Herbs, Shrubs and Trees: Examples, Chart and Names

Herbs, shrubs and trees are the three groups that school science uses to sort plants by height, stem and branching. Herbs are small with soft, green stems. Shrubs are bushy, with several woody stems near the ground. Trees are tall, with one thick, woody trunk. Weak-stemmed creepers and climbers form a separate group.

This page gives you a chart of examples with their common and Hindi names, so you can learn the groups quickly. Herbs, shrubs and trees together make up the layers of every forest, grassland and scrub. To see how these layers fit into the bigger picture, start with our guide to natural vegetation, its types and conservation.

What are herbs, shrubs and trees?

NCERT’s new Class 6 science book, Curiosity (Chapter 2, “Diversity in the Living World”), groups plants by three features. These are the height of the plant, the type of stem and the branching pattern, meaning where the branches start. Its key points are below.

• Trees grow really tall. Their stems are hard, thick, brown and woody. Their branches usually start higher up on the stem, away from the ground. NCERT’s example is the mango tree.
• Shrubs are not as tall as trees. They often have many brown, woody stems that branch very close to the ground. These stems are hard but thinner than a tree’s trunk. NCERT’s example is the rose plant.
• Herbs are typically small plants with soft, green stems. NCERT’s example is the tomato plant.

NCERT’s Class 3 book, Our Wondrous World (Chapter 4, “Getting to Know Plants”), says the same in simpler words. Herbs are smaller plants whose soft stems never become woody. Shrubs are medium-sized plants with several woody stems and branches near the ground. Trees have a big wooden trunk and roots that go deep into the soil.

A woody stem is hard because it contains wood. A tender stem bends easily and stays green. You can test this yourself: gently bend a stem and feel how stiff it is.

Herbs, shrubs and trees chart with names

The chart below lists the examples shown in NCERT’s books. The Hindi names come from NCERT’s Hindi edition of the Class 3 book, Hamara Adbhut Sansar. The spellings in brackets are a simple Roman guide to pronunciation.

In Hindi school books, jadi-booti is the word used for herbs in this sense. In daily speech, the same word often means a medicinal plant, so read the context carefully.

What are some examples of herbs?

Herbs are the small, soft-stemmed plants you see in kitchen gardens, fields and lawns. NCERT’s examples are tomato, mint (pudina), coriander (dhaniya) and mustard (sarson). Many leafy vegetables and seasonal flowers that you grow in pots are herbs too.

Are grasses herbs?

Yes. NCERT’s Class 3 book says grasses are a type of herb, because their stems are soft and green. Grass leaves are long, thin and flat, and the stems are hollow. The same book points out that the grains we eat, such as rice, wheat, bajra, jowar and ragi, are seeds of large grasses. Sugarcane and bamboo are tall grasses, and NCERT adds that bamboo lives for more than one year.

The full “is grass a herb or a shrub?” debate, and the herb vs shrub comparison, is covered in our page on the difference between herbs and shrubs.

What are some examples of shrubs?

Shrubs look bushy because many woody stems rise from near the ground instead of one trunk. NCERT’s examples are rose, hibiscus (gudhal), tulsi (holy basil) and curry leaf (meetha neem). Hedges around gardens and school grounds are usually made of shrubs, because they are woody and can be trimmed into shape.

The tulsi example surprises many students. NCERT’s Class 3 book calls tulsi a shrub, even though people often call it a “herb” because of its use in home remedies. In science, the grouping depends on the stem, not on how people use the plant. A shrub is not simply a short tree, either: the way it branches from the base is what sets it apart.

What are some examples of trees?

Trees are the tallest plants around you. NCERT’s examples are mango, coconut, khejri, jackfruit (kathal), banyan (bargad), amaltas, peepal and chinar. Neem, which NCERT’s Class 3 book also pictures as a local plant, is another common Indian tree.

Trees can be broad-leaved, like the mango and peepal, or cone-bearing, like the deodar of the Himalaya. NCERT’s Class 6 book notes that deodar trees are conical in shape with flexible, sloping branches. This shape lets snow slide off easily in cold mountains. To learn about a cone-bearing tree in detail, read about the cedar tree’s characteristics, habitat and uses.

What are some examples of creepers and climbers?

Some plants have stems too thin and weak to stand upright. NCERT’s Class 6 book says that plants with weak stems that need support to climb and grow are climbers. Plants that creep along the ground are creepers.

• Climbers: money plant, jasmine (chameli) and bottle gourd (lauki). They wind round or cling to walls, poles, fences or trees.
• Creepers: watermelon (tarbooj) and pumpkin (kaddu). They spread their branches flat on the ground.

NCERT’s Class 3 book notes that the money plant creeps along the ground if it finds nothing to climb. Its note to teachers adds that some plants can behave either way, depending on the support available. Our page on creepers and climbers compares the two groups in detail.

How tall are herbs, shrubs and trees?

NCERT does not give exact heights. It compares plants with your own height: shorter than you, as tall as you, or taller than you. Herbs are short, shrubs are medium and trees are tall.

For measuring forests, the Forest Survey of India (FSI) uses fixed limits. Its glossary in the India State of Forest Report 2023 gives these working definitions:

A perennial plant lives for more than two years. The FSI definition of a tree includes bamboos, palms and fruit trees. It leaves out non-woody plants such as banana and papaya, as well as tall shrubs and climbers. So a tall banana plant is still not a tree by this definition, because its stem is not woody.

Treat these heights as rough guides, not strict rules. A young mango tree may be shorter than a large hibiscus bush, but it is still a tree because it has one woody trunk.

Why do herbs, shrubs and trees matter in natural vegetation?

In a natural forest, these groups grow in layers. Tall trees form the top canopy. Shrubs fill the middle layer, and herbs and grasses cover the ground. Climbers use the trees to reach sunlight. Each layer gives food and shelter to different animals, from insects in the grass to birds in the treetops.

The mix of herbs, shrubs and trees in a place depends on its climate. NCERT’s Class 6 book compares cactus plants with thick, fleshy, water-storing stems in the deserts of Rajasthan with tall deodar trees in the Himalaya of Himachal Pradesh. Wet regions support dense forests of trees. Drier regions support grasses and shrubs. Very cold regions support only low shrubs, grasses and mosses, as our page on tundra vegetation explains.

All three groups also matter to people. Trees give timber, fruit and shade. Shrubs give hedges, flowers and cooking leaves such as curry leaf. Herbs give vegetables, spices, cereals and fodder. To see these benefits in more detail, read about the importance of natural vegetation.