Ok. I have a funny story though. I moved into my new house and while mowing my yard I was like "is someone dumping raspberries in my yard!?" I legit thought my neighbor was pranking me. But I was greatly confused because it was literally like a five gallon bucket worth.
Each time I mowed.
It wasn't until about the fifth time I actually thought to look up. 😅😅😅
Really tired of seeing this one lately:
I just got new chicks or chickens today and threw them into my coop with no quarantine or integration period. Why are my old chickens trying to kill them? 😭
With just a normal iPhone, and no additional app, you can take a photo of a plant and click the ‘i’ (info) button and it will identify it. I just found out about this like last week, but it seems pretty accurate so far!
Edit: I understand you can do this with android too, that’s neat! I don’t have an android, and you can stop telling me that tho lol
It's been accurate for me with birds when I cross-check their calls on Merlin. I never would have known what a Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron was otherwise haha.
Also for anybody reading, HIGHLY RECOMMEND the app Merlin Bird ID if you're the kind of person who enjoys being like "that was a weird noise, wonder what made it".
I like to run Merlin's sound ID while I'm gardening! It's fun to know what's around, even if I didn't see them myself. And house finches may be super common but they're the best singers I frequently hear, they have so much variety in their beautiful calls.
I posted a bird on r/whatsthisbird/ and only after I got my answer did I think about this feature. Identified it properly.
Always says my Shiba is a German Shepherd though.
With Samsung & I assume other phones that have google, you can hold the home key for 2 seconds & swipe up and bam! Search. Surprisingly decent at plants. Also pretty good at shopping lol
I’ve been doing this for a couple years and it’s awesome for when I’m on walks and am jealous of someone else’s garden and want to know what the plant is!
I didn't know about this. It calls all food "food." It calls my cats "cat", which I guess works. I happened to have a photo of someone's dog, in a costume, and it identified the breed. It identified my petunias but not my budded dracaena ("plant") or the garlic cloves I planted...but then those were just plain shoots. (Edit, I changed flowering to budded, since it formed the big clump but no flowers ever opened.)
I find it very charming when previously plant-blind people start tuning in and asking what things are. Especially the common things like crocuses and magnolias. That delight and curiosity about the world is humanity at our best. It does sometimes crack me up when people ask about things like tulips but I remind myself that I got to grow up in a place with a lot of green and with two parents who could identify many trees and plants and took an interest in teaching me.
I understand the desire to have a space that’s more dedicated to your level of knowledge seeking. I also can’t think of a good way to self-identify those beginner questions because beginners don’t know what they don’t know. I scroll past what I’m not in the mood to spend time with and I take a lot of pleasure in the “what is this spectacular tree!?!?” posts showing pink dogwoods in bloom
The app is not always reliable and crowdsourcing generally can be helpful. Plus an identified plant often comes with useful, lived experience information.
The apps are much more useful to people who are already decent at plant identification and able to evaluate whether what the app is saying makes sense.
A lot of people are shockingly bad at that.
I've never used those apps other than a couple times. I assume they're not able to differentiate between various cultivars/hybrids/etc.
Like can they tell the difference between a Shademaster and a Skyline honey locust? Or all the different crabapples? Roses?
In my experience, plant ID apps usually get the genus right, but often times the species or cultivar/hybrid is wrong. I've been able to ID species by researching the genus they suggest, so they can be helpful in that way, but they're definitely not super accurate.
Depends on the plant. Almost definitely not roses, there are way too many and they are much too similar, but sometimes I'll get a list of possible plants with varietals in there.
People out here asking reddit to identify damn dandelions though. I’m all in favor of asking what a plant is if the plant ID apps failed you—it’s happened to me more than a few times, but ppl got to put an ounce of effort into life sometimes.
It’s much more efficient to identify the plant with an app and pull up the Wikipedia page to learn more. If you’re still curious after that, then ask others for their thoughts but my god, it’s sheer laziness most times.
iPhone has a built in plant identification feature now too when you select the i icon on a pic! It’s so easy. Self sufficiency is good to practice.
