Alphabetical list of plants.
The most well-known plants, listed by their common names.
Thyme (said like "time") is a small, woody plant with lots of tiny leaves. It grows all year around, and gets tiny pink flowers in the spring. It has a very strong smell, and is used to flavour meat, soups and stews. Some varieties of thyme are lemon scented and can be used in dishes that need a hint of lemon.
Thyme can be grown from seed, cuttings, or just digging up parts of the plant that have already grown roots. When thyme spreads, branches that touch the ground grow roots at that point and are easy to separate. It likes to grow in a hot sunny spot, and can tolerate very heavy frosts and drought. It is a perfect rockery plant.
Tobacco is a plant used worldwide as a legal recreational drug. It is also used to make pesticides. Tobacco is most commonly taken by smoking it in cigarettes, cigars or in a pipe but it can also be chewed or snuffed.
Most tobacco is grown in China, India, Brazil and the United States.
The tomato is the fruit of the tomato vine. Tomatoes may be eaten raw or cooked. They are usually used to make sauce. Tomatoes are usually red or yellow when they are ripe. Some people think a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit.
The name 'tree fern' can be used to describe any fern that grows a kind of trunk. Most plants that are known as tree ferns are in the dicksoniaceae and cyatheaceae families. Tree ferns are found in tropical areas and rainforests all over the world.
A tulip is a flower with a distinctive shape that grows from a bulb. Tulips come in a huge variety of colours and patterns, and are grown to be used as a cut flower.
Tulips usually flower in spring. They should be planted in autumn. Tulips will tolerate very cold climates. You can grow new tulips from offsets, which are small plantlets that bud off from the sides of the main tulip bulb.