Natural History Wanderings

Star Trek Meets Plant ID

I often joked that I wish I had a tricorder like Mr. Spock that I could wave it over a plant and it would ID it for me.  Well now there is an app for that.  iPhone and iPad now have a free app called Leafsnap that lets you take a picture of a leaf and helps you identify what the tree is.  It is connected to a database that will give you the possibilities of what tree you are seeing.  It currently covers only New York’s Central Park and Washington’s Rock Creek Park. However, by summer it will cover the northeast of the US and eventually all of North America.  I suspect it is just a matter of time before it covers all the trees on the planet and other flowering plants as well.  It currently just works on iPhones, but will soon work on Androids as well.  To learn more go to:  What’s that tree? Try Smithsonian’s new app to see – Yahoo! News.  Finally, I may have to give in and get an iPhone.