I think that your uncropped photo is more interesting than your cropped ... it looks like you unconsciously used the Rule of Thirds when you took it. You also have to consider what the photo will be used for .. For the plant database, your cropped photo is more appropriate than the uncropped because you're only interested in what the plant looks like. There is a tradeoff though. When you take a picture or crop a picture with nothing else in it, you lose the ability to compare the subject to something familiar so it's very difficult know what size the plant/bloom actually is.
Here is a good example .. this is a Rosary Vine flower and the flower is about an inch long! But you can't tell from looking at the picture.
