Bushes

California Holly

Ilex

Range: Along the west coast of North America, from California to British Columbia

Info: The small fruits of Ilex, although often referred to as berries, are technically drupes. They range in color from red to brown to black, and rarely green or yellow. The "bones" contain up to ten seeds each. Some species produce fruits parthenogenetically, such as the cultivar. It can reach 6 to 15 feet in height.

Oleander

Nerium oleander

Range: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia

Info: Nerium oleander is a shrub or small tree in the dogbane family Apocynaceae, toxic in all its parts. It is most commonly known as nerium or oleander, from its superficial resemblance to the unrelated olive Olea.

Fun Fact: It is so widely cultivated that no precise region of origin has been identified, though southwest Asia has been suggested.

California Broom/Common Deerweed

Acmispon glaber

Range: The plant is a pioneer species found in dry areas of California, Arizona, and Mexico. It is commonly found in many areas including chaparral, coastal sand and roadsides at elevations below 1500 m.

Info: The Acmispon glaber stems are green, erect, somewhat branched, with small, deciduous, pinnate leaves consisting of three to six leaflets. The plant blooms from about March to August and has flowers that are bilateral, small 7–11 mm, yellow, and clustered together in an inflorescence consisting of two to seven flowers in the upper leaf axils. The flowers become reddish with age. The fruit consists of a curved legume with two seeds.

Fun Fact: Acmispon glaber is a food consumed by numerous wildlife, providing intake for hummingbirds, bees, butterfly larvae, and deer.

Kinnikinnick/Pinemat Manzanita/Bearberry

Arctostaphylos Uva-Ursi

Range: Northern and Central Europe

Info: Kinnikinnick is a small procumbent woody groundcover shrub 2–12 in high. The leaves are evergreen, remaining green for 1–3 years before falling. The fruit is a red berry.

Fun Fact: Its specific name uva-ursi means "grape of the bear" in Latin

Japanese Jasmine

asminum mesnyi

Range: native to Vietnam and southern China. It is also reportedly naturalized in Mexico, Honduras and parts of the southern United States.

Info: Jasminum mesnyi is a scrambling evergreen shrub with fragrant yellow flowers in spring and summer. The form usually found in cultivation has semi-double flowers. It is not frost-hardy. With suitable support it can be grown as a slender climber, though in confined spaces it will require regular pruning

Jasmine

Jasminum

Range: Native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Australasia and Oceania. Jasmines are widely cultivated for the characteristic fragrance of their flowers.

Info: Can be either deciduous (leaves falling in autumn) or evergreen (green all year round), and can be erect, spreading, or climbing shrubs and vines. Their leaves are born, opposite or alternate. They can be simple, trifoliate, or pinnate. The flowers are typically white or yellow in color, although in rare instances they can be slightly reddish.

Fun fact: He genus name is derived from the Persian Yasameen ("gift from God") through Arabic and Latin

Waxleaf Privet

Ligustrum japonicum

Range: native to central and southern Japan and Korea. It is widely cultivated in other regions, and is naturalized in California and in the southeastern United States from Texas to Virginia.

Info: It is an evergreen shrub or small tree growing to 2–5 m tall, with smooth, pale grey-brown bark on the stems. The leaves are opposite, 5–10 cm long and 2–5 cm broad, glossy dark green above, paler glaucous to yellowish green below, thick and leathery textured, and with an entire margin. The flowers are white, with a four-lobed corolla ; they are borne in clusters in early summer. The fruit is an oval drupe, 10 mm long, ripening purple-black with a glaucous waxy bloom in early winter

Fun Fact: in Japan they are popularly likened to mouse or rat droppings. The fruit is used in herbal medicine as a cardiotonic, diuretic, laxative and tonic treatment. The plant arrived in North America in the early 1800s and has become an invasive plant, particularly in the American South. It is occasionally grown as an ornamental plant in Europe and North America; a number of cultivars have been selected for garden use

Lemonwood

pittosporum eugenioides

Range: New Zealand native evergreen tree. It is found throughout New Zealand's North and South Islands along forest margins and stream banks from sea level to 2000ft. Naturalized all over the globe in similar climates.

Info: It is New Zealand's largest Pittosporum. It has highly fragrant clusters of attractive yellow-cream flowers in spring, followed by distinctive black seed capsules.Pittosporum eugenioides starts out as a small compact tree, as it matures it becomes a tall branched tree. Distincive wavy leaves.

Fun Fact: Maori traditionally used the gum and crushed leaves and flowers of the tarata for scent, usually mixed with plant oils such as titoki and kohia. Maori also used the lemonwood to make hair oils and perfume. For perfume, the oil was mixed with bird fat. The gum from the tree was also known to be a cure for bad breath

Crimson Fountaingrass

Pennisetum setaceum

Range: native to open, scrubby habitats in East Africa, tropical Africa, Middle East and SW Asia. It has been introduced to many parts of the world as an ornamental plant, and has become an invasive species in some of them.

Info: It is drought-tolerant, grows fast, reaches 3 feet in height, and has many purple, plumose flower spikes.

Fun Fact: It also tends to increase the risk of intense wildfires, to which it is well adapted, thus posing a further threat to certain native species.

Camellia

Camellia

Range: Various parts of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Info: The camellia has economic importance in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, leaves of C. sinensis are processed to create the popular beverage tea. The ornamental C. japonica, C. sasanqua and their hybrids are the source of hundreds of garden cultivars. C. oleifera produces tea seed oil, used in cooking and cosmetics.

Fun fact: The fruit of camellia is shaped like a capsule that can contain 1 - 8 seeds.

Rosemary

Rosmarinus officinalis

Range: native to the Mediterranean region, although cultivated everywhere because of its spice benifits

Info: a woody, perennial herb with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers. Rosemary is used as a decorative plant in gardens where it may have pest control effects. The leaves are used to flavor various foods, such as stuffing and roast meats.

Fun Fact: The plant or its oil have been used in folk medicine in the belief it may have medicinal effects, although there is no scientific evidence it has such properties. Rosemary was considered sacred to ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks

Cypress

Cupressus

Range: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia

Info: As with other conifers, extensive cultivation has led to a wide variety of forms, sizes and colours, that are grown in parks and gardens throughout the world. They are evergreen trees or large shrubs, growing to 5–40 m tall. The leaves are scale-like, 2–6 mm long, arranged in opposite decussate pairs, and persist for three to five years.

lesser bougainvillea

Bougainvillea glabra

Range: It is native to Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina's Chubut Province.

Info: The Bougainvillea is thorny and will climb over other plants and kill it. It’s thorns are tipped with a black waxy cover. The actual flower is puny and usually white while the leaves are massive in comparison. Some leaves are colored near the flower and are sometimes mistaken to be the actual flower itself.

Fun Fact: Bougainvilleas are a woody vine from the family Nyctaginaceae, which is the family of Four O’Clock plants. Most common plant of the bougainvillea

Australian Laurel

Pittosporum tobira

Range: It is native to Japan, China, and Korea, but it is used throughout the world as an ornamental plant in landscaping and as cut foliage.

Info: It is an evergreen shrub which can reach 33 ft tall by 10 ft broad, and can become treelike. The leaves are oval in shape with edges that curl under. The fruit is a hairy, woody capsule about 1 cm wide divided into three valves. Inside are black seeds in a bed of resinous pulp. This shrub is a common, drought-tolerant and fairly hardy landscaping plant.