So I've been using this app called pl@ntnet to ID different plants around my area and its working very well! Basically what you do is take pics of parts of plants and select an option from which part it is (leaves, flower, fruit.. ). Then it has a very nice algorythm that searches a database. The more pics from different parts you add, the better the recognition.

One of the interesting things about it is that users can contribute to the database. So if we could get together some high quality pics of different plant parts of our favourite ethnobotanicals, we could add to the database and have a very powerful app to help us. It can be pics we take, or just pics we find off the internet that are from confirmed sources (shouldnt be copyrighted pics)

The database already has several Acacias (baileyana, dealbata, farnesiana, karroo, longifolia, mearnsii, pycnantha, raddiana), Phalaris (aquatica, arundinacea, brachystachys, canariensis, coerulescens, minor, paradoxa), Passiflora(caerulea, edulis).

There was a thread recently about another app but some privacy concerns were raised (also it doesnt seem available to download in my location). In this pl@ntnet app, though, you can simply turn off your phone GPS, or you can manually edit the location on the plants when you take pics. Also no plant pics are sent to the database unless you choose to. And to register on the database to add contributions (which you dont have to if you just want to ID your plants and not upload new ones) you can use a fake name and email address and alter the location so there is no problem. I've also read the terms and conditions and nothing weird stood out.


I think it would be awesome if we could add all our ethnobotanicals of interest to this database, all it takes is gather a couple of good pictures of flowers, leaves, trunk and fruit/pods from each plant. I can even add it myself with my account if other people gather and organize these pics and send to me so I can upload.

By the way, it doesnt have a north america database but you can select any of the other databases, and plenty of plants are also in north america... and we can just add the ones we are interested in to any of these other databases and later use it even if you're in north america.

Wow, sound very good...i'll try it, insert plants that we like sound very good thing to do, add ethnobotanicals we like can be very useful for everyone wants to id them.

This is amazing!

I remember being in a botany class in high school and thinking "I wish there was a machine where you could just put a sample of a plant into it, or scan the plant with it, and then the machine would give you it's Latin name, it's common name, and any information relating to it"

This isn't quite the machine from my day dreams, but the essential concept seems the same...

Has this app been accurate?

I was also thinking, it would be great to have a fungi app like this as well, though I'm not sure recognition based on a database of pictures would be appropriate for fungi...
(which again makes me wish there was a machine that you could place the plant into, and then somehow get a 100% accurate ID, maybe it could even pull up the plants Wikipedia page with its ID so you have a mass of basic General information as well as an identification)

Regardless, this is very welcome news, and provided that this app works, and with a certain degree of accuracy, I would fully support using it, as well as contributing to its database.

The ethnobotanical app is a great idea as well, though ultimately an app that could ID all plants, even the ethnobotanicals, would be amazing.

Very interesting stuff, and potentially a very useful tool, specially while in the field.

-eg

Very awesome.

Just downloaded it, pretty neat! I've been wanting to start compiling info about local acacia species in my area but I've been using Like That Garden. I wasn't aware of the security/privacy concerns though, and this app seems a little more in depth anyways.

I'll mess around with this for a bit to compare with the other as soon as I've got a few minutes. Anyone else used both and have a preference insofar as functionality?

And great idea endlessness, I think having an accessible mobile database of ethnobotanicals could be an invaluable resource for many here! I can't wait to get home and start tinkering

Aaaaaaaand the search for local plants with interesting alkaloids & entheogenic potential begins

I've been using this app too! its quite awesome. Havent tried to ID or anything just browsed it.

Awesome, I had seen an article about the app but nice to hear someone actually using it, sounds promising!

This makes me wonder.... I love the identification app..... but does anyone think us at the nexus working together could make a similar one comprises of a database of known psychoactive plants and fungi... if possible created coded and downloadable from the nexus only... it would be a wonderful hazard preventative.....

or does this database for the original app already contain all this information making it moot?

Im sure its possible

If anyone has programming skills, please speak up, I have many ideas of how to unite image recognition for plants/fungi with substance testing methods and make a very useful app ... But I lack the programming skills.

I just did a quick google search with keywords like "open pattern recognition", "image recognition code" etc, and there seem to be some codes already published that might make things easier for those who have some skills in programming but not exactly this subject.

But if that isnt possible, at least we can use this app that is already made and help build their database with ethnobotanicals we are interested in, as mentioned in the first post.

Awesome! This looks quite helpful. I read about this tech anecdotally 'in progress' elsewhere but seems to be gaining moar attention and improvements. Good way to proofread nature, so to speak. Particularly with any..*clears throat*.. alkaloids, and such. Thanks for posting.

I have been using this app as often as I can in my immediate area!

It is very intuitive and very interesting! I was surprised with how accurately it would correlate images to an actual ID of the plant species in question! Just snap an image of the flowers/berries, leaves, stalk, and anything else you may find helpful and away you go!

I highly recommend this app to all! The more contributions the better!

Yes an nexus-app like this and more... will be wonderful :-)

https://www.thermofisher...roduct/TRUDEFENDERFTCHEM


There are handheld machines like the ones in the link above which use XRF, FTIR, NIR, Raman spectroscopy, IRMS, or whatever, to identify compounds...

Someone should use similar technology to build a hand-held machine, which has a graphic user interface, a tray slides out, you place your compound in the tray, which slides into the machine, which then uses similar technology to what's in the link above to recognize the compound, then from a pre-programmed database of known psychoactives and research chemicals the machine would give you a TIHKAL/PIHKAL style text on the graphic user interface...

This could eliminate chemical testing, and provide people with the ability to know 100% what compound they have, and provided with a PIHKAL/TIHKAL style text that comes with the identification on the graphic user interface the drug users could have scientific knowledge regarding the safest and proper way to ingest the compound they have...they will try to claim.such a machine is condoning drug use, when in all honesty it could be saving lives.

...provided you could make these things affordable...

It would be pretty cool if you could have a machine where you place a part of a plant or fungi into it, and it identifies the plant or fungi for you...

Sorry, I'm done with my cannabis inspired day dreaming, it would be cool though...

These apps are great though, a real step towards the types of technologies I day dream about.

-eg