The Best Plant Identification Apps To Protect Your Garden

Plant identification isn't always easy. Unless you have a general idea of what you're looking for, it can feel impossible to figure out exactly what species you're looking at based on words alone. If you're tired of typing in vague, long-winded descriptions of nearby plants into your search engine, just hoping your queries will come back with a photo that seems accurate, it's time to use technology to your advantage and download a plant identification app like iNaturalist, Pl@ntNet, or LeafSnap.

Invasive species are non-native species that can cause severe damage to ecosystems. Whether they're incredibly fast spreaders that are difficult to remove or they pose a direct threat to local flora and have been known to choke out native plants, being able to identify an invasive plant is important to stopping its spread and making wiser choices with your gardening. Many invasive plants can be confused for native lookalikes, so having the power of an identification app or additional users behind you can help ensure that even the most difficult identifications are accurate.

If you do find that you've identified an invasive species, you have a few options. If you're at home, remove the plant and replace it with a safe or native alternative. If you're out and about, it can be beneficial to report the invasives you find to local authorities. While there isn't one overarching organization that handles reporting in the U.S., look into resources in your specific state or area to determine your recommended next steps.

If you're looking for a free plant identification app that's easy to use, community-backed, and committed to functioning as a helpful scientific tool, consider downloading Pl@ntNet. This app, originally developed in France, is completely free to download on iOS and Android, and you won't run into any annoying paywalls after you start using it to actually identify possible invasive species. Because this app utilizes AI to work, it relies on contributions from users to train the model. The more people upload photos, the better the AI gets at identification, so it makes sense that the developers wouldn't want to hide the app's features behind a paywall.

To use it, simply snap a clear, unobstructed photo of the plant you're trying to identify. The app will come back with a list of plants that it could be along with percentages that show the likelihood of each option. You'll take a peek at other user photos for each plant to determine which species you're actually dealing with, and after selecting one, your photo will be used to help train the model.

While Pl@ntNet is useful for identifying just about any kind of plant, it's especially beneficial if you're using it to track down invasives. Pl@ntNet isn't just an identification app — it's also a citizen science project. The data collection from users can be used for research, and, in the case of Cristophe Botella, this research relates directly to invasive species. In an article on Pl@ntNet's website, developers shared that Botella, a PhD student at INRA, was using Pl@ntNet data to develop a model that predicts invasive plant distribution. By using this app to identify invasive plants, you might just be helping students and researchers in their attempts to solve the problem of invasive species once and for all.

Just like Pl@ntNet, iNaturalist is a free, community-focused identification app. It also functions in a similar way to Pl@ntNet, relying on its user base to log and share the species they come into contact with. One major difference, however, is the fact that iNaturalist isn't just for plants — it can also be used to identify animals, insects, fungi, and even protozoans. If you're interested in identifying invasive insects in addition to your invasive plant search, this app might be the perfect pick for you.

So far, users have made over 286 million individual posts. Each post includes a location tag, meaning researchers will have access to data that shows them exactly where certain species are found. Additionally, users can add a "needs ID" tag to their post, encouraging other users to help identify and confirm the exact species captured in the picture. Having access to such a large database is incredibly valuable to researchers and hobbyist explorers alike, so you can feel proud that your contributions to the app serve more of a purpose than simple identification.

If the plant you identify is, in fact, invasive, iNaturalist has a built-in warning system that marks the post with an exclamation point. If you're just curious about the type of plant living in your backyard or along the side of the road, the app will likely give you all the information you need in a matter of minutes. If you want to help to eliminate invasive species in your area, however, detailed mapping is an incredibly valuable tool for researchers, and your contributions might just have a greater scientific use. In some situations, iNaturalist can even be used to help identify invasive species in parks or other natural areas, giving land managers an easy way to see where problem plants are and quickly eliminate them before they spread.

If you're not a big gardener or botanist and just need to quickly identify a plant on the go, Google Lens provides a very convenient way to do so. This feature, available through the Google app, through the Google Photos app, with Google Assistant, or as a standalone app, will visually scan your surroundings with your phone's camera or identify items in your camera roll. From there, it will give an AI description of the item and provide search results for further research. This option is certainly the least plant-focused app in this roundup, but it's a great choice for those who don't want to clog up their phone's storage with single-use apps. In addition to being able to identify plants, Google Lens can also help you authenticate your latest thrifting find, find the brand of clothing or furniture items you see out and about, or even translate text in other languages. 

Unfortunately, however, Google Lens isn't quite as accurate as some other plant identification apps. When placed head-to-head with Pl@ntNet, it routinely scored lower — though it did beat out several apps designed specifically for plant identification, like Seek and PlantSnap. Overall, it might not be the best pick for devoted botanists, but it's convenient, likely already available on many people's phones, free, and a great starting point for further research on possible invasive species.

To begin our search into the best apps for identifying invasive species, we began by considering the most important feature of identification software: accuracy. We looked at apps that had large databases with many satisfied users, that showed solid results after having been independently tested against one another, and that either prioritized utilization of well-trained AI or interaction with other users. Apps listed in this roundup should reasonably able to identify both native and non-native species under reasonable circumstances, i.e. when provided with clear, well-lit photos of relatively common plants.

Because we're specifically considering invasive species, each of these apps also either provides an indication as to whether or not a plant is invasive or has been used by researchers and conservationists to track the location and numbers of invasive species. To make sure they're accessible, these apps are free, don't require additional purchases, don't impose limits on the number of plants you can identify, and are available to download for iOS and Android in the App Store and Google Play store.