Leafsnap

Have you ever come across a plant that you don't know what it is and want to identify whether it is friend or foe?  Well, I have.  We moved into our new home in September of 2011 and we bought our vacation home in Florida in 2010.  While I am rather good at recognizing plants, I came across some at both of our homes that I didn't recognize.  We also do a fair amount of travelling where I come across plants that I really like and would like to identify them to see if they will grow well at either location.  Until now, I had to rely on manual identification via plant books and other home gardeners.  I've even posted a few unknown plants on this blog to get the help from my readers.  Onto the scene is a brand new app called Leafsnap.

Leafsnap helps you identify a plant by taking a picture of the leaf.  This is an free app available for the iPad.  Once you take the picture (snap it) of the leaf on a white background a number of possible options will appear as possible identifications.  At that point, you can choose the leaf in the database that matches yours for a positive id, name the leaf and save or you can leave it as unknown then show the picture to a local grower who can help you identify it.  This app would be particularly useful when trying to identify plants both in a new home and perhaps around the neighbourhood when planning what to plant.