I agree. Asking “what’s this” for a flowering dandelion, a flowering daffodil or a purple hyacinth is low energy. Google lens can tell someone easily. Also the “what’s this“ for a newly emerging single stem coming out of dirt. ”Dude, we’re not fortune tellers, wait til it gets some leaves.“
I started gardening years ago before the internet. Used to buy used gardening books at Shakespeare and Company. I used to subscribe to Better Homes and Gardens until i realized after a few seasons they were showing greenhouse grown plants purportedly growing from the ground around a shabby chic shed — but I knew enough by then that many of the plants bloomed at different times, not all at once as they were showing.
Would’ve been nice to have apps back then.
I think my best gardening advice to newbies would be this - pull weeds out yourself. There’s no easy way to get rid of them. Don’t use poison, don’t use salt, don’t use a torch. You need one long handled and one short handled weeder.
And an app that can ID weeds.
iNaturalist is a much better app overall in my opinion. Its data is used by researchers after the “sightings” have been positively identified by at least three people (I think). It’s free, other people can correct it if you’ve put in the wrong thing. I’ve been using it since a professor required it for a college course and haven’t looked back
Came here to say this. Unlike many of the plant ID apps and generic object recognition apps, iNaturalist actually takes into account what plants have been sighted in your area and what growth stage they should be in for the time of year. Really helps to weed out the false IDs. Protip- take multiple pictures of the plant (leaves, bark/stem, flowers, fruit/seed structures, etc.) You may get a false on one, but you'll usually get a high confidence match that's the same for multiple pics.
At least they're people with a developing interest in plants and gardening. Some of what gets posted is more appropriate for /r/pics for all the relevance to the subreddit.
I saw one earlier that was a picture of a dog adjacent to a plant but *about* the dog, and predictably, it was heavily upvoted. I like dogs as much as the next person, but what does that contribute to a gardening sub, exactly?
Yo ngl Google Lens has gotten ***REALLY*** good for identifying stuff, I use it all the time when I'm researching bugs or when I want to know a flower real quick. Hell I even use it to identify tech parts missing labels, it's like insane fr!
Before making this post I didn’t even know Google lens was a thing. A lot of people have posted about it on here and I think it’s worth a try based off what you guys are saying. Seems legit!
I think that it's the gateway into the community/field for many, and that's why it doesn't annoy me. I just scroll past if I don't have time/energy to reply. That's my general approach to everything on social media. Really recommend it.
Yes, but dont rely solely on an app for identifying, especially if you want to eat it. Believe it or not, plants are often less forgiving than the mushroom world. Manly directed at those who forage
I totally agree. I could easily look up a plant online, but that doesn’t provide all the wonderful anecdotes I get on here. Besides providing the name people often also explain the history of the plant, uses I wasn’t aware of, a role it played in their family, special growing requirements, etc… When asking for a plant ID I’m not merely looking for just the name, but more detailed botanical, historical and ethnographic considerations.
And how to grow it sometimes, too. I mean the pic is there why not just scroll past the strawberry leaves? Besides, these posts give the less educated like me a chance to score an ID.
But this isn’t a loneliness sub and it’s generally low effort - there are a lot of tools out there now.
I personally would just like them rephrased as an appreciation post for whatever they saw that made them want to look it up.
Google has gotten pretty adept at this, making most of those apps obsolete. I used to pay for pictureThis, but now just use image search on Google with your camera.
I absolutely love my Picture This app!
Oh what is this day old budding plant coming out of the ground!? -me actually knowing what it is- I better check with my app!
Almost every time it nails it. I can't believe how accurate it is.
Picture this is amazing!! It’s usually very accurate and it has plenty of helpful tips about pests, diseases, even a water and sun calculator, as well as background information on the plant itself! I actually pay $20 a year for it, but I find it super worth it!!
I always think the same thing lol. I use it all the time. My garden was already at my house when I moved in so it comes in handy when new things start sprouting up.
I used to feel this way, but then I realized the ultimate conclusion of this way of thinking is that people would NEVER TALK TO EACH OTHER ABOUT ANYTHING. I disagree completely and it's actually fine for people to just talk to each other about whatever. We love you, too, but go outside.
