With Plantswoman’s office move I got to thinking about new homes and what to do about the gardens you inherit. Depending on what time of year you move it can be difficult to identify what is in your new garden or on your new property. So, I set out to see what I could find in terms of plant ID help. Our posts this week will be focused on plant ID resources starting today with free apps.
To start our discussion on apps let me just say there are tons of reviews out there for all sorts of plant ID apps (google tree ID apps or plant ID apps to review). So, instead of recreating the wheel I will simply let you know how they worked for me. The free apps I tried this round were Leafsnap, TreeID and Garden Compass. I chose these apps based on their reviews and general set up. Occasionally I suffer from technology ADD and using apps is when it comes out with a vengeance. I don’t like to spend a lot of time setting up apps and I want them to be pretty straight forward to use. I don’t typically read a lot of “how-to” articles before just diving in. When I started this project my intention was to download an app, grab my notebook and my little girl and head out to play tree detectives in our neighborhood. In spite of my enthusiasm I chose to download the apps and play with them first before dragging my daughter out into the neighborhood and I’m so very glad I did and I’ll tell you why as we go along.
First up is Leafsnap. Leafsnap is a pretty cool app that uses facial recognition software to identify plants. To ID a plant in question simply take a photo of it and let it search the database to find your answer. For the software to work however you do need to photograph your specimen on a white background. This is easily accomplished by using a notebook (which is what I did) or a piece of printer paper with out having to take the specimen off the plant. Some of the reviews I read complained of having to pick a leaf off the plant/tree which is destructive but with a little creative thinking I can’t really think of a reason you’d need to do that. So, what was my result? As cool as it is that Leafsnap has modified facial recognition software to ID plants it failed to ID every plant I tried. You may be wondering why (I certainly was)… It’s because Leafsnap is linked to the Smithsonian Institution’s catalog of trees and plants and that collection only covers the Northeastern United States. If you live in the northeastern United States you may have better luck with it than I but in the meantime we will need to wait as they work on expanding their catalog. They do have a pretty neat set of plant ID games but they tended to be a little buggy so I’d recommend waiting until they fix that as well.
Next up is a free app called Tree ID and instead of using a recognition software it uses a database which is downloaded onto your phone/device. Once you open the app you answer some questions about your tree or plant and the app searches the database to find your answer. So I gave it a try. I diligently selected the leaf, leaf type, leaf arrangement, leaf size, leaflet size, number of leaflets (I didn’t really know what these were so I guessed to see what would happen), leaflet characteristics, leaf edge, leaf lobes (again, not quite sure), leaf edge teeth, leaf veins, leaf underside, leaf base, leaf stalk, leaf shape, leaf tip… And then you answer questions about the bark, autumn color, fruit and flowers. It took a long time to go through all that. I never knew there was so much that could be asked about leaves! And if that wasn’t enough I didn’t really know what half of the terms meant. There are little question mark symbols on each question that tell you what everything is but quite frankly I was a little overwhelmed by the detail. I tried to ID the lilac tree in our back yard by answering as many of the questions that I could and came up with no result. Then I tried again and reduced the number of questions I answered to give it a broader spectrum to choose from and still no result. By then I was just frustrated that technology had let me down that I went inside and did a little more research. There had to be something that was actually useful to a novice like me.
You may be picking up on the fact that this isn’t the most scientific research ever performed but this is how I roll. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is short on time. Like I said in the beginning I am looking for something easy to use, straight forward and helpful. I’m pleased to let you know I think I found something pretty special. Garden Compass…
When I was over at Gardenista looking at their review of ID apps (they had similar disappointing results by the way) I remember someone mentioning Garden Compass in the comments. I figure it couldn’t hurt so I took a look. Garden Compass is different from Leafsnap and Tree ID because it doesn’t rely on a database to ID your plant rather it relies on people. Yep, you read right, an actual person responds to you. Here’s how it works. Download the app to your phone or device and then you can take a photo or use a photo from your device that you’ve already taken. The app then emails the photo and the question to the Garden Compass Team. Once they’ve received your email you get a confirmation email and an idea of how long it should take them to get back to you. My emails both said “Our experts are doing their best to keep our response times to less than 24 hrs” and they aren’t kidding. I sent my question in at 3:51pm and had an answer back by 6:19am the next morning! Here is what I sent in…
Here is what I got back…
Did you notice how many were in queue before me? 728! The confirmation emails also keep tally of how many submissions I have left. You get 20 submissions per month.
Pretty much the next day this was the response…
Click HERE to see all the answers they’ve sent me. I’ve sent in three submissions so far and all were correct with one slight exception. The identification of the tree with the leaf galls was given with a caveat that they couldn’t see enough of the tree to be sure so they made a guess.
So, of the apps I tried, mind you I stayed with the free apps this round, Garden Compass is by far my favorite. They were quick and efficient and I really liked that I didn’t have to figure out how to finesse a database to give me what I wanted. And while there seems to be an app for just about everything my experience begs the question, is an app the appropriate way to go about this? Just because there are plant and tree ID apps out there perhaps the best way to go about this is the “old school” method. Come back on Friday as I head to my local library in search of an old school answer to an old school problem.
I’m glad that Kristen is trying out these apps. Sometimes we in the horticultural world think they are not very helpful. We forget that we once knew nothing about plants and we have learned over years of trial, error, and research. Anything (like these apps) that gets you closer to plants and expands your knowledge is very important. It is a green thing!