It’s hard to spot the light gray “Cancel” button-which leads you to the free app-in the upper righthand corner. The first presents itself the second you open the app: You hit a screen that shows an ad for PictureThis and then says “Try 7 days free, then $29.99/year.” In the spot where your fingers would naturally press next, there is a big black-and-white “Continue” button. However, these advantages were overruled by two big red flags. We thought this app might be useful if, for instance, you need to clean up an overrun garden. There are a lot of other interesting tools on the app, including a “diagnose” feature, which helps you learn about your plant’s ailments, as well as allergen and weed scanners. You may even find poems! My simple snake plant brought up a verse by Lord Byron. These include popular cultivars, other people’s pictures of the same plant, toxicity explanations, informative videos, a full description, and a “People Often Ask” section. If you’re a gardener in need of more plant details (but beware the risk of accidentally subscribing to more features): Consider PictureThis, which gives you more details per identification. (You can just screenshot the identification for your own records and continue with your hike, gardening session, or whatever you’re doing.) If you prefer, however, it’s also possible to use this app without logging in, as long as you’re not concerned about saving your observations. You might want to use your initials or make up a name rather than share your real moniker with the PlantNet community. If you create an account, you’ll be sharing your photos under a CC by-SA license, which means that others (including people selling something) can use and adapt your photos. Users with an account share author name, images, and the aforementioned info. Anonymous users share “species name, date and geolocation,” according to Hugo Gresse, a mobile engineer for PlantNet.

The app doesn’t share data with third parties for advertising, but it does share information about photos for research purposes. When you register for an optional PlantNet account, your name or username will be publicly displayed alongside any photo you take for licensing purposes, according to the terms of use.

Download free indoor plant tree