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The Living Encyclopedia
Explore our comprehensive database of reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates. Discover detailed care guides, morph varieties, and community setups.
bird
Oriole
Icterus galbula
The Baltimore oriole is a small icterid blackbird common in eastern North America as a migratory breeding bird. It received its name from the resemblance of the male's colors to those on the coat-of-arms of 17th-century Lord Baltimore. Observations of interbreeding between the Baltimore oriole and the western Bullock's oriole Icterus bullockii, led to both being classified as a single species, called the northern oriole, from 1973 to 1995. Research by James Rising, a professor of zoology at the University of Toronto, and others showed that the two birds actually did not interbreed significantly.
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bird
Bluebird
Sialia sialis
The eastern bluebird is a small North American migratory thrush found in open woodlands, farmlands, and orchards.
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bird
Chickadee
Poecile atricapillus
The black-capped chickadee is a small, nonmigratory, North American passerine bird that lives in deciduous and mixed forests. It is a member of the Paridae family, also known as tits. It has a distinct black cap on its head, a black bib underneath, and white cheeks. It has a white belly, buff sides, and grey wings, back, and tail. The bird is well known for its vocalizations, including its fee-bee song and its chick-a-dee-dee-dee call, from which it derives its name.
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bird
Nuthatch
Sitta carolinensis
The white-breasted nuthatch is a species of bird in the nuthatch family Sittidae. It is a medium-sized nuthatch, measuring approximately 15.5 cm (6.1 in) in length. Coloration varies somewhat along the species' range, but the upperparts are light blue-gray, with a black crown and nape in males, while females have a dark gray crown. The underparts are whitish, with a reddish tinge on the lower abdomen. Despite not being closely related, the white-breasted nuthatch and the white wagtail are very similar in plumage.
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W
bird
Wren
Troglodytes aedon
The house wren complex has been split into eight species:Northern house wren, Troglodytes aedon Southern house wren, Troglodytes musculus Cozumel wren, Troglodytes beani Kalinago wren, Troglodytes martinicensis St. Lucia wren, Troglodytes mesoleucus St. Vincent wren, Troglodytes musicus Grenada wren, Troglodytes grenadensis Cobb's wren, Troglodytes cobbi
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bird
Swallow
Hirundo rustica
The barn swallow is the most widespread species of swallow in the world, occurring on all continents, with vagrants reported even in Antarctica. It is a distinctive passerine bird with blue upperparts and a long, deeply forked tail. In Anglophone Europe, it is just called the swallow; in northern Europe, it is the only member of family Hirundinidae called a "swallow" rather than a "martin".
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plant
Fern
Pteridium aquilinum
Bracken (Pteridium) is a genus of large, cosmopolitan, coarse ferns in the family Dennstaedtiaceae. Ferns (Pteridophyta) are vascular plants that undergo alternation of generations, having both large plants (sporophytes) that produce spores and small plants (gametophytes) that produce sex cells in its life cycle. Brackens are noted for their large, highly divided leaves. They are found on all continents except Antarctica, though their typical habitat is moorland. The genus probably has the widest distribution of any fern in the world.
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plant
Bamboo
Bambusa vulgaris
Bambusa vulgaris, common bamboo, is an open-clump type bamboo species. It is native to Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and to the province of Yunnan in southern China, but it has been widely cultivated in many other places and has become naturalized in several regions. Among bamboo species, it is one of the largest and most easily recognized.
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plant
Palm Tree
Phoenix dactylifera
Phoenix dactylifera, commonly known as the date palm, is a flowering-plant species in the palm family Arecaceae, native to the region from the Gulf States to Pakistan. It is cultivated for its edible sweet fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across northern Africa, the Middle East, Australia, South and Southeast Asia, Portugal, Spain, coastal Mediterranean basin, and the desert regions of Southern California. It is naturalised in many tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. P. dactylifera is the type species of genus Phoenix, which contains 12–19 species of wild date palms.
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plant
Venus Flytrap
Dionaea muscipula
The Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant native to the temperate and subtropical wetlands of North Carolina and South Carolina, on the East Coast of the United States. Although various modern hybrids have been created in cultivation, D. muscipula is the only species of the monotypic genus Dionaea. It is closely related to the waterwheel plant and the cosmopolitan sundews (Drosera), all of which belong to the family Droseraceae. Dionaea catches its prey—chiefly insects and arachnids—with a "jaw"-like clamping structure, which is formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves; when an insect makes contact with the open leaves, vibrations from the prey's movements ultimately trigger the "jaws" to shut via tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. Additionally, when an insect or spider touches one of these hairs, the trap prepares to close, only fully enclosing the prey if a second hair is contacted within (approximately) twenty seconds of the first contact. Triggers may occur as quickly as 1⁄10 of a second from initial contact.
