Plant Identification

With around 17,000 species of native flora in the US, plus tens of thousands of additional species of other plants (not to mention algae and mosses), even the most expert botanist would fail to recognize every plant they came across. It’s frustrating, though, when you discover a beautiful wildflower or unusual looking shrub, and you struggle to discern its genus. Instead of wasting time trawling through websites or asking your gardener friends, why not simply take a snap and have an app do the work for you? Although not completely foolproof, these 12 apps and online tools are some of the best ways to quickly and easily identify plants from pictures. If you are like me, you are probably pretty good at the parlor game of identifying certain plants: the flowers your grandmother grew in her garden, the pine cones you spray painted gold in third grade, and forsythia (if blooming). Unfortunately this is not that helpful when you come across some new plant–growing on the side of the road, or over a fence, or at the edge of a trail–that you would like to have, if only you knew how to ask for it at the local nursery.