How many times have you walked past a stranger’s house admiring their gardening skills and wanting the same plants they have for your newly established garden?
But you are too shy to ask them the name of the beautiful plant with the blue flowers. If this all hits too close to home, you have come to the right place.
This article lists down some of the best plant identification apps to help you develop your garden such that it is the talk of the town.
Best Plant Identification apps in 2022
We may not know botany or the information about all the latest trendy plants, but we sure always have our mobile phones in our pockets.
That is all we need, to identify the plants we have been admiring on the sidewalks (Or to prove someone wrong in the plant-related debate!). Some of the apps which identify the plants by just clicking a picture of them are listed below:
1. LeafSnap:
This is an app for identifying the plant by taking its picture. The app description claims this app can identify almost ninety percent of the plants.
It has a user-friendly interface which makes it easy to operate for a variety of people. You can click a picture of any one part of the plant you wish to identify- bark, leaf, flower, or fruit.
This app provides a list of matched results, and you can choose the one resembling the plant in front of your eyes the most.
This app has a free version as well as a premium one. Although there are not many differences between them, there are no ads in the premium version.
It is one of the best things about this app. The free version does not lack any features; the only problem is the ads (Although they are quite annoying!).
Pros:
- User-friendly application and is easier to use even for non-technical people.
- Large plant database.
- Advanced artificial technology support.
- Can identify plants from various parts.
Cons:
- The ads are distracting and frequent in the non-premium version.
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2. Google Lens
Most of you must be already familiar with this name. It is not a plant identification app per se, but a thing can serve two purposes.
Especially if it is Google, it can serve several purposes and all with flying colors. (Yes, you can use Google Lens for something other than scanning the questions for your assignment!).
Google has a vast database considering it has been around for such a long time, collecting and storing data.
It is where all the data storage comes to use. Using this entirely free lens, you can scan the plant to view all the related results.
But having the biggest database is not always a good thing. Since Google shows you all the related results, most of them are irrelevant to your research.
You need to see what is the most accurate match for your plant and proceed further. Google lens is not only beneficial for plant recognition; you can also use it to identify all sorts of things- plants, animals, objects, text, etc. And the best part is, it is free.
If you are using an Android phone, Google apps will already be there on your mobile. But if you are using IOS, you might want to download it from the store.
Pros:
- User friendly and familiar.
- Free of cost.
- Can identify all sorts of objects easily.
- Huge database.
Cons:
- It does not provide direct answers.
- It provides irrelevant results along with the correct ones.
3. Seek
This is a plant and animal identification app that has a largely populated database.
It is an excellent app for adventurous people who prefer to take the road less traveled by and come across several unknown (to them, not to the Seek database!) species that they are just fascinated by.
Identifying them before touching them is vital for your safety also as some plants secrete some poisonous material that might cause skin problems.
But with this app, you can know all about the plant you are like so much. Its database has a lot of data collected from public wildlife observations.
Pros:
- Free app.
- It is a new app, so it is constantly updating and improving.
- Huge database.
Cons:
- This app is not entirely accurate for all sorts of plants.
- It is a bit slow.
- It does not allow for user feedback after recognition.
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4. iNaturalist
iNaturalist and Seek are from the same company. This app bridges the gap between people with sufficient knowledge of plants and those people who wish to gain knowledge about those plants.
Scientists and researchers help feed the data into the database, and if some other user wishes to identify the plant that is part of the database, he can get a lot of information about this.
Users of the app are providing and confirming the data already present. This app works on both Android and IOS platforms.
It requires registration to use it but does not ask for any credit card information. It is entirely free of cost.
This app is more complicated to use than Seek. If you wish to identify the plants from their photos, I recommend using Seek instead of iNaturalist.
Pros:
- You can contribute your knowledge about a plant as well.
- 100 percent free app.
- Allows user feedback.
Cons:
- It is a bit complex to use.
5. PlantNet
This is another excellent app for plant identification and is free, by the way. You can upload an existing picture of a plant from your phone or capture it directly from the app.
This app can identify a plant from several parts of it. You can take a picture of leaves, flowers, bark, fruit, or habit of the plant and use this app to identify it.
It gives a list of plants having similarities to the picture you uploaded. You can choose the one that has the most resemblance to your picture.
Currently, this app can identify about 20,000 different species of plants, and its database is continuously expanding.
PlantNet is mainly known for providing information about lesser-known wild plants. But you can easily use it for recognizing household plants and trees (that you have been eyeing in your neighbor’s house for quite a while!).
Apart from recognizing the plants for you, PlantNet is also helpful for nature lovers who want to gain information about the flora in the surrounding and different parts of the world.
Pros:
- 100 percent free app.
- No ads.
- Links to numerous factsheets.
- Explore the plant species by family or genus.
Cons:
- Relatively smaller database.
- More preferred for wild lesser-known plant species.
6. Plantix
It is a new-age plant identifying app that is also a social media platform. It is a free plant identifying app that is available for the Android platform.
Along with the plant species, it also provides information about plant diseases and problems. This app helps connect people in remote areas to receive proper plant advice and provide good plant or crop care.
Using this app, users can click a picture of plant leaves or roots and get an instant diagnosis about the disease their crop has. It is done very precisely by an AI algorithm that compares the uploaded image against a broad data set.
Pros:
- Incredibly useful for farmers.
- It has a global reach, so you have several connections in the palm of your hands.
- It uses the latest technology and is fast evolving.
Cons:
- It is relatively new, so that you may encounter some bugs.
7. Flora Incognita
This app is a godsend for all the adventurous people, especially the ones who go camping in the forests of Central Europe.
For identification, you have to click a picture of the flower and the plant’s leaf, and it identifies it in seconds.
Additionally, it also provides some other information about the plant species, like its characteristics and distribution.
Another great thing about this app is it offers the functionality of sharing the information you found about a plant on various social media channels (which is especially great for the millennials interested in botany!).
One thing to keep in mind is that this app is not appropriate if you wish to identify garden plants or indoor plants.
It specifically helps to recognize wild plants of central Europe. It has a database of around 4800 plants of European flora.
So, this app is not for you if you wish to identify a beautiful indoor ornamental plant that does not belong to the Central European area.
Pros:
- Accurately recognizes the wild plants of European flora.
- Allows to save, export, and share your plant observations.
- Easy to use.
- Ad-free interface.
Cons:
- It has a small and limited database.
- You cannot use it for indoor ornamental plants.
FAQ
Is there a free app that identifies plants?
Answer: Yes. Several free apps identify plants. Some of the most common and trendy names are listed above.
Some of them are free, while others might have a paid version also. You can choose any one of the names mentioned above and see whichever suits you best.
You should know the type of plant you wish to identify and then appropriately choose the app.
For example, there are different apps for wild plants and indoor plants. Also, it is pretty easy to use these apps.
Is there an app that identifies plants by a picture?
Answer: Yes, some apps identify the plants by picture. Some of them are free, while others have a free trial and might require your credit card information.
The apps listed above can identify the plant by taking a picture of some part of it.
Some apps allow uploading the picture from the phone, while some allow clicking from the app. The apps listed above have different pros and cons, and you can select the one that fulfills all your requirements.
Conclusion
Who doesn’t love plants! You might be a gardener, a nature lover, an adventurous soul, or just an admirer of beauty.
Plants are appealing to all types of people- introverts and extroverts alike. These apps prove the famous saying – “Too much curiosity kills the cat.”; wrong. You can have the answers to your queries and the plant’s welfare at the tip of your fingers. Plus, those photos might be good to spruce up your Instagram timeline!