I've really enjoyed browsing around this forum - there's some real gardening wisdom to be had here. You guys seem to be legit gardening gurus. Especially when it comes to giving tips and identifying plants!

I'm new to the forum, but I wanted to introduce myself and get some input from you green thumbs! I'm working on creating an app that will be able to identify over 200,000 species of flowers, plants, and trees - and I thought you guys might be interested! I would love it if you'd take a second to check out our PlantSnap kickstarter campaign and see what you think. https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...

I don't want to be spammy, but I can't tell you how many times I've wished this tool was a reality, and now we're so close to a fully functioning app. Thought some of you might share in my excitement!

So if I take a pic of an iris, it will tell me the name of the iris? or the name of the daylily cultivar?

LeafSnap only identifies foliage from trees that traditionally grow in the Northeast. Southern trees are not represented. Does PlantSnap cover plants from all areas of the continental US?

Frillylily, It sure will. It will also tell you what regions it typically grows in, soil types, and other useful information!

Ardesia, when our database is finished it will cover over 200,000 species worldwide (we aren't stopping in America!) And not just trees - flowers, herbs, etc!


Thanks for asking your questions! We'd love for y'all to be a part of it!

I guess I would have to get my first cell phone, huh?

So how often are new introductions updated to it? I guess I'm just not seeing it work in that way. I think there is no way a photo of an iris or a daylily can be id's by name with a device. There are something like 80,000 registered daylilies, you are saying this program can ID any daylily I snap a pic of? I'm just not buying into that ?!

Combine that with over 125,000 orchid varieties, and one could spend quite a bit of time just doing daylilies and orchids. Expanding even from just these two categories would be a daunting task to say the least.

I use these apps when I am docenting on garden tours. Most recently I have been using Like That Garden, it has been my experience that it works well about 50% of the time and I can usually tell when they are correct or incorrect. Perhaps a newbie would not know to look for the small details.

I don't think these apps are designed to ID something like a specific day lily cultivar or orchid, that would involve an app specific to the single species. Eric might want to think about that for his next project - DaylilySnap.

I don't think that PlantSnapEric understood my question? maybe?

From what I understand he said the app would identify species - not cultivars / varieties.

I asked him if it would id the name of a daylily cultivar
he responded "Frillylily it sure will"

Quite frankly, this thing will never be able to do cultivars...No matter what anyone claims, that is something we simply do not have the tech for at this time. It will be able to tell you it's a daylily, but it would not even be able to tell you the difference between a fulva vs. a 2016 intro.

Perhaps with a field as broad as dayliies it will be difficult if not impossible to get them all but with shrubs with fewer varieties these programs can help. My gripe is that as an experienced gardener with about 55 years of digging, I can generally tell at a glance when it is incorrect.

Technology is expanding at unprecedented rates. The points mentioned in our posts are some that the OP can consider in the makeup of the program. I wish him luck.

That was exactly why I asked, I wonder how many people will be gullible enough to believe that it can differentiate between cultivars, amoung hundreds or thousands of choices. There is no way it will ever be able to do that in my opinion, so that is why I asked-to see what he would say about it. I already knew the answer . Interesting to see that he claims it will.