Plant ID apps... Do they work?
We all get stuck identifying plants at some point. Geoff Hodge reveals the smart phone apps that can help
Gone are the days when, if you wanted to identify a plant in your garden, your only hope was to invite a nerdy horticultural friend over for dinner and casually drop it into the conversation. With the arrival of the digital age, we can ask an expert via social media, or send a polite email to our nerdy friend instead. This is all well and good if the recipient doesn’t mind helping us out; nowadays, it’s much quicker and easier to let technology do the donkey work, by uploading the photo to a plant recognition app on your smart phone or tablet.
These apps are simple to use: once you’ve downloaded one, open it and take a photo of your mystery plant. Press the ‘Done’ or ‘Upload’ button and wait for a reply. Or, if the plant photo is already stored on your device, you can usually select that too. Within a very short time, usually, suggestions as to the plant’s true identity arrive on your phone screen.
Good apps get really close to the correct ID; others, alas, often get it wrong, which could lead you to pruning, watering or planting it incorrectly.
Sadly, none of the apps I tried got very near to providing the exact cultivar name, but they were fairly good at the genus and species.
This is probably the apps’ main drawback: uploading a photo of a rose or rhododendron cultivar, only to be told it’s a ‘rose’ or a ‘rhododendron’, isn’t great if you want to know exactly which one it is. The success of these apps depends on the quality of the data you put in. If you send a dark, fuzzy photo of a plant 10m/30ft away, it’s highly unlikely any app (or human for that matter) will be able to identify it. So, to improve your chances of a correct ID:
● Show the whole plant.
Take a photo that represents the entire plant and include all relevant details
● Make sure it’s sharp. Make sure the plant is in focus, well lit and in the centre of the picture area (some apps let you reframe the composition before sending)
● Include flowers and foliage. Send a pic with the plant in flower, rather than just a couple of leaves or a bare stem in winter. A few apps do have a leaf – as well as bark or fruit – filter.
I tried each app on 10 different plant images (see below) – or as many ‘freebies’ as I was allowed before being forced to subscribe and pay out some hard cash.
All those listed can be downloaded for iOS (iPhone) from the Apple App Store and for Android phones from Google Play.
I’ve disregarded any apps where you have to pay upfront, although most offer additional in-app purchases, such as info on how to look after the plant. The cost is often offered as a subscription, starting at £3.49/month. I doubt anyone has so many plants to ID that they want to pay a hefty monthly or annual fee! But if you do, gather all your plant photos together and do your ID’ing as quickly as possible, during the free days. ➤
If you send a dark, fuzzy photo, it’s highly unlikely any app will identify it!