(Coco Plum, Icaco Coco Plum)

Coco plum is one of the most versatile evergreen plants for coastal and warm-winter landscapes. It is native to the coastal regions of Florida, the Caribbean, as well as Central and South America.

Its leaves are rounded, leathery and dark green. They appear in flushes all year around and are red-hued when they first emerge. The flowers are small and white and the edible fruit is round and turns from red to black.

This tough, drought-tolerant shrub grows best in full sun and average, well-drained...

(Endive)

Endive is a leafy vegetable that’s most commonly eaten fresh in salads or cooked as a green in soups and other recipes. There are two forms: Curly endive, or frisée, which has finely lobed leaves with curly edges, and the broad, smooth-leaved form called escarole. Like lettuce, radicchio and chicory, it is a member of the daisy family, Asteraceae, and is easily grown in the home garden. It is thought to be native to India and possibly Asia but has been become naturalized in Europe, Africa and South...

(Endive, Green Curled Ruffec Endive)

An heirloom variety grown since about 1860, endive ‘Green Curled Ruffec’ is noted for its tolerance to cold, wet conditions. The leaves are much divided and curled or frisée, dark green with a creamy center and have thick tender ribs. This variety is a good choice for salads as wells as cooked, either steamed or boiled. Harvest this selection about 90 days after planting.

This leafy vegetable is surprisingly a member of the daisy family along with radicchio and chicory and easily grown in the...

(Endive)

Big gorgeous heads with tender blanched hearts make escarole ‘Natacha’ a favorite of commercial and home gardeners. The plants are resistant to tipburn, bolting and bottom rot. Natacha is ready fro harvest 48 to 60 days from planting. This selection is great in salads or cooked.

This leafy vegetable is surprisingly a member of the daisy family along with radicchio and chicory and easily grown in the home garden. Thought to be native to India and possible Asia, endive is naturalized in Europe,...

(Radicchio, Wild Chicory)

Native to Europe and the Mediterranean and naturalized worldwide, wild chicory is a clumping perennial grown for its long, lobed, edible leaves and for its stout taproot, which is used as a coffee substitute. It also has medicinal uses, and is sometimes cultivated in ornamental gardens for its flowers.

"Leaf chicories" come in several types. The bitter, dandelion-like leaves of loose-leaf chicories are good in salads (when young) or in cooked dishes. Witloof or Belgian endive bears erect heads...

(Camphortree)

Superior beauty and a spreading evergreen canopy give this shade or street tree good looks in every season. It is a warm climate species native to eastern Asia, Japan and Malaysia. The trees are intensely aromatic, containing oil of camphor, which is highly potent and used primarily in manufacturing. Both the wood, which is very hard, and the leaves bear a strong scent of camphor. This tree produces a strong, dark upright trunk topped by a canopy of medium-sized glossy leaves. This tree sheds some...

(Camphortree, Hardy Cinnamon Tree)

While the most famous cinnamon and camphor trees are best suited to subtropical and tropical climes, the hardy cinnamon is a species perfect for warm temperate climates, too. A broadleaf evergreen tree, it's native to China. As it ages, it develops a dense canopy of foliage on an upright pyramidal frame.

Hardy cinnamon's leaves are elongated, pointy ovals with three obvious parallel veins. As new leaves emerge in spring, they blush a rich rosy copper color with lighter green veins. These highly...

(Japanese Camphor)

Fragrant in foliage, bark and flower, Japanese camphor has lustrous green leaves and a smooth sandy sienna-brown bark. A broadleaf evergreen tree, it is native to Japan, Korea and a narrow band in eastern China, including Taiwan. The thin leathery leaves are oval to lance-shaped and are glossy deep green with a gray, blue-green underside. Crush a leaf or scrape a twig or bark and a camphor-cinnamon scent is released. A new leaf emerges a coppery light green. By late spring, the branch tips bear...

(Cinnamon, Cinnamon Bark Tree)

One of the earliest recorded spices, dating back to at least 3000 B.C., cinnamon is an aromatic plant that has essential oils throughout all its parts. A slow-growing, tropical broadleaf evergreen tree that attains a gloriously broad but rounded canopy, it is native to Sri Lanka and southernmost India. Its bark is smooth and gray-brown; the spice is dervied by stripping the tree of the brown inner bark layer and allowed to dry to the familiar orange-brown tone in stick-like quills. The unripe fruits,...

(Canada Thistle)

Canada thistle is a fierce and aggressive weed foe. Impossibly extensive, deep root systems make this one of the toughest weeds to eradicate from garden spaces. It's small, purplish, brush-like flower heads produce loads of puffy airborne seeds that float away to colonize new space, and its prickly foliage is painful to the touch. Despite the common name, Canada thistle, this species was introduced to North America from Eurasia. Its remarkable tolerance to many growing conditions means it can be...