1. IDENTIFICATION OF ORNAMENTAL PLANTS
Ornamental Plants discussed:
• American Holly
• Azalea
• Beautyberry
• Bougainvillea
• Cherokee Bean
• Chinese Fringe Bush
• Crapemyrtle
• Croton
• Dogwood
• Glossy Abelia
• Hibiscus
• Indian Hawthorn
• Ixora
• Liriope
• Muhly Grass
• Natal Plum
• Pine
• Podocarpus
• Red Maple
• Redbud
• Royal Poinciana

2. AMERICAN HOLLY
• American holly is an evergreen medium tree that
reaches heights of 30 to 50 feet.
• It has a pyramid shape.
• The very showy fruits are shiny red berries.
Scientific name: Ilex opaca
Family: Aquifoliaceae

3. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• The leaves are simple, alternate, oblong shaped, and two to
four inches long.
• They usually have smooth, leathery upper surfaces.
• The leaf margin has several stiff, thorny spines and the tip is
sharply pointed.
• The white flowers are not showy.

4. AZALEA
• An evergreen, dense shrub with many branches.
• Flowers appear in the spring, are funnelform
and are borne on umbel-like clusters of many colors.
Scientific name: Rhododendron indicum
Family: Ericaceae

5. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• Leaves are simple, entire, and elliptic in
shape, and are arranged alternately on
the stem.
• They are deep green and
very pubescent.
• New growth has pubescent stems.

6. BEAUTYBERRY
• Beautyberry is a deciduous, rounded, shrub that
measures six to eight feet tall.
• It has many spreading branches.
• The small fruits occur in dense clusters that
surround the stem.
Scientific name: Callicarpa americana
Family: Lamiaceae

7. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• The leaves are ovate, simple, and opposite.
• Both leaf surfaces are covered with short
hairs and the leaf margins are serrate.
• Inconspicuous lavender flowers appear in
the spring. The fruit is a fleshy, round drupe
and is purple to violet, or rarely white.

8. BOUGAINVILLEA
• A bougainvillea is a sprawling, evergreen,
woody vine which can be trained as a shrub.
• Flowers are white and inconspicuous.
Scientific name: Bougainvillea spectabilis
Family: Nyctaginaceae

9. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• Leaves are alternate, elliptic to ovate in shape, and two to four
inches in length.
• Where the petiole attaches to the stem there is a sharp,
slender thorn which is replaced by flowers in flowering
branches.
• The showy portion consists of three colorful bracts. The
bracts range from purple to white with intermediate shades of
red, pink and orange.

10. CHEROKEE BEAN
• Cherokee bean is a shrub that attains a height of
five to ten feet.
• The fruits of the Cherokee bean are drooping pods
that split in the fall to reveal the beautiful, scarlet,
poisonous seeds.
Scientific name: Erythrina herbacea
Family: Leguminosae

11. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• The Cherokee bean has compound leaves that are alternate,
semi-deciduous, light to medium green in color.
• The leaflets are spade-shaped.
• Scarlet, tubular flowers are produced from April to June.

12. CHINESE FRINGE BUSH
• A medium to large shrub growing to 5 to 10 feet.
• Branches are tiered, upright, drooping, or vase
shaped.
• One form has green leaves with spring blooming
white flowers.
• Others have purplish to red leaves and pink to
reddish flowers, blooming heaviest in spring with
lighter blooms throughout the summer.
Scientific name: Loropetalum chinense
Family: Hamamelidaceae

13. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• Leaves less than two inches, pubescent, alternately arranged,
with serrated margins, ovate form that is uneven at the base,
and pinnate veins.
• Flowers in clusters of four or eight are held at the end of
branches.
• Each flower has four petals that are narrow, linear, and twisted
or curved.

14. CRAPEMYRTLE
• It is a freely branching, erect, deciduous shrub
or small tree
• The fruits are brown, globular capsules to ½-
inch.
Scientific name: Lagerstroemia indica
Family: Lythraceae

15. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• Leaves are simple and entire, which are subopposite in
arrangement, and oblong-elliptic to rounded in shape
• The new growth is pubescent underneath and has square
pinkish stems.
• The flowers are borne in terminal and axillary panicles.
• They have fringed petals.
• Flower colors are white, pink, red or purple.

16. CROTON
• The croton is an evergreen, vigorous shrub.
• The branching pattern is free and irregular.
Scientific name: Codiaeum variegatum
Family: Euphorbiaceae

17. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• Simple leaves are entire to deeply lobed, whorled around
the stem and often clustered at the ends of branches.
• Leaf color varies widely in combinations of green, red,
and/or yellow.
• They have a leathery, smooth texture, and a sap which
stains and is poisonous

18. DOGWOOD
• The dogwood is a small deciduous tree that
grows from 20 to 30 feet high and wide.
• The fruits are round to oval, red,
showy drupes
which are less than 1/2 inch long.
• Fall leaf color is red.
Scientific name: Cornus
florida
Family: Cornaceae

19. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• The simple leaves are entire, opposite, and up to six
inches long.
• The leaf surface is crinkled and has veins that are
markedly curved.
• The flowers are small dense heads surrounded by
four white bracts.

20. GLOSSY ABELIA
• This evergreen to partly deciduous, erect shrub
has many spreading branches.
• It can grow six to eight feet high and wide.
Scientific name: Abelia x grandiflora
Family: Caprifoliaceae

21. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• Up to two inches long, simple leaves are
arranged oppositely or whorled on the stem.
• They are ovate, glossy, and have serrated margins.
• White, pink-tinged flowers are funnel-shaped.
• Flowering is in the spring and summer.

