Identifying Plants

The app identified the Taraxacum officinale without any bother

I’ve got a plant identification app on my phone to play with. I’ve seen them around before and didn’t really take much notice of them, until this one came along, the interactivity and ability to be added to attract my attention. The database grows daily as new plants are added. The app is called Pl@ntNet and calls themselves an image sharing and retrieval application for the identification of plants.

It is developed by scientists from four French research organisations and the Tela Botanica network, with the financial support of Agropolis fondation. This means that the app isn’t really working as well in non-European countries yet, but I’m sure they will soon as plants are added.

Among other features, this free app helps identifying plant species from photographs, through visual recognition software. Plant species that are well enough illustrated in the botanical reference database can be easily recognized. The plants can be recognized by leaf, flower, fruit or stem and so far has been very successful for me. I’ve identified most flowers in the garden through it and also a few weeds. It has no bother finding nasturtiums and when I took a photo of a tallow dandelion type flower on the lawn it gave me a few options for what it could be, impressively none of them were the dandelion. It could tell the difference in the petal shape. It turns out it was either a Taraxacum officinale or a sonchus, and even with the photos I couldn’t tell the difference. Narrowing it down to two practically identical plants was impressive. You then get the option to confirm the ident was positive and there’s a star rating for accuracy.

The number of species and the number of images used by the application evolve with contributions of end users to the project.

It doesn't allow the identification of ornamental plants really and it works even better when the pictures submitted are focused on one organ. Pictures of tree leaves on uniform background provide the most relevant results.

I think that the app will be well used by me as I spot other plants and I’m sure there are other equally good ones out there that’ll do the job as well, especially the ones that are interactive with an ever growing database of identifications.

On the subject of identifying plants. There are a lot of plants that are in the garden highlighting the soil type and condition; most of them are classed as weeds

Garden soil conditions and weeds go hand in hand, so we can take advantage of the clues given for soil types and use the weeds to identify potential problems. Large populations of weed growth can signal poor soil conditions as well as soil type. 

Soil Types and Weeds

Using weeds as indicators of soil conditions can be helpful when fixing problem areas in the landscape.

Poor soil can include anything from moist, poorly drained soil to dry, sandy soil. It may also include heavy clay soil and hard compacted soil. Even fertile soils have their share of weeds. And some weeds will take up residence just about anywhere, such as dandelions, making it more difficult to determine soil conditions without closer examination. Let’s look at some of the most common weeds as indicators of soil conditions: 

Wet/moist soil weeds

Moss Joe-pye weed, Spotted spurge, Knotweed, Chickweed, Crabgrass, Ground ivy, Violets Sedge.

Dry/sandy soil weeds

Sorrel, Thistle, Speedwell, Garlic mustard, Sandbur, Yarrow, Nettle, Carpetweed, Pigweed,

Heavy clay soil weeds

Plantain, Nettle, Quack grass, Hard

Compacted soil weeds

Chickweed, Goosegrass, Knotweed, Mustard, Morning glory, Dandelion, Nettle, Plantain.

Poor/low fertility soil weeds

Yarrow, Oxeye daisy, Queen Anne’s lace (wild carrot), Mullein, Ragweed, Fennel, Thistle, Plantain, Mugwort ,Dandelion, Crabgrass, Clover,

 Fertile/well-drained soil weeds

Foxtail, Chicory, Horehound, Dandelion, Purslane, Lambsquarters.

Acidic soil weeds

Oxeye daisy, wild strawberries, Plantain, Knotweed, Sorrel, Moss.

Alkaline soil weeds Queen Anne’s lace (wild carrot), Chickweed, Spotted spurge, Chicory.

And the best thing is that now we have apps for identifying the weeds we can not only going out about them but also see just why it is that particular types are trying to take over the garden. It’ll be a case of doing a bit of research to see how we can amend the ground making the environment happier to help the plants we do want to grow. 

Technology eh. Isn’t it great?