Years ago I was in England with Roy Underhill (no, this is not a Penthouse letter), and we had to walk from our hotel to a restaurant to meet Peter Follansbee (I know this sounds like a woodworker’s wet dream, but, well… OK it was).
Anyway….
It was a long walk, and we had to pass through some woods and walk by a canal. And during the entire walk, Roy is pointing out all the names of the trees and plant life. “That’s a Grimblethorne – punicus polifficus! And look at the size of that Shandyback Fufflenewt tree – you never see them in a stand of three like that. Did you know the Fufflenewt tree was an important player in the Battle of Hastings? And that its bark was ground down in former times to use as a poultice for people suffering from dingleworm?”
And then I realized: I know almost nothing about living trees, except for the obvious species – oak, maple, walnut, locust, cherry. When my kids ask me: “What kind of tree is that?” My standard answer is: “Let’s kill it, and I can tell you.”
If you are like me, there is help for this problem. I recently found an app called Picture This that identifies plant life, and it really, really works. I’ve toyed around with a lot of other apps that identify trees, and none has made me happy.
Picture This is expensive for an app – $30 a year. But during the past week it has brought me more joy than even the weather radar app on my phone (ask Megan about how much I love my radar). I have spent many mornings identifying all the trees and bushes in our Covington neighborhood. And then reading more about them through the app.
Picture This also does a lot of other things that don’t interest me, such as diagnosing plant diseases and suggesting how to care for them. Sorry people, I still just want to kill trees.
The interface is pretty easy to use. While inside the app you point the phone’s camera at the tree and press a button. In a couple seconds it identifies the plant and spits out a bunch of information about it, including how to care for it, where the species grows, poems about it, symbolism it is associated with, etc. etc.
If you think I’m full of it, you can try the app free for seven days.
— Christopher Schwarz
Disclaimer: Nobody paid me for this blog entry. I bought the app with my own damn money. Blah, blah, blah.
Just a word of warning, if you do not create an account before paying for your subscription to PictureThis, it is nigh impossible to transfer to another device or share with a member of your family.
“more joy than even the weather radar app on my phone”
That is a bold statement. I love me my weather radar.
I’ll try it but to bump radar is a tall order.
I need an app to alert me when I stumble across one of my cousins. I have far too many, and I’m terrible at names.
Here in the South, we don’t need an app to deal with this problem. If the cousin is male, call him “Hoss.” Female, call her “Sugar.”
Is there a gender-neutral version?
Of course: We call them “Cuz.”
LOL @wood porn in England. Chris cracks me up.
Yah, I found the Picture This app over a year ago. Just renewed my subscription. I still use it all the time to identify trees and various wild flowers. FYI, it’s not the best at identifying trees from bark alone. The leaves give much better results.
Thanks for the review of the app, it looks pretty cool. I have been thinking of getting one to replace my tree guide book which most of the time I forget to pack when I go for a hike.
I just recently found this app too. I’m still using it for free, but I’m amazed at its ability to identify all the nameless weeds I have in my back yard. Makes me appreciate every plant I find.
I miss Roy. He was made to be on a very public stage.
Have you taken one of his online classes? They are AMAZING. It’s like his show, but crazier.
How did I not know about this??!! I’m holding you responsible.
Sorry, Cuz
I’ve personally had a great experience with iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/
There’s an app for iPhone and Android operating systems. It’s also an academic project, so the identifications also get used for academic research. Plus it works well for other kinds of wildlife, like mushrooms or animals.
It has a community aspect as well, where other contributors can help identify your pictures.
I can’t say enough good things about it really! It’s free as well.
I use plant.net and flora incognita. 1 don’t give advice how to care for the plant, nor how to kill it so it never comes back into your garden (bamboo, invasive tabacco like plants, etc.). They seem to be quite reliable from leaves and flower. Bark is tricky. I usually also carry two plant identification books (trees and flowers) and cross check the app results when I’m out with my kids. The inevitable question will come up…
I also carry a book about birds and one for identifying insects.
Or I have to take my brother in law along. He knows all of those. Including the wood properties of shrubs and trees. Impressive.
can you buy your brother on Amazon? 🙂
I believe parts of that story, but that’s not how the three of us ended up having lunch together in England. But it doesn’t matter. As far as apps go for ID-ing trees, well, I don’t have a smart phone. I told my wife I’d get one if there was an app for sorting socks. Mine are all the same, but they’re different too. If the phone could sort them for me, I’d be tempted. Doesn’t mean I’d do it, but I’d be tempted…
I buy socks by the bushel, all the same. The idea was to avoid matching them. But I know what you mean, differences still creep in. I dislike showing favoritism, but it’s not always possible.
I recently used the app to figure out the “weeds” I’ve been cutting back for years were actually little Mulberry trees trying to sprout. Ended up finding a big one growing in our wooded area that I never knew was there!
No quotation marks needed: mulberry trees are certainly weeds! Yes, we eat them, but so do the birds, and then you have 4000 more trees sprout faster than you can kill them. Plus they coppice, so you can’t kill them by cutting them down. I’ve resorted the herbicides, which I do not do lightly…
when camping and hiking I only am concerned with “leaves of 3 let it be”. don’t ever want to use the wrong forest toilet paper again. or grill hot dogs on the wrong sticks.
the free PlantNet is an excellent app… the Diggers.com.au gardening did a comparison of about 5 different plant identification apps and the found PlantNet was the best and most accurate… is uses user supplied data to assist in the identification which so far for me has not missed at all.
