Plants That Start With I

16 plants Animals and nature Checked 9 Oct 2026

Here are 16 plants that start with I, each with a one-line description so you can tell what it is. The best-known ones come first, then the full list in A to Z order.

Sixteen plants open with I. Ivy is the easy answer most children know, an evergreen vine with lobed leaves. Indigo is a shrub tied to the famous blue dye, and the ice plant is a low succulent with bright daisy-like flowers.

Two naming patterns stand out. Iron names include ironwood, iron tree and iron oak. Ivory names include the ivory palm, whose nuts are called ivory nuts, and the ivory tree. The interrupted fern and incense cedar are good rare answers for older quiz fans.

Plants starting with I: 16
Best known: ivy, indigo
Longest name: interrupted fern

Best-known plants that start with I

The ones most people will recognise, good for school lists, quizzes and games.

ivy
indigo
ironwood
ice plant

All plants that start with I

#	Name	What it is
1	ice plant	low succulent ground cover with bright daisy-like flowers
2	incense cedar	tall tree of the Pacific coast of North America having foliage like cypress and cinnamon-red bark
3	incense tree	any of various tropical trees of the family Burseraceae yielding fragrant gums or resins that are burned as incense
4	indian cherry	deciduous shrub of eastern and central United States having black berrylike fruit; golden-yellow in autumn
5	indian mustard	Asiatic mustard used as a potherb
6	indian shot	canna grown especially for its edible rootstock from which arrowroot starch is obtained
7	indigo	deciduous subshrub of southeastern Asia having pinnate leaves and clusters of red or purple flowers
8	indigo plant	deciduous subshrub of southeastern Asia having pinnate leaves and clusters of red or purple flowers
9	inga	any tree or shrub of the genus Inga having pinnate leaves and showy usually white flowers; cultivated as ornamentals
10	interrupted fern	North American fern having tall erect pinnate fronds and a few sporogenous pinnae at or near the center of the fertile...
11	iron oak	small deciduous tree of eastern and central United States having dark green lyrate pinnatifid leaves and tough...
12	iron tree	a small slow-growing deciduous tree of northern Iran having a low domed shape
13	ironwood	a small slow-growing deciduous tree of northern Iran having a low domed shape
14	ivory palm	a stemless palm tree of Brazil and Peru bearing ivory nuts
15	ivory tree	tropical Asian tree with hard white wood and bark formerly used as a remedy for dysentery and diarrhea
16	ivy	Old World vine with lobed evergreen leaves and black berrylike fruits

Short plants with I

ivy
inga

Questions people ask

How many plants start with I?

This list has 16 plants starting with I, from well-known ones like ivy, indigo, ironwood to rarer kinds.

What plants start with I?

Well-known examples are ivy, indigo, ironwood, ice plant.

Source: Princeton WordNet, a public dictionary database, reviewed by our editors to keep only clear, real members of the list. Meanings are short dictionary glosses.

See every letter on one page: plants A to Z