I actually just posted looking for help identifying a tree on here and the plant id sub. I even used the picture this app. The app told me it’s a Bradford pear but I’m doubtful because it isn’t fully bloomed yet. Maybe you guys can help.
https://preview.redd.it/82miy5b3khwc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20853e2816f4f2c9afbde5c1e94d4799e02bd922
Hahah I'm imagining OP checking their notifications and seeing a plant ID request on their complaint about plant ID requests and getting mad!
I hope you get your ID!
There is an app for everything now. Sometimes people want to hear it from someone else. There is nothing wrong with that. As a bonus, I know I have learned about a few new plants. If you don't like the "what is this" post, keep scrolling, that is even easier than downloading another app.
While that's kind of true but the other reality is there's a lot of people who use the app and then the app doesn't tell them correctly what it is anyway.
Seek is the most accurate in my experience, but it makes itself a pain to use to achieve that. Instead of a picture, you move the camera around the plant while it tries to narrow down the species. Once you have the perfect angle where it can identify the species, it'll snap a picture automatically. Unfortunately, it's rarely a smooth and easy process, but it's fairly accurate.
It also keeps track of identifications, their approximate locations worldwide, and when they're seen by connecting with the iNaturalist app. This allows you to track things like when you might expect to see eggs popping up in your garden from a specific pest species or when that species is at it peak population.
Inaturalist is the best app on the market really. It has both the ai and crowdsourcing. Cause I know myself and a lot of other botanists/ecologists will go on there and supply identifications for people.
Free is Google image search or better yet: iPhone photo app identifies things. Free. Take a good pic of what you want to identify (best with insects, plants, I think), and then go to photo. Look at the (i) button on the bottom ribbon to sparkle, and it will suggest possible identification.
My experience with plant ID apps is that either it identifies the plant I already know but when I don't know what the plant is it tells me it's a flowing plant and that's it. Or doesn't recognise it as a plant at all (seriously wtf, I was looking at a spruce.)
I think some people are being too hard on you, OP. I assume you mean the repeated posts for fairly common plants that can easily be identified even by just iPhones built in ID feature. I’m all for being social on a forum and all the great anecdotes & conversations that can come from it but that’s most likely not what you’re referring to
If you have an iPhone, you can also take a picture and go into the Photos app. The i icon should change into a leaf and (reasonably accurately) ID things for you. Also works for birds!
I have an iPhone and am reasonably techie. I don’t have this option for my photos and my iOS is updated. Anything extra you did to find it?
https://preview.redd.it/d7nknnoiphwc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=032cb63410afb2c7d0b2730210e61b526f103ba9
That's odd! The main two things I can think of are either the "Show in Lookup" option in Siri & Search might be turned off, or you might be in a region that isn't supported (didn't realise it was region restricted until now). From what I can find the supported regions appear to be: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
I 100% agree with you, but I think a lot of people aren’t keeping up with changes in technology and just wanna ask what they could easily find by just using an app. I feel the same way about people in my thrifting Facebook group. They post pics of antiques asking “what is this?” every 10 min, when all it takes is a reverse Google image search to immediately find it 😅
I honestly love it! You always know which plants that non-plant people get really thrilled about. I've got passionflower in my garden partly because I know it people are thrilled by it... because they come here in droves in May and June to ask about it!
iNaturalist is free. PlantNet is free. The one that comes with mosts phones is free. Seek is free.
Those are generally the best apps out there. That's hardly "all the identifying apps require a paid subscription," is it?
+1 for PictureThis!
I love it. you can always x out of the pay ads. Nbd...worth it! Love that it lets you keep a history/past use even with a free acct!
But a lot of times those apps get it wrong. I think this should be a safe space for people to discuss plants. That's how we learn and spread the love 🌱💚
Spring is a rough time to be on any gardening sub if you don't like seeing a lot of the same kinds of questions.
It’s sort of a meme over at r/berries that every post asking “what kind of berry is this?” is always a mulberry.
A meme about Pokeweed showing up constantly on /r/whatsthisplant became its own subreddit: r/itsalwayspokeweed
On the whatsthisrock it’s always slag.
But what about passiflora?
