App recognises types of plants

Ever wonder what species you’re looking at as you admire wildflowers Pl@ntNet—an app developed by several French research institutions and a network for botanists called Tela Botanica—uses technology similar to facial recognition software to identify species of plants from user-uploaded photographs. It’s Shazam for plants, as Modern Farmer dubs it.

It can currently identify more than 6000 European plants but plant-savvy users can help identify different species that aren’t already in the database. Since its release, users have established databases for almost 900 South American plants as well as more than 1000 plants native to the areas.

Here’s how it works: You upload a picture of that mysterious wildflower. Then, you indicate that it’s a flower, rather than a leaf or stem. It combs through similar images in its archives to help you identify the species. As more people are added identified images the network promises to become more and more capable.