Table of Contents: Plants that start with T
Plants that start with T bring an amazing mix of bold shapes, fast-growing kitchen crops, and highly resilient options to your property. Indoors, you can add a dramatic splash of color using the massive velvet foliage of a Taro Plant or the intricate blossoms of a Toad Lily. Outside, you can build a stunning landscape using a majestic Tupelo Tree or a patch of fresh Turnips
Quickly check cold hardiness levels, find great companion options for your vegetables, and map out changing sun profiles. Whether you want to plant a heavy-yielding row of summer Tomato Plants or enjoy the classic elegance of backyard Tulips, this guide keeps your ideas perfectly organized. Scroll down to check out our full botanical checklist for plants that start with T and find your next garden favorite.
Did you Know?
The stunning and exotic Tiger Lily (Lilium lancifolium) on this list of plants that start with T has a clever backup plan for multiplying! Along with growing bulbs under the ground, it sprouts tiny, shiny black peas called “bulbils” directly in the joints where the leaves meet the main stem. When the summer winds shake the plant, these little black beads pop off, drop into the surrounding soil, and automatically start growing into a brand-new patch of flowers! [1, 2]
Tamarind Tree
Scientific Name: Tamarindus indica
Categories: Edible Plants | Trees & Shrubs | Evergreens | Tropical Pods
Description: A massive tropical tree featuring delicate, fern-like compound leaves and small yellow flowers. It requires frost-free climates to grow, producing heavy clusters of long brown pods packed with a highly prized, tart, and sticky gourmet pulp.
Tangerine Tree
Scientific Name: Citrus tangerina
Categories: Edible Plants | Trees & Shrubs | Evergreens | Citrus Orchard
Description: A handsome citrus tree lined with glossy green leaves and highly sweet-scented white spring flowers. It requires a long, hot growing season to develop its heavy round fruits that are exceptionally sweet, juicy, and easy to peel.
Tansy
Scientific Name: Tanacetum vulgare
Categories: Outdoor Plants | Perennials | Herbs | Pest Deterrent
Description: A vigorous perennial herb featuring deeply cut, fern-like green leaves that release a sharp, camphor-like scent when touched. In summer, it shoots up flat clusters of unique, button-like yellow flower heads that naturally repel common flies.
Taro Plant
Scientific Name: Colocasia esculenta
Categories: Outdoor Plants | Houseplants | Tropical Plants | Statement Foliage
Description: A dramatic foliage plant instantly recognizable by its massive, velvet-textured, heart-shaped elephant-ear leaves. It requires wet soils, high humidity, and partial shade to thrive, producing starch-rich underground tubers widely used in global cooking.
Tarragon
Scientific Name: Artemisia dracunculus
Categories: Edible Plants | Herbs | Perennials | Culinary Favorites
Description: A popular culinary herb featuring slender, narrow green leaves packed with high levels of aromatic essential oils. It delivers a distinct, sweet licorice or anise flavor profile, growing best in sunny herb gardens with sharp soil drainage.
Tea Plant
Scientific Name: Camellia sinensis
Categories: Edible Plants | Trees & Shrubs | Evergreens | Global Staples
Description: A slow-growing evergreen shrub featuring glossy, serrated dark green leaves and small white flowers. The tender young leaves and buds are continuously harvested and dried to produce true black, green, and oolong teas worldwide.
Teasel
Scientific Name: Dipsacus fullonum
Categories: Outdoor Plants | Biennials | Wildflowers | Structural Geometry
Description: A tall, spiny biennial plant that produces large, cylindrical, prickly flower heads ringed in sharp bracts. The unique, lavender-bristled heads dry into a tough, woody cone that introduces excellent winter interest and structure to rustic gardens.
Texas Sage
Scientific Name: Leucophyllum frutescens
Categories: Outdoor Plants | Trees & Shrubs | Evergreens | Extreme Resilience
Description: An exceptionally tough desert shrub featuring small, powdery silver-grey leaves that store moisture efficiently. It handles baking summer heat, poor rocky soils, and drought perfectly, erupting in beautiful blankets of purple trumpet flowers right after summer rains.
Thyme
Scientific Name: Thymus vulgaris
Categories: Edible Plants | Herbs | Perennials | Ground Cover
Description: A classic, low-growing woody herb that forms a dense mat of tiny, highly aromatic grey-green leaves. It is highly drought-tolerant, making it an excellent, flavor-packed choice for sunny rock garden borders and pathway crevices.
