The 10 Best Apps for Identifying Plants and Flowers

Whether you spotted an eye-catching flower on your morning walk or have an unrecognizable weed growing in your garden, plant identifier apps are a great way to put a name to the face of a variety of plants. In addition to identification, many popular apps also provide necessary care information and can diagnose plants suffering from ailments like disease or pests. While these apps are extremely useful, there are so many to choose from it can be difficult to find the one that works for you. To help, we're sharing the best apps for identifying plants and flowers, according to gardeners.

From Seed to Spoon

The From Seed to Spoon is an all-in-one garden guide that offers personalized planting dates, companion planting guides, insightful blogs, video guides, recipes, and more, says Carrie Spoonemore, co-creator of Park Seed's From Seed to Spoon app. The tool will help you stay up-to-date on your garden’s progress with a calendar and notifications for estimated sprouting and harvest dates. You can also use it to quickly identify any pests or diseases and find organic treatments within the app.

• Platforms: iOS, Android, Web
• Pricing: Free or pay $5 per month or $47 per year to access all of the app's features

Growbot

The first artificial intelligence-powered garden assistant, Growbot is an innovative app that brings together gardening and technology. "Identify plants by describing their features to Growbot and discover all the care information you need for your plant," says Spoonemore. "Growbot also can diagnose any pests or diseases and offer solutions for handling them." It's backed by 150 years of experience at Park Seed, a mail-order and eCommerce seed company.

• Platforms: iOS
• Pricing: Free

Greg

Greg is a plant identifier app that offers “PlantVision," which allows users to identify plants using their phone's camera. "Greg will tell you the plant's name, care instructions, and more," says Spoonemore. "Users can also add plants to a care schedule within the app to set reminders for when to water the plant."

• Platforms: iOS, Android
• Pricing: Free
  

iNaturalist

A beloved tool among gardeners and nature lovers, iNaturalist identifies plants, animals, and fungi using photos and other information like location and time. A joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, the app and website is the most robust option for people looking to get a plant ID that is as accurate as possible, says Tess Renusch, member of the native plant habitats team at the National Wildlife Federation. Simply upload a photo and the tool will provide app-generated suggestions for identification, as well as expert insights.

• Platforms: iOS, Android, Web
• Pricing: Free

Pl@ntNet

Pl@ntNet is both a plant identification app and a way to contribute to a citizen science project, says Renusch. The tool produces plant identification suggestions based on photos and your region and also notes whether the plant is invasive or not. Additionally, scientists analyze every photo the app collects and study the plants to learn about the evolution of plant biodiversity, says Linda Langelo, horticulture specialist at Colorado State University.

• Platforms: iOS, Android, Web
• Pricing: Free

PictureThis

PictureThis, which was developed by botanists and gardeners, has a 98 percent accuracy in identifying plants, says Langelo. "It identifies 17,000 local species and 400,000 from around the globe," she says. In addition to plant identification, PictureThis can diagnose plant problems, provide detailed plant care, and toxicity information.

• Platforms: iOS, Android
• Pricing: $6 per month or $30 per year

PlantSnap

PlantSnap is an easy-to-use identification app that has over 650,00 plants in its database, including flowers, cacti, succulents, and mushrooms. Simply upload a photo and instantly get detailed information about the plant with no guesswork. The iOS version also offers new technology called auto-detect, which tells you when to snap the photo so that you get the perfect picture every time. You can use it to identify up to five plants a day for free—beyond that, a paid plan is required, says Renusch.

• Platforms: iOS, Android
• Pricing: Identify five free plants per day or pay $20 per year for unlimited access

Planta

Planta is designed to identify houseplants and their care needs. It has "smart care reminders," which tell you when to fertilize your plants, how much water to give them, what light to place them in, and when to repot. "You program your location, weather, the plant, the light in the room, and other information and you respond promptly to the instructions," says Langelo. The app also has a built in light meter that lets you know whether a plant can survive in a specific room.

• Platforms: iOS, Android
• Pricing: Free or pay $36 per year to access all of the app's features

Garden Answers

Garden Answers identifies over 20,000 plants instantly and tells you if your plant has a disease or insect problem. It has experts to help with advice and keeps an archive of all of your previous questions and answers for you to reference in the future, says Langelo.

• Platforms: iOS, Android
• Pricing: Free

LeafSnap

Experts from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution developed LeafSnap, says Langelo. The app can identify more than 32,000 plant taxons from all over the world and provides individual care information for your plants, including recommendations and step-by-step guides.

• Platforms: iOS, Android
• Pricing: Free