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plant
Pitcher Plant
Nepenthes
Nepenthes is a genus of carnivorous plants, also known as tropical pitcher plants, or monkey cups, in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus includes about 170 species, and numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids. They are mostly liana-forming plants of the Old World tropics, ranging from South China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines; westward to Madagascar and the Seychelles (one); southward to Australia (four) and New Caledonia (one); and northward to India (one) and Sri Lanka (one). The greatest diversity occurs on Borneo, Sumatra, and the Philippines, with many endemic species. Many are plants of hot, humid, lowland areas, but most are tropical, montane plants, receiving warm days but cool to cold, humid nights year-round. A few are considered tropical alpine, with cool days and nights near freezing. The name "monkey cups" refers to the fact that monkeys were once thought to drink rainwater from the pitchers.
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plant
Sundew
Drosera
Drosera, which is commonly known as the sundews, is one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with at least 194 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surfaces. The insects are used to supplement the poor mineral nutrition of the soil in which the plants grow. Various species, which vary greatly in size and form, are native to every continent except Antarctica.
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plant
Air Plant
Tillandsia
Tillandsia is a genus of around 650 species of evergreen, perennial flowering plants in the family Bromeliaceae, native to the forests, mountains and deserts of the Neotropics, from northern Mexico and the southeastern United States to Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to central Argentina. Their leaves, more or less silvery in color, are covered with specialized cells (trichomes) capable of rapidly absorbing water that gathers on them.
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plant
Bonsai Tree
Ficus retusa
Ficus retusa is a species of evergreen woody plant in the fig genus, native to the Malay Archipelago and Malesia floristic region. The species name has been widely mis-applied to Ficus microcarpa.
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plant
Money Tree
Pachira aquatica
Pachira aquatica is a species of tropical wetland tree in the mallow family Malvaceae, native to Central and South America where it grows in swamps. It is known by its common names Malabar chestnut, French peanut, Guiana chestnut, provision tree, Saba nut, Monguba (Brazil), Pumpo (Guatemala) and Jelinjoche and is commercially sold under the names money tree and money plant. This tree is sometimes sold with a braided trunk and is commonly grown as a houseplant, although more commonly what is sold as a "Pachira aquatica" houseplant is in fact a similar species, Pachira glabra.
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plant
Umbrella Plant
Schefflera arboricola
Heptapleurum arboricola is a flowering plant in the family Araliaceae, native to Hainan Province, China and Taiwan. Its common name is dwarf umbrella tree, as it resembles a smaller version of the umbrella tree, Heptapleurum actinophyllum.
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plant
Parlor Palm
Chamaedorea elegans
Chamaedorea elegans, the neanthe bella palm or parlour palm, is a species of small palm tree native to the rainforests in Southern Mexico and Guatemala. The parlor palm is one of the most extensively sold houseplant palms in the world. It is one of several species with leaves that are harvested as xate.
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plant
Areca Palm
Dypsis lutescens
Chrysalidocarpus lutescens, also known by its synonym Dypsis lutescens and as golden cane palm, areca palm, yellow palm, butterfly palm, or bamboo palm, is a species of flowering plant in the family Arecaceae, native to Madagascar and naturalized in the Andaman Islands, Thailand, Vietnam, Réunion, El Salvador, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Canary Islands, southern Florida, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, and the Leeward Antilles. Its native names are rehazo and lafahazo.
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plant
Ponytail Palm
Beaucarnea recurvata
Beaucarnea recurvata, the elephant's foot or ponytail palm, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. The species is endemic to eastern Mexico; according to IUCN it is now confined to the state of Veracruz, but Plants of the World Online also cites it as occurring in Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, and Tamaulipas. Despite its common name, it is not closely related to the true palms (Arecaceae). It has become popular in Europe and worldwide as an ornamental plant. There are 350-year-old Beaucarneas registered in Mexico.
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plant
Cast Iron Plant
Aspidistra elatior
Aspidistra elatior, the cast-iron-plant or bar-room plant, also known in Japanese as haran or baran (葉蘭) is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to Japan and Taiwan. Tolerant of neglect, it is widely cultivated as a houseplant, but can also be grown outside in shade where temperatures remain above −15 °C (5 °F). It is used as training material for the seika form of ikebana.
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