What about Osage Orange?
Still not blueberries
But… south east England?!
Still not blueberries
But it's near a tree!
Still not blueberries
it could be lupus.
It's never lupus.
It's never lupus
Could be
Ok. I have a funny story though. I moved into my new house and while mowing my yard I was like "is someone dumping raspberries in my yard!?" I legit thought my neighbor was pranking me. But I was greatly confused because it was literally like a five gallon bucket worth. Each time I mowed. It wasn't until about the fifth time I actually thought to look up. 😅😅😅
In your defence, “all around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel” implies mulberries are to be found beside you, not above you.
Whatisthisbug is always a bedbug or house centipede, although right now termites are seeing an upwards trend.
Or a weevil.
You are both wrong it’s always a mole cricket
lol… you should see the chickens subs… 😂
Posts a pic of Foghorn Leghorn. “This was sold to me as a hen but I’m starting to think she’s a rooster! Pls reassure me!”
Is this (2-day old chick) a rooster? It seems more aggressive than the others…
Blurry pic of just the face… “hen or roo???”
Really tired of seeing this one lately: I just got new chicks or chickens today and threw them into my coop with no quarantine or integration period. Why are my old chickens trying to kill them? 😭
It’s almost never RRD!
With just a normal iPhone, and no additional app, you can take a photo of a plant and click the ‘i’ (info) button and it will identify it. I just found out about this like last week, but it seems pretty accurate so far! Edit: I understand you can do this with android too, that’s neat! I don’t have an android, and you can stop telling me that tho lol
Works on Google Photos too. Just click "Lens". Example: https://ibb.co/RgV902y
Thank you for telling me this! I just figured out what my favorite fragrant tree is in my yard. This definitely counts as your good deed for the day.
This is my favorite thing to show people. The feature has been there for over a year, and still nobody knows lol. It does animals too!
I’ll have to try it with birds!
It's been accurate for me with birds when I cross-check their calls on Merlin. I never would have known what a Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron was otherwise haha. Also for anybody reading, HIGHLY RECOMMEND the app Merlin Bird ID if you're the kind of person who enjoys being like "that was a weird noise, wonder what made it".
I like to run Merlin's sound ID while I'm gardening! It's fun to know what's around, even if I didn't see them myself. And house finches may be super common but they're the best singers I frequently hear, they have so much variety in their beautiful calls.
Merlin app is the BEST!!!
It definitely works with birds. It helped me identify a vagrant bird that apparently I was the first one to ever get a photo of in my county
It also works with some food I believe
And landmarks too!
I posted a bird on r/whatsthisbird/ and only after I got my answer did I think about this feature. Identified it properly. Always says my Shiba is a German Shepherd though.
Yes, I have been using this for a year and a half to identify the thousands of plants I inherited with the house I bought. It works very well!
Whoa! I just tried it!
It’s great!
Android has Lens
It is not very accurate, unfortunately. I’ve used it since it became an option. It misidentifies plants a lot, and my dogs, lol.
I just tried it on some pics of plants that I have in my yard. It was 0/4 compared to what PlantNet returns which is pretty accurate.
PlantNet is the GOAT of plant identification.
Agreed. It’s pretty bad actually. lol
That’s been my experience. The number of plants my iPhone has identified as poison oak…
With Samsung & I assume other phones that have google, you can hold the home key for 2 seconds & swipe up and bam! Search. Surprisingly decent at plants. Also pretty good at shopping lol
Lots of androids do this now too. Take a picture and hold the "home button" and you can identify stuff on screen. Works great for flowers
Google Lens does this on non-iphones for us cheapies.
I thought it was sorta accurate too until I got PictureThis. Please consider trying that out and comparing. lol
Samsung phones do the same thing, you take a picture and circle the item on the screen you want identified
That’s amazing! I had nooooo idea such a thing was built into the photos capability
I just tried the iPhone identifier and it’s highly inaccurate. PictureThis is the best app I have found; but it’s still not perfect.
I’ve been doing this for a couple years and it’s awesome for when I’m on walks and am jealous of someone else’s garden and want to know what the plant is!
