BOTANY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Are you the kind of person who packs the car the moment you hear the spring-flower spectacle has started, but for the life of you cannot remember all the flower names? John Manning’s popular Photo Guide to the Wildflowers of South Africa, with photos and step-by-step identification of more than 900 wildflowers in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia, is now available as an app for your iPhone, iPad or iPod. ( The Android version will be available later this year.)

Say you’re in the veld, see a flower and wonder what its name is – or perhaps you’re simply curious about it. You select the flower colour, the month and the region where you are (grassland, savannah, fynbos or Namaqualand). A short list of possible species will appear on your screen, with clear pictures and distribution maps to make it even easier to identify the flower.

You’re also given the plant species name in several languages, as well as a description of the species, flowering time, habitat and an interesting fact or two. The flower species you have now identified can also be marked automatically in the app using your GPS location.

Once you have installed the app, you don’t need an Internet connection to use it. The app is updated regularly at no charge. R360 from the iTunes store

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