A few years back, plant lovers would scroll through books or ask a plant expert to get information about a plant.
But now you can simply show your camera to a plant in your app and find the information about it. Yes, we are talking about plant identification apps.
A plant identification app helps users identify the species and name of a specific weed, tree, herb, houseplant, or wildflower.
Plant recognition software has become a treat for people who love nature and technology. This article is dedicated to all gardening lovers, plant aficionados, and nature explorers.
Mobile apps have made our lives easier as we roam around with our phones and can perform any daily task on the go. Many plant identification websites now have android and iOS mobile apps with free and paid versions.
Only a little research can help you find numerous plant apps with marvelous technology and features. No, you don’t have to conduct this research because we have done it for you.
We hunt down seven excellent plant recognition applications available for free.
A Plant Lover’s Guide to Free Plant Identification Mobile Apps
1- PlantSnap
PlantSnap is among the most cherished apps to identify plants with a free version available as iOS and android apps.
You couldn't have asked for more. No wonder it has been installed from the play store 10 million times.
As the name suggests, you only have to click a snap or use a photo of the plant from your picture gallery. And the app tells you the plant’s name, description, kingdom, class, etc.
PlantSnap offers a free version with limited features where you have to bear ad pop-ups, and you can only use a plant’s snap a set number of times. For occasional users, it might be sufficient. The premium version comes with a free trial of a week.
You can register yourself in the app to save your pictures, publish things in the community, and use enjoyable features of the app.
Their website says the database contains 600,000 known plant species. Only a few plant identification apps have such large databases. The app author has also translated the application into 37 languages that help people who don't speak English.
2- LeafSnap
LeafSnap is another excellent app that can identify an unknown plant if you take a snap of its leaves, fruits, flowers, or bark if it is a tree from the app.
LeafSnap also guides users to care for their plants and lets them set reminders.
With a database of 32,000 + plant taxons worldwide, this app is a must-have for gardeners who love to experiment with lesser-known plants.
The app is user-friendly and has a beautiful interface and easy navigation. LeafSnap features quite an impressive image recognition technology that appears to be able to determine numerous plant species.
The app scans the plant’s picture and provides possible matching species.
It's available on both apple and google’s app stores. The app is free with limited features and a smaller plant database with ads to bear. You don't need to sign up for this app.
3- iNaturalist
iNaturalist is an interesting plant identification app. Firstly, its iOS and Android apps are available for free.
Secondly, the Mobile app developers behind it are citizens. Yes, it is a joint project of the National geographic society and the California academy of science.
The app helps nature lovers and plant enthusiasts to share what they see in nature via the iNaturalist social network.
iNaturalist works in a fun and unique way. Flora explorers observe and document their experience of views in the database. Other contributors also validate the plant’s identity along with image recognition technology. The app offers close matches if the image is blurred and then verifies your choice.
Contributors produce research data by recording or verifying sightings. iNaturalist consumers have shared over 26 million observations.
How to start? Just Sign up using email, Google, or Facebook. Also, there seem to be no annoying pop-ups on their app.
4- PlantNet
For flora lovers, this free app is a blessing for Android and iOS devices. PlantNet is another citizen-based science venture on biodiversity.
We recommend you sign up to use all the app’s benefits and contribute your observations of nature.
Let's talk about the working of this excellent app.
PlantNet has categorized its database of one million photos into “projects.”
- The thematic project covers cultivated and ornamental plants
- The geographical project includes plants from all over the world
- The micro-projects include certain plants from a specific location
This classification makes this app’s working a little tricky. For example, you should not select a geographical project for house plant identification. Otherwise, the app will not be able to identify the plant.
We know you are wondering about the annoying ads. The ads on the bottom of the screen are inconspicuous, so it doesn't block the plant’s image from your sight.
5- Blossom
Blossom does what the other apps on this list do — quickly determines the name of an unknown plant from a picture.
It offers a free version with limited access to a segment of features. However, subscribe to a paid package if you want access to all the features.
You can use Blossom without making an account but may need it for a few features.
The app not just identifies the plant but also tells you about its water, soil, sunlight, and temperature requirements. It also informs you how the plant propagates, reports, prunes, and fertilizes, as well as, its specific diseases, toxicity, pests, and more.
If you are a reader, you can enjoy its plant-related articles. In addition to plant identification, Blossom features plant disease diagnosis, a light meter (android only), a personalized planting schedule, the ability to store plant snaps in a database, and more.
It is a treat for flora explorers and anyone who adores nature and wants to know more about it.
6- Seek
Seek is another wonderful work of iNaturalist. Seek is not just a free app to identify plants. It uses picture identification technology to assist you in determining unknown plants, animals, and fungi species from images.
The app has so much to offer that a nature enthusiast may spend hours immersed in it. The best thing is its database which contains millions of public wildlife sightings drawn from its sister app, iNaturalist, and partner websites.
Its other qualities include a neat and simple interface, zero frustrating pop-ups, and no need for registration to use the app. Plus, users can participate in different challenges and earn various badges for their contributions.
7- Google Lens
Google Lens is a google product and is loved by users with android devices because it usually comes as a built-in app. The good thing is its iOS version is also available on the apple store to install for free.
As you can expect from google’s products, this app offers numerous handy features, but the most impressive is its plant identification function.
Google lens utilizes google images to allow users to determine plants, objects, text, and more from a picture.
Bottom Line
App development has revolutionized every industry and has entered the gardening industry too. Now, you don't need to subscribe to gardening magazines or buy books about plants.
The treasure is now inside your mobile phone’s app store. With various free and paid plant recognition apps available, you can now identify trees, flowers, fruits, vegetables, weeds, mushrooms, indoor plants, wildflowers, aquarium & pond fauna, edible and medicinal plants, and more.
Note that there are other factors due to which software might not recognize a plant even if it is saved in its database. These factors are poor capturing angle, inferior photo quality, low light, inadequate plant part, and crowded background.
FAQs
1- Is there a fully free plant identification app?
Yes, many plant identification apps on the Play Store offer a free version. These apps include PlantNet, PlantSnap, GardenAnswers, iNaturalist, iPlant, and more.
2- How does an app to identify plants work?
Plant identification apps utilize image recognition software designed to recognize leaves and barks depending on the shared attributes of these plant parts.
3- Can a plant app diagnose a plant disease?
Planta is an iOS app with a feature called Dr. Planta that tells a user what is wrong with their plant. This app can diagnose a disease depending on your plant’s symptoms, like brown patches, yellow twigs, weak growth, unknown bugs, etc. It then creates a treatment plan for your sick plant.
4- Is there an app that can help me cultivate various crops?
Yes, Plantix is an app that calls itself — your crop doctor. As a plant-growing software, it has large amounts of data on growing a range of crops. Plantix can also diagnose plant diseases and other issues.
5- What are some paid plant identification mobile apps?
FlowerChecker, PictureThis, and GardenCompass are some ideal paid plant identification apps.