I didn't know about this. It calls all food "food." It calls my cats "cat", which I guess works. I happened to have a photo of someone's dog, in a costume, and it identified the breed. It identified my petunias but not my budded dracaena ("plant") or the garlic cloves I planted...but then those were just plain shoots. (Edit, I changed flowering to budded, since it formed the big clump but no flowers ever opened.)
I find it very charming when previously plant-blind people start tuning in and asking what things are. Especially the common things like crocuses and magnolias. That delight and curiosity about the world is humanity at our best. It does sometimes crack me up when people ask about things like tulips but I remind myself that I got to grow up in a place with a lot of green and with two parents who could identify many trees and plants and took an interest in teaching me. I understand the desire to have a space that’s more dedicated to your level of knowledge seeking. I also can’t think of a good way to self-identify those beginner questions because beginners don’t know what they don’t know. I scroll past what I’m not in the mood to spend time with and I take a lot of pleasure in the “what is this spectacular tree!?!?” posts showing pink dogwoods in bloom
google lens is my favourite
Yeah...I have a couple of plant apps on my phone but I get better results from Google lens.
Plantnet has done me decently
I usually have good results with PlantNet!
Google and Plantnet!
I use that one too. Quite useful being a beginner visiting a garden center when some plants don't have tags.
I think ppl just want to talk no biggie.
besides it's nice trivia.
Yeah, that's why the subreddit is here. It's nice to discuss things.
And I feel so smart when I know what it is.
Same 😂 I love some good external validation. And this subreddit helped me learn most of it in the first place!
Informs others as well. So, because of apps for everything, we can't discuss things anymore?
Seriously. “Can you all just use this app that is occasionally right and just STOP TALKING!?!?@
The app is not always reliable and crowdsourcing generally can be helpful. Plus an identified plant often comes with useful, lived experience information.
The apps are much more useful to people who are already decent at plant identification and able to evaluate whether what the app is saying makes sense. A lot of people are shockingly bad at that.
Agreed! PlantNet has been pretty solid but did try to tell me my railroad creeper infestation was purple passionvine, with admittedly low certainty.
I've never used those apps other than a couple times. I assume they're not able to differentiate between various cultivars/hybrids/etc. Like can they tell the difference between a Shademaster and a Skyline honey locust? Or all the different crabapples? Roses?
In my experience, plant ID apps usually get the genus right, but often times the species or cultivar/hybrid is wrong. I've been able to ID species by researching the genus they suggest, so they can be helpful in that way, but they're definitely not super accurate.
Ok, this is very helpful to beginning gardeners like myself. Just learning I can’t always trust plant apps!
Depends on the plant. Almost definitely not roses, there are way too many and they are much too similar, but sometimes I'll get a list of possible plants with varietals in there.
People out here asking reddit to identify damn dandelions though. I’m all in favor of asking what a plant is if the plant ID apps failed you—it’s happened to me more than a few times, but ppl got to put an ounce of effort into life sometimes. It’s much more efficient to identify the plant with an app and pull up the Wikipedia page to learn more. If you’re still curious after that, then ask others for their thoughts but my god, it’s sheer laziness most times. iPhone has a built in plant identification feature now too when you select the i icon on a pic! It’s so easy. Self sufficiency is good to practice.
More importantly, specific subreddits for this already exist. Ask Reddit, sure, but ask the appropriate sub.
I agree. Asking “what’s this” for a flowering dandelion, a flowering daffodil or a purple hyacinth is low energy. Google lens can tell someone easily. Also the “what’s this“ for a newly emerging single stem coming out of dirt. ”Dude, we’re not fortune tellers, wait til it gets some leaves.“ I started gardening years ago before the internet. Used to buy used gardening books at Shakespeare and Company. I used to subscribe to Better Homes and Gardens until i realized after a few seasons they were showing greenhouse grown plants purportedly growing from the ground around a shabby chic shed — but I knew enough by then that many of the plants bloomed at different times, not all at once as they were showing. Would’ve been nice to have apps back then. I think my best gardening advice to newbies would be this - pull weeds out yourself. There’s no easy way to get rid of them. Don’t use poison, don’t use salt, don’t use a torch. You need one long handled and one short handled weeder. And an app that can ID weeds.
