Pl@ntNet is an iPhone and Android phone app that uses image recognition and crowd-sourcing to recognize plants. It’s free, so I downloaded a copy yesterday and ran around the yard to see how it works.
You take a closeup of a leaf, flower, fruit or bark and the app takes a guess on an identification. My first attempt was Nasturtium, which the app immediately identified despite my bad photo. It also correctly identified daffodils and got close to identifying Malva parviflora. It was not able to identify any of the California natives I tried, but I don’t think the program has a database of these plants yet.
Pl@ntNet is the work of four French research organizations who have a vision for a kind of expansive botanical citizen-science project. I can definitely see the potential for Pl@ntNet to create a huge database to track biodiversity, the effects of climate change and the distribution of plant species.
i applaud it loudly, and love it, mostly, so far. to your point about it being a citizen science issue, too, i find it funny that they didn’t simply add the folder for the american continent. they already have the software-infrastructure to allow for that, just like they do for india and whatever other folder they had beside the european one…rant over. looking forward to hearing more of your experiences with it in the future.
Was really excited about this but it doesn’t seem to cover the Pacific region (Australia) yet 🙁 Have downloaded to try it out anyway. Thanks for the post.
I tried it out yesterday. While it recognized Euphorbia and had some useful suggestions including the correct name for the Gorse, it didn’t recognize the blackberry at all. Do they not have Himalayan blackberry in Europe?
Oh yes, they have Himalayan blackberry in Europe. (shudder)
I’ve downloaded it and will play with it this weekend. Thanks for the heads-up!
A great idea … but in my test it didn’t find the right match in many cases. Maybe the plants in my garden are too exotic. An idea would be a similar app for identifying mushrooms.