You are identifying plant interests in almost every plant lover. Whether you want to know about the new houseplant, outdoor plant, or any plant you find on your walk, you can use your smartphone to know anything and everything about them. Also, by knowing what you have in your garden, you can take better care of them.
Having a plant identification app is very handy if you are passionate about plants or a wildlife explorer. There are many plant identification apps made for this purpose. In addition to essential plant recognition apps, some even identify flowers, trees, vegetables, medicinal plants, weeds, mushrooms, indoor plants, toxic plants, wildflowers, and many more. Moreover, you can also download some apps for plant care that give you watering reminders, garden management tips, etc.
However, here, you’ll see the six best plant identification apps every plant lover should know of.
If you’re looking for a free app that allows you to identify a plant merely by capturing its picture on your phone, you should try Plantagenet. The app groups all its images which are over one million, into “projects” named :
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- Thematic, including ornamental and cultivated plants;
- Geographical, covering plants from around the globe;
- Micro-projects such as specific flora of a particular, and perhaps very local region.
The app only identifies plants whose images are already uploaded by a user thus are present in its database. You can also browse the extensive directory of plants through family, genus, or species. However, it’s crucial to select the correct project, or else results won’t be accurate.
iNaturalist
Another free app for Android and iOS is iNaturalist. The app lets you know about any plant or animal from different parts of the world or close to your location. iNaturalist also provides the naturalists and explorers a community where they can connect and share their findings to understand better the scientists working to preserve nature.
Identification of a plant is confirmed through image recognition technology and other users. The app allows the users to explore a comprehensive database of plants and animals, insects, butterflies, etc. Suppose you don’t need any advanced features of the app. In that case, you can also download a simpler version of Seek, which also originated from iNaturalist.
Plantsnap
Available on both Android and iOS, Plantsnap works on an AI algorithm that requires you to take clear and crisp pictures of a flower or just a few leaves of any plant. Then, within a few seconds, the algorithm identifies the plants based on the image you’ve submitted.
However, the app is not entirely free as it has both free and a premium version. The free version allows you to take limited snaps daily along with a few ads. This should be enough if you are going to use the app occasionally. The premium version has no ads. In addition to plant identification, the app also gives you information about the plant’s size, maturity, genus, origin, and flowers.