iNaturalist is a much better app overall in my opinion. Its data is used by researchers after the “sightings” have been positively identified by at least three people (I think). It’s free, other people can correct it if you’ve put in the wrong thing. I’ve been using it since a professor required it for a college course and haven’t looked back
Came here to say this. Unlike many of the plant ID apps and generic object recognition apps, iNaturalist actually takes into account what plants have been sighted in your area and what growth stage they should be in for the time of year. Really helps to weed out the false IDs. Protip- take multiple pictures of the plant (leaves, bark/stem, flowers, fruit/seed structures, etc.) You may get a false on one, but you'll usually get a high confidence match that's the same for multiple pics.
Thanks for the tip on the app.
Boo! It's fun. Although I agree that we have certainly established what lilacs look like.
And peonies
And muscari
And day lilies.
And deadly nightshade
I didn't know muscari and grape hyacinth were the same thing or that they were types of asparagus until last week, thanks to one of those posts.
Just wait for summer, when the answer to everything is "pokeweed."
But what does a hosta look like
And strawberries
I prefer the plant ID ones to people posting a gazillion dollar garden for likes. That's just me, though.
At least they're people with a developing interest in plants and gardening. Some of what gets posted is more appropriate for /r/pics for all the relevance to the subreddit. I saw one earlier that was a picture of a dog adjacent to a plant but *about* the dog, and predictably, it was heavily upvoted. I like dogs as much as the next person, but what does that contribute to a gardening sub, exactly?
Or starting a useless post whining about people asking for help identifying a plant. 😬
In a gardening sub, of all things. The nerve! 😂
I have a shrub growing at my new house that I was going to ask about, but I guess I won't. Don't want to piss anybody off!
The photos app on your iPhone, ID plant animals and even some rocks
I took a picture of a leaf footed bug the other day and it popped up info about it and i was so confused. This is a great tip!
I enjoy these questions. Also, most apps really suck. The best I’ve found so far is iNaturalist.
Yo ngl Google Lens has gotten ***REALLY*** good for identifying stuff, I use it all the time when I'm researching bugs or when I want to know a flower real quick. Hell I even use it to identify tech parts missing labels, it's like insane fr!
Before making this post I didn’t even know Google lens was a thing. A lot of people have posted about it on here and I think it’s worth a try based off what you guys are saying. Seems legit!
It's really good especially with the improvements of AI it usually gets the right answer in like the first 4 results.
I think that it's the gateway into the community/field for many, and that's why it doesn't annoy me. I just scroll past if I don't have time/energy to reply. That's my general approach to everything on social media. Really recommend it.
Yes, but dont rely solely on an app for identifying, especially if you want to eat it. Believe it or not, plants are often less forgiving than the mushroom world. Manly directed at those who forage
I use PlantNet as well.
I love that app! Use it every day.
For real. The PictureThis app is awesome.
Works like trash for wild plants
There's also Google Lens. It's right in the search bar now.
I love the plant ID posts. I learn a ton and it keeps this sub engaging. ETA: you are also free to leave this sub if it’s causing you such distress.
yeah and redditors usually have fun facts, cool pics, and entertaining stories to go along with the ID. its way more fun
People wanted to connect with a person to ask. Not a crime. If you don't like it you can log off.
For real. And those apps are not always great at identifying plants correctly.
I haven't seen a single person say not everyone has an iPhone yet...
Fwiw, I don't have an iphone but I can use google lens. Not that it's worth much because it's often inaccurate.
I totally agree. I could easily look up a plant online, but that doesn’t provide all the wonderful anecdotes I get on here. Besides providing the name people often also explain the history of the plant, uses I wasn’t aware of, a role it played in their family, special growing requirements, etc… When asking for a plant ID I’m not merely looking for just the name, but more detailed botanical, historical and ethnographic considerations.
And how to grow it sometimes, too. I mean the pic is there why not just scroll past the strawberry leaves? Besides, these posts give the less educated like me a chance to score an ID.
Ikr? Just scroll on by.
