Apps to identify plants can be very useful if you are one of those who walk on the street picking seedlings on the street or maybe you just like flowers naturally.
Life just got easier with mobile apps and there are even apps to identify plants. They can be very useful if you are one of those who walk the street picking seedlings of plants and flowers, herbs and other species of plants and need to find out their names.
Although everyone can identify species in photos taken in the environment, if you are having problems with the applications, it may be interesting to rest a leaf or flower on a sheet of paper, table or smooth, matte surface, with a solid and unique colour.
9 Best Plants Identification apps
1. iNaturalist
iNaturalist is one of the most popular apps in the category and helps you identify plants and animals around you. It is a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society. It is available for iOS (iPhone) and Android and also at the link inaturalist.org. It allows discovering species, recording observations and sharing with the Community, in addition to following scientists.
- Free
- Has a community
The same group has a similar application, Seek. The interface is more beautiful and the app helps to raise your knowledge about nature, earning badges for seeing different types of birds, amphibians, plants and fungi, and participating in observation challenges.
2. PictureThis – Plant identifier
Picture This allows you to upload a photo or search by name (in different languages). Unfortunately, it is not available for free. It is possible to download for iOS (iPhone) and Android and there is a web version at picturethisai.com.
When taking a photo with the app’s camera or uploading an image, it is possible to obtain instant and accurate identification results with the help of artificial intelligence technology. There are more than 10,000 species in the botanical database with an accuracy rate of 95% according to tests by the founders.
- Seven days free, R $ 80 per year
- Has a community
3. PlantSnap
PlantSnap has two versions: premium and free (R $ 20), both for iOS (iPhone) and Android or at plantsnap.com. You can also identify trees, vegetables and other plants by taking a photo and comparing the photos with the application’s database. It offers a record of more than 585,000 plants including flowers, trees, succulents, mushrooms, cacti, leaves and more, combined with a machine learning algorithm capable of recognizing 2,000 new plant species per month.
- The free version contains ads and offers in-app purchases
- The premium version costs $ 20 on Android and $ 12 on iOS (one-time purchase)
4. PlantNet
PlantNet ( plantnet.org ) has a version for iOS (iPhone), another for Android and also a web version at identify.plantnet.org . It is free and was developed by a consortium involving scientists from CIRAD, INRA, INRIA, IRD and the Tela Botanica network. It is an aid system for the automatic identification of plants from photos compared to images from a botanical database. The results allow us to find the botanical name and the number of species grow over time.
The app does not allow the identification of ornamental or horticultural plants and works best if photos of leaves are taken on a uniform / smooth background. The same group has Smart’Flore ( floristic.org ), a specific application for this type of demand.
5. Mushroom Identify
Mushroom Identify ( champignouf.com ), formerly Champignouf, is a mushroom identification application. If you tend to touch, plant or even consume mushrooms that you find out there, it is important to know what species they are. The app brings together more than 1,000. The project is still ongoing and the accuracy is not so good, but it will improve over time. Here’s the warning: don’t eat mushrooms if you’re not 100% sure they are edible. Always question your result and avoid eating what can be poisonous.
6. Flowerchecker
The FlowerChecker app uses real botanists to identify unknown plants.
You simply take a picture of an unknown plant (or moss, lichen, and even fungi) and send it to a team of experts, who will identify it for you.
The identification is not computer-based, real people are behind it. Perhaps, therefore, making it the most accurate of the apps. The app is available for download on PlayStore and App Store.
7. Plantifier
Plantifier is a free community-based plant image recognition app. It allows you to upload a photo of an unknown plant. The users of the MyGarden.org community behind this free tool will try to recognise the plant photo as soon as possible and give you an answer to your question. Available on the App store and for Android.
Also, try out the web based version via http://www.plantifier.com.
8. Leafsnap
When you discover a beautiful wildflower or unusual looking shrub, you struggle to discern its genus. Instead of wasting time trawling through websites or asking your gardener friends, why not simply take a snap and have an app do the work for you?
Leafsnap can currently recognize 90% of all known species of plants and trees, which covers most of the species you will encounter in every country on Earth.
The was developed by the University of Maryland, Smithsonian Institute and Columbia University. For the UK app, Leafsnap has partnered with the Natural History Museum in order to create a bank of images and to help with identifying tricky trees. It is available on PlayStore and App Store.
9. iPflanzen
Rather than using photographs to recognise plants/flowers, iPflanzen requires you to enter criteria such as leaf shape or fruit colour in order to figure out the mystery. In conjunction with their other apps – iGarten and iForest – extremely detailed and interesting information can easily be found.
Together these three applications are an ideal tool for identifying, selecting, and learning about a wide range of plants.
Approximately 1500 plants are available for identification. You can download it from App Store.
