Plants That Start With R

60 plants Animals and nature Checked 9 Oct 2026

Here are 60 plants that start with R, 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.

R holds 60 plants, a strong mix of grains, herbs and trees. Rice and rye are major cereal crops, rosemary is a fragrant herb, and rhubarb and radish cover the vegetable patch. The rose leads the flowering plants.

Red is the prefix to watch. Red oak, red maple, red clover, red pine and red ginger all appear. Redwood also fits the pattern. Trees like rowan, rosewood and the royal palm add variety. The rubber plant is a common houseplant, and rattan is a climbing palm used for furniture.

Plants starting with R: 60
Best known: rose, rice
Longest name: resurrection plant

Best-known plants that start with R

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

rose
rice
reed
rosemary
rye
rowan
rosewood
rhubarb
radish
royal palm
rubber plant
red oak
rattan
rhododendron
runner bean
red maple
red clover
redwood

All plants that start with R

#	Name	What it is
1	rabbit brush	pleasantly aromatic shrub having erect slender flexible hairy branches and dense clusters of small yellow flowers...
2	radish	a cruciferous plant of the genus Raphanus having a pungent edible root
3	railroad vine	a prostrate perennial of coastal sand dunes Florida to Texas
4	rain tree	large ornamental tropical American tree with bipinnate leaves and globose clusters of flowers with crimson stamens and...
5	rainbow cactus	a stout cylindrical cactus of the southwest United States and adjacent Mexico
6	rainbow shower	deciduous ornamental hybrid of southeastern Asia and Hawaii having racemes of flowers ranging in color from...
7	rattan	climbing palm of Sri Lanka and southern India remarkable for the great length of the stems which are used for malacca...
8	red ash	smallish American tree with velvety branchlets and lower leaf surfaces
9	red bay	small tree of southern United States having dark red heartwood
10	red beech	large tree of Australasia
11	red birch	birch of swamps and river bottoms throughout the eastern United States having reddish-brown bark
12	red cabbage	cabbage plant with a compact head of reddish purple leaves
13	red cedar	large valuable arborvitae of northwestern United States
14	red clover	erect to decumbent short-lived perennial having red-purple to pink flowers; the most commonly grown forage clover
15	red elm	autumn-flowering elm of southeastern United States
16	red ginger	an ornamental ginger native to Pacific islands
17	red gum	very large red gum tree
18	red maple	maple of eastern and central America; five-lobed leaves turn scarlet and yellow in autumn
19	red oak	any of numerous American oaks having 4 stamens in each floret, acorns requiring two years to mature and leaf veins...
20	red pine	pine of eastern North America having long needles in bunches of two and reddish bark
21	red spruce	medium-sized spruce of eastern North America; chief lumber spruce of the area; source of pulpwood
22	red willow	Eurasian osier having reddish or purple twigs and bark rich in tannin
23	redwood	giant coastal conifer, among the tallest trees on Earth
24	reed	tall woody perennial grasses with hollow slender stems especially of the genera Arundo and Phragmites
25	reed grass	any of various tall perennial grasses of the genus Calamagrostis having feathery plumes
26	resurrection fern	fern growing on rocks or tree trunks and having fronds greyish and scurfy below; Americas and South Africa
27	resurrection plant	small grey Asiatic desert plant bearing minute white flowers that rolls up when dry and expands when moist
28	rhododendron	any shrub of the genus Rhododendron: evergreen shrubs or small shrubby trees having leathery leaves and showy clusters...
29	rhubarb	plants having long green or reddish acidic leafstalks growing in basal clumps
30	ribbon fern	fern of North Africa and Azores and Canary Islands
31	ribbon grass	perennial grass of marshy meadows and ditches having broad leaves; Europe and North America
32	ribbon tree	deciduous New Zealand tree whose inner bark yields a strong fiber that resembles flax and is called New Zealand cotton
33	rice	annual or perennial rhizomatous marsh grasses; seed used for food; straw used for paper
34	rice grass	any grass of the genus Oryzopsis
35	river birch	birch of swamps and river bottoms throughout the eastern United States having reddish-brown bark
36	river gum	somewhat crooked red gum tree growing chiefly along rivers; has durable reddish lumber used in heavy construction
37	rock brake	dwarf deciduous lithophytic ferns
38	rock elm	tall widely distributed elm of eastern North America
39	rock maple	maple of eastern and central North America having three-lobed to five-lobed leaves and hard close-grained wood much...
40	rock rose	small shrubs of scrub and dry woodland regions of southern Europe and North Africa
41	rocket	erect European annual often grown as a salad crop to be harvested when young and tender
42	root celery	grown for its thickened edible aromatic root
43	rose	any of many shrubs of the genus Rosa that bear roses
44	rose apple	tropical tree of the East Indies cultivated for its edible fruit
45	rose chestnut	handsome East Indian evergreen tree often planted as an ornamental for its fragrant white flowers that yield a perfume
46	rose gum	very tall tree of Queensland and New South Wales
47	rosemary	widely cultivated for its fragrant grey-green leaves used in cooking and in perfumery
48	rosewood	any of those hardwood trees of the genus Dalbergia that yield rosewood--valuable cabinet woods of a dark red or...
49	rough pea	a weak-stemmed winter annual native to Mediterranean region for long established in southern United States
50	rowan	Eurasian tree with orange-red berrylike fruits
51	rowan tree	Eurasian tree with orange-red berrylike fruits
52	royal fern	large deeply rooted fern of worldwide distribution with upright bipinnate compound tufted fronds
53	royal palm	tall feather palm of southern Florida and Cuba
54	rubber plant	large tropical Asian tree frequently dwarfed as a houseplant; source of Assam rubber
55	rue	European strong-scented perennial herb with grey-green bitter-tasting leaves; an irritant similar to poison ivy
56	runner bean	tropical American bean with red flowers and mottled black beans similar to Phaseolus vulgaris but perennial
57	rush grass	grass having wiry stems and sheathed panicles
58	rush rose	woody yellow-flowered perennial of southeastern United States
59	rye	hardy annual cereal grass widely cultivated in northern Europe where its grain is the chief ingredient of black bread...
60	rye grass	any of several annual or perennial Eurasian grasses

Short plants with R

rose
rice
reed
rye
rowan
rue

Filter all 60 plants that start with R

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Questions people ask

How many plants start with R?

This list has 60 plants starting with R, from well-known ones like rose, rice, reed to rarer kinds.

What plants start with R?

Well-known examples are rose, rice, reed, rosemary, rye, rowan, rosewood, rhubarb.

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