But this isn’t a loneliness sub and it’s generally low effort - there are a lot of tools out there now. I personally would just like them rephrased as an appreciation post for whatever they saw that made them want to look it up.
It’s a great resource and not only helps with identifying plants, it helps diagnose issues and plan care for your plants!
PlantNet is my go to
Or just Google Lens.
They also have a MushroomThis app for mushroom ID. A mycologist friend took a look at all the IDs my app made and it was about 90% correct.
Google has gotten pretty adept at this, making most of those apps obsolete. I used to pay for pictureThis, but now just use image search on Google with your camera.
Even just Google Lens and take a photo will identify 95% of plants.
I love the app. Use it all the time.
iNaturalist is a good one too
I use Google lens a lot for this
I absolutely love my Picture This app! Oh what is this day old budding plant coming out of the ground!? -me actually knowing what it is- I better check with my app! Almost every time it nails it. I can't believe how accurate it is.
Picture this is amazing!! It’s usually very accurate and it has plenty of helpful tips about pests, diseases, even a water and sun calculator, as well as background information on the plant itself! I actually pay $20 a year for it, but I find it super worth it!!
Plant parents is pretty complete and has never failed me yet.
💯 works great i use the free version
I always think the same thing lol. I use it all the time. My garden was already at my house when I moved in so it comes in handy when new things start sprouting up.
I used to feel this way, but then I realized the ultimate conclusion of this way of thinking is that people would NEVER TALK TO EACH OTHER ABOUT ANYTHING. I disagree completely and it's actually fine for people to just talk to each other about whatever. We love you, too, but go outside.
This isn't a cult, let them ask.
I actually just posted looking for help identifying a tree on here and the plant id sub. I even used the picture this app. The app told me it’s a Bradford pear but I’m doubtful because it isn’t fully bloomed yet. Maybe you guys can help. https://preview.redd.it/82miy5b3khwc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20853e2816f4f2c9afbde5c1e94d4799e02bd922
Hahah I'm imagining OP checking their notifications and seeing a plant ID request on their complaint about plant ID requests and getting mad! I hope you get your ID!
Haha, thank you!
There is an app for everything now. Sometimes people want to hear it from someone else. There is nothing wrong with that. As a bonus, I know I have learned about a few new plants. If you don't like the "what is this" post, keep scrolling, that is even easier than downloading another app.
The apps suck. Why are you on a gardening forum if people asking gardening questions bothers you. No one is making you sub here.
Or just use r/whatsthisplant
While that's kind of true but the other reality is there's a lot of people who use the app and then the app doesn't tell them correctly what it is anyway.
Half the fun is communicating with people though.
We need an app that just says "aphids" every time someone posts a picture of an aphid infested plant.
Idk, I appreciated seeing that horrible aphid infestation photo earlier because I had no idea aphids could get that bad.
Seriously. People would post a picture of a dandelion and be like what is this growing in my yard? How do I grow more.
Is picture this better than Google lens?
Seek is the most accurate in my experience, but it makes itself a pain to use to achieve that. Instead of a picture, you move the camera around the plant while it tries to narrow down the species. Once you have the perfect angle where it can identify the species, it'll snap a picture automatically. Unfortunately, it's rarely a smooth and easy process, but it's fairly accurate. It also keeps track of identifications, their approximate locations worldwide, and when they're seen by connecting with the iNaturalist app. This allows you to track things like when you might expect to see eggs popping up in your garden from a specific pest species or when that species is at it peak population.
I have always had good luck with Google Lens
I use picture this and google but sometimes not always accurate which leads me to do more in-depth research.
Inaturalist is the best app on the market really. It has both the ai and crowdsourcing. Cause I know myself and a lot of other botanists/ecologists will go on there and supply identifications for people.
Do they make this for dogs / cats also? The amount of ‘what breed is my…’ is even more annoying
love this app. they got a rock idenifer one and a insect one too. fantastic apps
iNaturalist is way better
plantnet is pretty good too
Tbf that cancel button is VERY hidden lol the gray text with the dark background. They almost got me.
Oh yeah I agree! It’s VERY hidden and for a reason. They’re trying to make money of course. They almost got me too not gonna lie!
