Phone app for Plant ID

March 12, 2021 11:35 AM

What are good phone apps for quickly identifying plants? Ideally, I could snap a picture of a plant, tree, flower or such and the app would identify the plant and offer basic info about planting or care.

Or, if you've tried this and find that apps just don't work well, that's good information, too.

posted by mightshould to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

I've had fair success using Seek. It's in partnership with Nat Geo and the California Academy of Sciences.
posted by Carillon at 11:47 AM on March 12, 2021 [5 favorites]

I use Planta and have had good luck with it.
posted by smich at 11:50 AM on March 12, 2021

I also think you might like Seek, by the same team that does iNaturalist.

The species included in Seek are based entirely on photos and identifications made by the global iNaturalist community, comprised of enthusiasts and professionals. All of your findings made with Seek are private, will not be shared publicly. You don’t even have to create an account to use the app.

If you're getting really into it and you'd like to share your findings and contribute to community science iNaturalist can help you do that.

Oh, I just noticed that you'd like info on planting and care, too. The apps above are more for id than for care.
posted by Guess What at 11:54 AM on March 12, 2021

/r/whatisthisplant on Reddit. You do have to explain what zone you found it in, and rough location, and relative size?
posted by kschang at 11:55 AM on March 12, 2021

I use Seek, iNaturalist and PlantSnap
posted by shesdeadimalive at 11:59 AM on March 12, 2021

We use Picture This to identify plants. It gives you some general care information. It seems pretty accurate, based on the times I've taken test pictures of plants I could already identify.
posted by belladonna at 1:27 PM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

I find PictureThis to be more accurate than Seek. It's $20 annual subscription (7 day free trial) but I sprung for it on the recommendation of a friend and I've gotten a lot of use out of it.
posted by drlith at 3:50 PM on March 12, 2021

Try Dave'sGarden.com. They've been around for 20+ years, and I've yet to stump them on anything growing, and we have some pretty unusual flora around here. I usually take a picture with the phone and upload it.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 4:51 PM on March 13, 2021

I use Google lens to id plants, birds, anything. Its AI powered. I use it within the Google photos app on my phone. I open a pic, and then click on the little camera-ish icon just to the left of the trash icon and it instantly gives me an image/description(s) for the image, with a link to related reference pages (Wikipedia, etc.) Usually it's very accurate and fast. Sometimes it gives a few choices if the image isn't great. Really amazing!
posted by j810c at 2:26 PM on March 14, 2021

I use Picture This and you don’t actually have to pay a subscription, they just make it look that way - on the screen that asks you to subscribe, there’s a well-hidden cross in the corner that you can use to just close the page and continue free with the app.

You might need to subscribe for the full plant care advice, but you can certainly ID plants indefinitely for free.
posted by penguin pie at 7:07 AM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I have been using seek and picture this. It's early in the comparison of the two, so I will update later.
posted by mightshould at 3:48 PM on June 26, 2021

Response by poster: I settled on Seek; it gives me enough information that I can go from there. It does have some problems with identifying obscure native plants.
posted by mightshould at 7:53 AM on August 10, 2021