Seconded, I find PlantNet to be invaluable and highly accurate, and I’m a professional ecologist!
I just want to add my endorsement for PlantNet. I’m a Master Gardener and use it often to identify stuff that people ask me about.
I’ve had this app for a few years now. My wife and I use it all the time. It’s to much fun not to use it when we go on hikes.
does the app tell you the janka rating and workability etc?
And what a good time in England that was. I started using This app last year when we were walking daily during lockdown. I actually used it to identify plants and crops first then I pointed it at trees and I was impressed with its accuracy. I even tried identifying trees across fields (at distance) and had some success.
I am now even more annoying on a family walks, testing my children with tree identification questions and stopping to take pictures to use this app on the trees I don’t know.
Is there an app to identify timber species?
Maybe I should use it to identify the plant in our back yard that we’ve been using as an herb for cooking. We thought it was tarragon but we looked at pictures of tarragon and turns out it’s not.
A friend gave me their old glass toy thing and told me it was a fone, I used it once when the car broke down.
Chris Schwarz, Roy Underhill and Peter Follansbee walk into a bar…
… and immediately debate the species of wood used for the bar.
I suppose it’s an odd thing to say on a publisher’s website but I prefer printed books for this kind of reference stuff. They might not give you the kind of instant gratification of the corporate entertainment machine but by flipping around or reading the neighboring entries, I end up actually learning a lot more. There’s also far less risk that I will spend the proceeding 45 minutes scrolling through mud-slinging debates and poorly composed cat pictures. But I suppose it’s just a matter of time before somebody writes a compendium of trees with an appendix of domestic feline snapshots.
That’s for this suggestions – I’ve been wanting something like this for walks with the lads.
Ugh. *Thanks *for *the suggestion.
I loathe phone typing…
PictureThis really is very good. I’ve just moved to North Carolina from Utah and very little in the way of flora is recognizable. That app has been a great help.
Used this app on an archaeological survey in the Everglades and it really does work very well and very quickly. Plus I’m constantly putting leaves in my pocket to look up later once I’m at home, so this is much easier on me and my lint trap.
Do you keep Mr. Radar next to Mr. Coffee?
I have been eyeing this app for some time and your article pushed me to take another look. I always check the App Privacy policy on IOS and the developer would like to collect data purchases and search history in addition to what I believe is legitimate info like diagnostics & usage data. I then decided to investigate who develops this software. Turns out that Glority Global Group Ltd (the developer) is Headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. You can get all the gory details here https://www.zoominfo.com/c/glority-software-limited/357182125. I don’t mean to make this political but given all the data theft & spyware going around, I will pass on this app. I will check out iNaturalist recommended by @reed above. They are not collecting unnecessary data and is based out of California.
Cheers,
Lyle
Nice research. I am not thrilled with adding more pain to the itchy underwear, too small socks, and generally bad quality from that source.
I have obsessed over computer software for plant material for as long as I have used computers. I eventually found that I was trying to educate, or curse, the application because I had more knowledge than the applications could tolerate. A printed guide works well for unknowns; and, if I want the greenie in my yard, the nursery should have it.
Gasp, not … CHINA.
It’s what I use at Etherfarm. Has been invaluable in the savanna and for emerging prairies.
No books or apps I just ask the wife she knows everything
How do you fit her in your pocket?
Please send pics of the Shandyback Flufflelnewt triplets With mood filter on!
Asking for a friend.
Android users can use Google Lens which is built in to the camera app. It’s accurate and free. Will also identify non-plants.
Dear Chris, please please pick up a copy of The Hidden Life of Trees at the library, and give it a scroll-through. It’s an ever deeper look at your enemy, and it’s as readable as your own books…and it’ll blow your mind.
Read it. Loved it!
Anyone else going to be brandishing their phones next to the tree services’ wood chipper? I bring home too many lost cause hunks of unknown wood.
Hi Chris, Thanks for the tip on this good app, I tried it out and it is very accurate. As an amateur Naturalist for years, I have used the free iNaturalist app which is also excellent for plants and insects. I am all for people learning more about Nature using any resource, app etc. Go for it.
Now my BIG question for you is this, since you are using this Nature app to bypass actually learning the various plant species, not a bad thing at all, I am sure that you ( and Fitz?) should now have no issues with those of us woodworkers wishing to use the likes of a Barron dovetail guide to help with sawing their dovetails in your classes. 🙂
Same church, different pew in my opinion.
Cheers,
Michael O’Brien
I can’t speak for Fitz, but I have no problems with anyone using jigs or guides to reach their bliss. Real “hand-cut” dovetails would be cut with karate chops. No saws….
Like that reply Chris. Thanks. I can and have cut DTs freehand, but the guides make my sawing life easier if I have a bunch to do.
This is a great app. Best of all, there’s no “Schwarz Effect” like with other recommendations. Can’t run out of app downloads!