The most knowledgeable botanists are aware these subtleties and are able to examine a variety of leaves in various points in the canopy. But, novices often fall into the trap of looking at a single low-hanging plant, which might be or might not be the most appropriate example to look at. In light of such instances I've never believed in the value of software for identifying plants and have never advised beginners to use them. However certain promising results were found by new mexico plant identification guide .So now you can say to a great many more fans of your app!
Every phone app offers numerous suggestions to identify the species of the plant image in question. The Rutgers study showed that although the identification of species by leaf images wasn't always the most precise (83.9 percent to 40.9 percent accurate) however, across all apps tested, identification of genus by leaves was fairly accurate with accuracy ranging from 97.3 percent to 71.8 percent. In all apps and for all species, identification using bark photos by itself was not as precise as identification using leaves.
To identify leavesthe two most precise two apps are PictureThis(tm) (97.3 percent accurate to the genus level, 83.9% to species) and iNaturalist(tm) (92.3 percent accuracy to the genus level, 69.6% to species). These results indicate that apps for phones can assist beginners to quickly arrive at an accurate genus-level identification. With the help of a well-written guidebook, novices can swiftly achieve species-level classifications since the options are narrowed through the phone application.