22. HIBISCUS
• The hibiscus is a large, upright evergreen shrub
with many branches.
• It is densely foliated and reaches a height of seven
to twelve feet.
Scientific name: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis
Family: Malvaceae

23. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• The glossy green simple leaves have long reddish petioles,
are alternately arranged, and four to eight inches in length.
• They are ovate with finely serrated margins.
• The solitary flowers come in many colors.
• They have five petals, a bell-shaped calyx, and a long,
conspicuous column of stamens.

24. INDIAN HAWTHORN
• A dense, rounded, medium textured, evergreen shrub.
• This shrub is a slow grower, and it will take many years
for it to reach a mature height of 5 feet.
• Fruit are purplish-black pome about 3/8 of an inch long.
Scientific name: Rhaphiolepis indica
Family: Rosaceae

25. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• Leaves are simple, alternate, clustered
at twig tips, oblong and
leathery, serrate margins.
• Flowers are white or pinkish, 5/8 inch
across, and are borne on loose
terminal panicles in the spring.

26. IXORA
• Ixora is an upright, erect, much
branched evergreen shrub.
• It can grow 10 to 15 feet in height.
Scientific name: Ixora coccinea
Family: Rubiaceae

27. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• The simple, opposite, leaves are whorled, oblong,
and up to four inches long.
• They are leathery and pliable with short petioles.
• Flowers are borne on dense corymbs, and they
have four to five petals which may be colored red,
pink, or yellow.

28. LIRIOPE
• A clumping, perennial evergreen ground cover
which forms dense, grass-like clumps.
• Fruits are black, berry-like, small fleshy capsules.
Scientific name: Liriope muscari
Family: Asparagaceae

29. IDENTIFYING
CHARACTERS:
• Leaves are linear, dark green with parallel veins,
8-10 inches long and 3/4 inch wide.
• Purple flowers are small and dense, borne in
short racemes which are held on stalks longer
than the leaves

30. MUHLY GRASS
Scientific name: Muhlenbergia capillaris
Family: Poaceae
• Clumping upright grass growing 3 to 4 feet tall.
• A white form is also available.

31. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• Fine textured leaves (blades) are simple, linear and
green in color. Veins are parallel.
• Delicate, pink to purple flowers appear in a mass in
the fall.

32. NATAL PLUM
• The Natal plum ,or Carissa, is a dense, broad evergreen shrub
reaching a height of six to ten feet.
• Flowers occur in spring and summer.
• The fruit of the Natal plum is an edible berry which is plum-
shaped, red, and up to two inches long.
Scientific name: Carissa macrocarpa
Family: Apocynaceae

33. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• The two-to-four-inch, simple, opposite leaves
are leathery in texture and dark green.
• Leaves have a milky sap.
• The stem has forked spines to two inches
long.
• Flowers are solitary and star-shaped to two
inches across.

34. PINE
• Tall, coniferous trees which
are evergreen and monoecious.
• The fruit is a male or female woody
pinecone.
Scientific name: Pinus spp.
Family: Pinaceae

35. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• Leaves produced are of two kinds:
• Scale-like, soon falling off the tree,
• Needle-shaped, long and borne in
clusters of 2–5.

36. PODOCARPUS
• An upright, densely-foliaged evergreen shrub
or tree with a narrow columnar canopy.
• Seeds are covered with a green fleshy layer
and are borne on a purple, fleshy, receptacle.
Scientific name: Podocarpus macrophyllus
Family: Podocarpaceae

37. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• Simple leaves are linear and spirally
arranged, with entire margins.
• They are leathery in texture, glossy dark
green above with a prominent midrib.

38. RED MAPLE
• The red maple is a low branching, deciduous tree
with an open growth habit and oval canopy.
• The one-to-three-inch fruits are double samaras,
which occur in clusters on slender stalks, and ripen
soon after the flowers fade.
• The wings are thin and about 3/4 inch in length.
Scientific name: Acer rubrum
Family: Sapindaceae

39. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• Leaves are opposite with three to five lobes.
• They are unequally serrate, and three to six inches across.
• Petioles are pink-red, and leaves turn red in fall.
• Red flowers appear on drooping racemes in the spring.

40. REDBUD
• The redbud is a deciduous, moderate to rapid
growing tree, reaching a height of 20 to 30
feet.
• It has an irregular growth habit when young
but forms a graceful vase-shape as it gets
older.
• The fruit is a dry, hard, brown pod, one to
three inches long.
Scientific name: Cercis canadensis
Family: Fabaceae

41. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• The cordate leaves are simple, alternate, and
four to eight inches long.
• The green leaves turn yellow in the fall.
• The half-inch long flowers appear in clusters
along older stems in early spring before the
leaves emerge.
• Flowers may be lavender, pink or purple.

42. ROYAL POINCIANA
• Royal poinciana is 30 to 40 feet tall, but its
elegant wide-spreading, umbrella-like
canopy can be wider than its height.
• Fruits are dark brown pods to two feet long
and two inches wide.
Scientific name: Delonix regia
Family: Fabaceae

43. IDENTIFYING CHARACTERS:
• The alternate, bipinnately-compound leaves have a
feathery appearance and are one to three feet long.
• The flowers have four scarlet or orange-red petals
about three inches long; one upright slightly
larger petal is marked with yellow and white.

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