About shrubs

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A shrub is a plant with woody stems and branches. They are typically perennials, and will live for a long time unles they succumb to disease or are crowded out by other, taller or more aggressive plants. As a rule of thumb, most shrubs never grow taller than fifteen feet, and for that matter not even ten feet.

Many shrubs have a "bushy" appearance; i.e., they are upright plants, with several to many stems growing close together from the base of the plant. But some types of shrubs have a vine-like appearance, such as blackberries, with a long, thin stem that spreads outward and then curves downward toward the ground.

In terms of growth manner, some types of shrubs just produce multiple stems from the base in one place, but do not also spread by rhizomes under ground to form colonies. These shrubs are called "clump-forming". The ones that spread underground by rhizomes are termed "colony-forming" (rhizomatous).

Colony-forming shrubs can sometimes form extensive colonies that cover a great deal of ground, forming a large patch of tangled stems that would be difficult for us to walk through; like a briar patch.

It can sometimes be difficult to determine whether a woody plant is a shrub or a tree. Most often, trees produce one main stem (a trunk), unless they've been cut back by humans or browsed by animals. But remember that shrubs don't typically grow taller than fifteen feet. If you can't find a name for a plant in the shrub section of the Plant Finder, try searching for it in the tree section.

Finally, plants called "shrubs" on this website don't climb on top of, or twine about, other plants, though they may cover up shorter plants. Woody plants that climb on top of other plants are treated here as "woody vines", and should be searched for in that section of the Plant Finder.