I spent part of the weekend down a rabbit hole with an app that a friend cursed me with showed me (thanks, Lisa!).  It is trying to be the shazam! for plants–you take a picture of a leaf or flower and it matches it against similar images. It’s way too much fun for nature geeks like me.

The problem is, it relies on a knowledgeable community–people rate the pictures and look at other people’s identification to see if they are accurate. I tried to participate, but I wasn’t sure enough of any ID to second it in the database (and I’m pretty sure I accidentally submitted a misidentified marigold–who knew African and French marigolds looked so similar?) But if you take kids on nature hikes (or just like plants) check out PlantNet. It could give you more knowledge, or encourage kids to step up their own plant ID skills.

[And I sure wish it had existed when I took plant taxonomy–those field tests were brutal, Dr. Davenport!]

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