Plant identification apps abound on iPhone and Android.
Many apps, like LeafSnap and PlantSnap, have premium tiers, but iPlant and PlantNet are completely free options.
Here are seven of the best plant identification apps for your smartphone.
What is that plant in the backyard? Or on the hiking trail you traverse? In the past you had to search through a field book to identify it, but these days all you need is a crop identification app. Here are seven of the best apps for finding out what plant you’re looking at without becoming a botany expert.
Leaf Snap
LeafSnap, which is available for both iPhone and Android, comes with a free three-day trial, but you must be prepared to subscribe for $4.99 per month (or $25.99 annually) to use this app to be able to It contains a thorough and extensive library of plants that you can search by name or take a picture with your phone. After identifying the plant, you can read a short description, see additional photos, and follow links to Wikipedia, PlantUse, and other sites.
Leafsnap isn’t free, but it does have a large, informative plant database.
DavidJohnson
PlantSnap
PlantSnap is a good compromise between free and paid features; You can use it for free with ads or upgrade to an ad-free version for $2.99 per month ($19.99 yearly or $29.99 lifetime). Visual photo identification is easy to use, and there is a tutorial for beginners. After you take a photo, the app even lets you zoom and pan to send the best version of the photo to the app’s AI, giving you the most accurate results from its database of over 625,000 plants. If you want a little futuristic flair, put the app in augmented reality mode so you can identify plants while pointing at the phone without even taking a picture. It is available for both Android and iPhone.
PlantSnap caters especially to new users with tutorials for each module in the app.
DavidJohnson
garden answers
You must create an account to start using Garden Answers, either by signing up for a $3.99 per year premium plan or by receiving weekly marketing emails for the free version. You can use the app to ask a one-on-one question to a professional gardener ($1.99 per question), find nearby plants by searching a map, interact with an online community, and more. Of course there is a visual asset identifier; Take a picture or select one from your phone to identify it instantly.
There is a free tier with Garden Answers, although you will be exposed to ads to search for plants and use the community features.
DavidJohnson
I plant
iPlant is perhaps the simplest and most straightforward plant identification app. There are no quirks here like community forums, searchable plant encyclopedias, or paid upgrades. The app is little more than a camera that sends your snapshot to an AI for evaluation. The results are brief but informative, and you can do a more thorough Google search with a single tap. Unfortunately, this app is only available for iOS, so Android owners will have to look elsewhere.
iPlant is an iPhone only app, but it works well for identifying plants.
DavidJohnson
plant
You can use Planta (available for both iOS and Android) for free, but most of the best features are included in the premium version, which costs $35.99 per year or $7.99 per month. This includes the visual plant identification tool – just tap the search box followed by Identify the plant from the picture Icon — to photograph a leaf and get an instant analysis. But the real focus of this app is to help you take care of your own indoor or outdoor garden. So if you don’t have a green thumb and need help managing your plants or garden, the app might be over the top.
Planta is a full-featured plant management app that also happens to do visual IDs with your camera.
DavidJohnson
PictureThis
PictureThis is among the most comprehensive visual plant identifiers for iOS and Android, but there is no free tier. You can try it for free for a week, but after that the app costs $29.99 per year. Available for both iOS and Android, it has many features that will appeal to home gardeners, including an auto-diagnostic tool that tells you what’s making your plants sick, a light meter, and an insect identifier. When it comes to identifying plants, not only can you take snapshots, but you can also do “360 identification” (where you take photos from different angles) and an AR scan to identify plants without the to press the trigger. There is also a tree ring analysis tool, weed identifier and more. It’s not free, but it’s worth the cost.
PictureThis is bursting at the seams with features for the home gardener.
DavidJohnson
PlantNet
While PlantNet is a great (and free) plant identification app for Android and iPhone, it’s even better for groups of people. The app is a self-proclaimed “Citizen Science project” that allows you to join groups within the app and share your data with others and see what they’ve found. There aren’t many other features here, but it’s a great option for identifying plants without spending any money and exploring what others are also finding around you.
PlantNet emphasizes sharing, but you can also use this free app on its own.
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