Thread

1. iammjm · 1785999934 · focus · HN ↗

   I can strongly recommend the mobile app Flora Incognita for quickly identifying plants. It’s made by one of the German universities so it’s free, don’t have ads, and don’t collect your personal data. I even showed it to my mum and she loves it

   1. dmos62 · 1786000249 · focus · HN ↗

      Better than PlantNet?

      1. sigmoid10 · 1786000804 · focus · HN ↗

         PlantNet covers everything, Flora is more central Europe focused and has a hard time with non-native plants.

         1. iammjm · 1786001123 · focus · HN ↗

            I live next to a botanical garden which has climate-regulated glass domes with all sorts of non-native plants from around the world and it gets 90%+ of them right, but sometime you have to feed it different parts of the plant. PlantNet does look great too, I’ll have to check it out!

            1. sigmoid10 · 1786002764 · focus · HN ↗

               That's a nice anecdote, but I didn't just make up this fact. According to their paper [1], Flora has 4851 supported species, while PlantNet covered 30,261 at the time. Flora also tends to mix up cultivated/ornamental plants with wild counterparts, so your perceived accuracy may be deceptive if you're not a botanist. So yes, it's a cute app if you are a walking outside in central Europe, but it's nowhere near PlantNet.

               [1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1111&#x2F;2041-210X.13611" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1111&#x2F;2041...

               1. Eueudhsbsj32 · 1786037748 · focus · HN ↗

                  Looks like they&#x27;ve both added a lot since then. If I select their worldwide species list in app, I get 38k for Flora and 85k for PlantNet.

                  I just gave them a try for some common trees around Costa Rica that I&#x27;m confident in identifying, and they both did very well, slightly better than PictureThis and iNaturalist, which I&#x27;ve been using for a while.

      2. darkwater · 1786005280 · focus · HN ↗

         PlantNet seems pretty open as well right? Looks like is from several public institutions so it should be ads and trackers free, can you confirm?

         1. dmos62 · 1786009927 · focus · HN ↗

            I don&#x27;t recall running into ads, don&#x27;t know about trackers. PlantNet hasn&#x27;t triggered any red flags for myself.

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