Do you know the name of the flowers you like? How about the name of the flowers or trees you walk by everyday on your commute to work, do you know their names? Well, now you can with the help of the plant identification apps below. I curated for you a collection of some of the best apps you and your students can use to identify plants, flowers, and trees by simply photographing them.
To identify a plant, install one of the apps below, take a picture of the plant or flower you are interested in using the camera of your mobile device and let the app do the work for you. In addition to identifying plants by pictures, these apps also offer gardening guides and tips to help you take good care of your plants and flowers.
Apart from PlantNet which is free, the other featured plant identifier apps offer in-app purchases and provide different monthly and yearly subscriptions.
1. PictureThis
PictureThis is a great plant identification app for both Android and iPhone/iPad. PictureThis makes use of an AI-powered plant identification system that makes it easy for users to identify plants, flowers, and trees. Simplly grab a photo of the plant you want to identify and PictureThis does the rest.
Besides identifying plants by pictures, PictureThis also offers plant guides to help users learn about how to care and grow healthy plants. The app also includes tools to help users record notes about their plans, set reminders and keep track of the growth of their plants.
2. PlantSnap
PlantSnap is another popular plant identification app that is available for Android and iPhone/iPad. Using PlantSnap you will be able to identify your plant among over 600.000 genres of plants, trees, flowers, mushrooms, and more. PlantSnap also offers tips and detailed instructions on how to care for your plants and leaves.
Additionally, PantSnap provides access a large community of plants lovers from over 200 countries. You can connect, share your discoveries, learn about what others share, get help with gardening tips, and more.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 4+
3. iPlant
iPlant is a plant identifier app that helps you easily recognize plants and flowers. Simply capture a photo of the plant you are interested in and iPlant uses its artificial technology to identify the plant.
You can also import your saved plant pictures and use them in the app to learn more about them. Other interesting features provided by this plant identifier app include automatic saving of identification records, search history records, share identified plants with others on social media, and many more.
4. PlantNet
PlantNet lets you identify plants by picture. As is the case with other plant identifier apps previously mentioned, PlantNet lets you identify plants by simply photographing them using your mobile device. PlantNet which works on Android and iPhone/iPad "is also a great citizen science project: all the plants you photograph are collected and analysed by scientists around the world to better understand the evolution of plant biodiversity and to better preserve it."
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 4+
4. LeafSnap
LeafSnap helps you recognize plants and flowers you come across by photographing them. The app can identify a wide variety of plants, trees, and flowers. LeafSnap also offers numerous helpful features to enhance your gardening knowledge and help you take good care of your plants.
Other interesting features provided by LeafSnap include a daily plant journal to document information about your plants, create collections of your favourite plants, keep track of plants in your collections, set reminders for plant cares, and many more.
Compatibility: iPhone/iPad and Android / Price: Free, offers in-app purchases / Age: 4+
5. Google Lens
Google Lens is another good option to use to identify plants and objects in the environment around you by photographing them. However, given that the app is generic in its scope, I don't think it can be as accurate as the plant identifier apps mentioned above. Also, Google Lens does not include gardening tips and rich botanical data that plant identifier apps provide. Nevertheless, Google Lens is a powerful app that is worth trying.
Compatibility: Android 6.0 and up / Price: Free / Age: Everyone