Tiger Lily
Scientific Name: Lilium lancifolium
Categories: Outdoor Plants | Perennials | Bulbs | Vivid Colors
Description: A spectacular summer bulb that shoots up rigid vertical stalks topped with massive, outward-facing orange flowers. The petals curl heavily backward and are covered in dark crimson spots, creating a bold visual statement in sunny borders.
Toad Lily
Scientific Name: Tricyrtis hirta
Categories: Outdoor Plants | Perennials | Shade Lovers | Exotic Blooms
Description: A unique, shade-loving perennial that produces star-shaped flowers resembling miniature orchids. The blossoms feature intricate purple spots, opening up in late summer when most other woodland shade plants have completely finished blooming.
Tobacco Plant
Scientific Name: Nicotiana tabacum
Categories: Outdoor Plants | Annuals | Agricultural Crops | Tall Annuals
Description: A fast-growing annual crop featuring massive, sticky green leaves and long clusters of tubular pink and white flowers. It requires rich, deeply cultivated soils and intense daily sun to properly develop its heavy, oil-rich foliage.
Tomato Plant
Scientific Name: Solanum lycopersicum
Categories: Edible Plants | Vegetables | Annuals | Summer Favorites
Description: The undisputed king of the summer vegetable garden, requiring full sun and a sturdy cage support system. It produces a non-stop supply of juicy, sweet fruits in thousands of cherry, beefsteak, and heirloom varieties.
Tree Onion
Scientific Name: Allium × proliferum
Categories: Edible Plants | Vegetables | Perennials | Strange & Unique
Description: Also known as the Egyptian Walking Onion, this unique perennial bulb grows clusters of tiny baby onions directly on top of its green stalks instead of flowers. As the heavy top gets weighed down, it tips over to root into nearby soil, literally walking across your garden.
Tulip
Scientific Name: Tulipa gesneriana
Categories: Outdoor Plants | Perennials | Bulbs | Spring Favorites
Description: An iconic spring bulb prized for its clean, cup-shaped flowers that display a massive rainbow of solid and variegated colors. It requires cool winter soil temperatures to develop proper spring stems, making a classic garden border.
Tupelo Tree
Scientific Name: Nyssa sylvatica
Categories: Outdoor Plants | Trees & Shrubs | Deciduous | Autumn Color
Description: A majestic native shade tree featuring a clean, upright trunk and a broad canopy of glossy green leaves. It is celebrated globally for its blindingly intense autumn display, turning a uniform, fiery crimson-red before dropping its foliage.
Turmeric Plant
Scientific Name: Curcuma longa
Categories: Edible Plants | Houseplants | Tropical Plants | Perennials
Description: A beautiful tropical perennial belonging to the ginger family, featuring upright lance-shaped green leaves and stunning white flower bracts. Its underground rhizomes are heavily harvested to dry into a rich, bright orange culinary spice.
Turnip
Scientific Name: Brassica rapa subsp. rapa
Categories: Edible Plants | Vegetables | Annuals | Cool Weather Favorites
Description: A fast-growing cool-season vegetable crop grown for its round, purple-topped underground roots and crisp green leaves. It thrives during the cool margins of spring and autumn, delivering a sharp flavor perfect for roasting.
Tussock Grass
Scientific Name: Deschampsia cespitosa
Categories: Outdoor Plants | Perennials | Ornamental Grasses | Soft Textures
Description: A hardy ornamental grass that forms dense, tidy mounds of narrow green blades. In mid-summer, it sends up large clouds of delicate, feathery silver-gold seed heads that hover like a soft mist over the foliage.
Twinberry
Scientific Name: Lonicera involucrata
Categories: Outdoor Plants | Trees & Shrubs | Deciduous | Native Plants
Description: A tough native shrub belonging to the honeysuckle family, featuring smooth green leaves and pairs of yellow trumpet flowers. The blooms fade into unique, ink-black twin berries surrounded by large, bright crimson leaf bracts that feed local birds.
Thank you for visiting our page (Plants that Start with T). We hope our alphabetical guide helped you discover some incredible new plants that start with T to add to your collection. Whether you are potting up a new houseplant or planning your outdoor garden layout, be sure to bookmark this directory as we continue to update it with more botanical varieties and expert care tips. Happy planting!
References (Citations)
Expand
USDA PLANTS Database: This federal archive managed by the United States Department of Agriculture provides the standardized scientific species names, native ranges, and biological traits for all listed plants.
NCSU Plant Toolbox: This comprehensive agricultural database hosted by the North Carolina State University Extension verifies specific growing categories, landscape uses, and structural descriptions.
University of California ANR Extension: Peer-reviewed horticultural research from the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources provides structural profiles, native habitat properties, and moisture preferences for garden perennials.