by Brett Jones
Inline with the last Gathering subject I have written a piece regarding the online method I use for plant recognition. Being tight with money it is a free resource as well.
I know some of you out there already know of this and use it regularly but it is also obvious many don’t so…
There are quite a few online ways to ID a plant from a simple image. I tested the major AI systems and several dedicated plant ID sites. On testing I found the best so far to be PictureThis. I tested the site with this image below.
The only web site to pick it a a sweet potato correctly was PictureThis. The others ‘almost correctly’ picked it as Bindweed. Bindweed and Sweet Potato are both are members of the same morning glory family (Convolvulaceae) but one is useful and edible and one is not. PictureThis was consistently accurate through my testing.
To use PictureThis navigate to https://www.picturethisai.com/identify
Click/tap the “Upload an Image” button and select the image of the plant you want identified. Or drag and drop your image. The image should be reasonably high resolution and include leaves and if possible flowers of the plant growing and hopefully healthy. Shrivelled cuttings rarely work.
If you click on the “Learn More” link you will be taken to a page like the image following and given further information.
PictureThis is also available as a mobile phone App. If you install it it will ask you to pay to sign up. If you simply select free service and then cancel out of that it works in a reduced free format that is still very useful and accurate. Using this App I can now tell when Jen is trying to trick me with Sweet Potato instead of PROPER Potato!!
If you install the app and have trouble getting it to work I am at the Gatherings each month and can show you how to get it going in free mode.
If the plant is growing in the wild, then after I get an ID from PictureThis, I go to https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/search/simple.htm and search using the plant’s scientific name. This helps confirm that the plant is found in the area and provides its distribution and status as either a native or a weed.