50 Times People Had No Clue What Plant They Were Looking At, But The Internet Knew What It Was Right Away (New Pics)

Dr. Erin Hill from the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University says people are driven to identify plants for many reasons; sometimes it is out of curiosity to know more about the world around us, while other times it is out of the desire or need to manage areas like gardens, agricultural fields, restored habitats, and/or natural preserves.

"Plants are the foundation of food webs, and they are tied to our understanding of how ecosystems function," Hill explains. "Plant identification has been and continues to be a matter of familiarity—knowledge passed down through mentorship by family or friends, or perhaps something learned in school."

One can also seek expert advice. For example, plant identification is one of the many services offered at Michigan State University (MSU) Plant & Pest Diagnostics and the MSU Herbarium, and help is available through the Michigan State University Extension Lawn. But you should be able to find similar resources at your local university, botanical garden, or natural history museum if you live elsewhere, too.

Hill says that there are several smartphone apps available to assist with plant identification as well. "I began evaluating plant identification apps in 2018 for use in the weed science laboratory class at MSU, and for presentations to various garden and commodity groups. From 2018–2020, I evaluated a minimum of six apps (available for both Android and iOS smartphones) using 10–12 plants, with the best-performing apps carrying over to the next year's evaluation."

"In the fall of 2021, I drastically increased the number of identifications used to rank the apps by involving groups of university students enrolled in the lab," the scientist adds.

Since 2018, she and her students have evaluated a total of 16 apps. In 2023, all the apps tested used photo recognition software and geolocation information to identify plants, but some tested in the past required more descriptive input from the user, similar to traditional plant keys. "Most are free or have a free version. It is important to read all terms prior to downloading or purchasing apps. This assessment is for educational purposes only."

The top six apps were found to be:

1. PictureThis;
2. PlantStory;
3. PlantNet;
4. PlantIn;
5. iNaturalist;
6. Google Lens.

However, keep in mind that an automated ID still makes mistakes. "The top-performing app was PictureThis, with 73% of the suggested identifications being correct," Hill says. "If the partial ratings (16%) are added to the correct ratings, we see that the app was helpful 89% of the time, averaged across all plant categories."

"Following this lead were PlantStory (48% accuracy) and PlantNet (40% accuracy). If you add in the partially correct answers, these apps were helpful 65% and 67% of the time, respectively."

So communities like r/whatsthisplant continue to be invaluable—a kind of crowd-sourced, peer-reviewed system where members correct each other’s guesses on the off chance someone gets it wrong.

For more examples of their work, check out our older publication on the subreddit.