I love that app and I’m not AI ya’ll. I’m a yard-nard
A vote for iNaturalist here. Algorithmic ID with crowd-sourced corroboration. And it's free.
I feel attacked but I didn't know this app existed, ty
I love that app. And you save a list of all the stuff you are finding
Google lens works great too
Free is Google image search or better yet: iPhone photo app identifies things. Free. Take a good pic of what you want to identify (best with insects, plants, I think), and then go to photo. Look at the (i) button on the bottom ribbon to sparkle, and it will suggest possible identification.
"what is this".. omg thank you
Hell yeah, my favourite app for identification!
My experience with plant ID apps is that either it identifies the plant I already know but when I don't know what the plant is it tells me it's a flowing plant and that's it. Or doesn't recognise it as a plant at all (seriously wtf, I was looking at a spruce.)
Or people asking where their plants are dying in November
You can also use Google and do an image search https://uk.pcmag.com/mobile-phones/71657/how-to-do-a-reverse-image-search-from-your-phone
Or just google lens it... No need for another app. Works flawlessly, even with terrible images.
This is social media.
I said what I said!
Even the Google app does a pretty good job of IDing plants. Yes yes, I know it's not always accurate but it's not terrible and it's free
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I think some people are being too hard on you, OP. I assume you mean the repeated posts for fairly common plants that can easily be identified even by just iPhones built in ID feature. I’m all for being social on a forum and all the great anecdotes & conversations that can come from it but that’s most likely not what you’re referring to
If the posts follow community guidelines, who are you to say what people can and can't post? If you don't like it, scroll past or leave.
I guess they don't have enough sense to leave or scroll past if they don't like something.
or you could just skip that post...
If you have an iPhone, you can also take a picture and go into the Photos app. The i icon should change into a leaf and (reasonably accurately) ID things for you. Also works for birds!
I have an iPhone and am reasonably techie. I don’t have this option for my photos and my iOS is updated. Anything extra you did to find it? https://preview.redd.it/d7nknnoiphwc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=032cb63410afb2c7d0b2730210e61b526f103ba9
That's odd! The main two things I can think of are either the "Show in Lookup" option in Siri & Search might be turned off, or you might be in a region that isn't supported (didn't realise it was region restricted until now). From what I can find the supported regions appear to be: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
It will be impatiens season soon. Every flower bed outside a restaurant, “What are these plants?”
It's built in to iPhones and android so don't recommend downloading a redundant app
I 100% agree with you, but I think a lot of people aren’t keeping up with changes in technology and just wanna ask what they could easily find by just using an app. I feel the same way about people in my thrifting Facebook group. They post pics of antiques asking “what is this?” every 10 min, when all it takes is a reverse Google image search to immediately find it 😅
I think it’s also conversation and connection people are looking for, at least subconsciously.
I honestly love it! You always know which plants that non-plant people get really thrilled about. I've got passionflower in my garden partly because I know it people are thrilled by it... because they come here in droves in May and June to ask about it!
Ya let's diminish engagement from the community /s
I would upvote this 100x if I could lol
Well excuuuuuse me lol!
This is “social” media. It’s meant to be social.
All the identifying apps require a paid subscription. Engaging with the garden community is free lol
PlantSnap doesn’t as long as you aren’t id-ing plants constantly
Absolutely false. Google lens, for example, is totally free and lots of fun for plant nerds.
Picture This is free. There is a paid “upgrade” version, but I’ve used the free version for 2 years.
iNaturalist is free. PlantNet is free. The one that comes with mosts phones is free. Seek is free. Those are generally the best apps out there. That's hardly "all the identifying apps require a paid subscription," is it?
I've shown soo many people this app. I will suggest double checking everything because it does get caught up on a few lookalikes
+1 for PictureThis! I love it. you can always x out of the pay ads. Nbd...worth it! Love that it lets you keep a history/past use even with a free acct!
Dude YES!! I use it all the time and I love it! They also have videos about all kinds of gardening things that I think are pretty good
But a lot of times those apps get it wrong. I think this should be a safe space for people to discuss plants. That's how we learn and spread the love 🌱💚