An interactive app to identify plants? Maybe!

One of the things I like most about gardening is finding the unusual when I least expect it!  How did it get here? Why my yard and not the one next door?  Being naturally curious, I enjoy the detective work behind these questions almost as much as the moment of discovery!  When I don’t know what “it” is, and googling “short green/brown stemmed plant with white rectangular flower” returns  313,000 responses…well, what then?  Is there a more precise resource out there for people like me?

If (when!!) the new iBoPlanet app gets enough Kickstarter funding,  there will be!

iBoPlanet is an open source technology created by Steve Bowen, an energy consultant with eco-awareness. In his own words, “we know very little…but what if we knew just a little bit more?”  Enter iBoPlanet and its extensive databases, including those from University Botanical Departments, the World Agroforestry Centre, KEW Gardens. and the USDA.   The process works by comparing leaf pictures (taken by smartphones) against the databases listed above to identify not only the name and species of the plant, but pertinent nutritional/environmental details, as well!  iBoPlanet also has an interactive element that allows users to mark a plant’s location via GPS, with the goal of sharing videos, pictures and stories of the experience.

For more information regarding the science behind the project, I strongly recommend checking out Steve’s wordpress blog, NoLeaflessLand as well as reading this interview.   I think you’ll be very impressed!  (And in the interest of full disclosure, today I put my money where my mouth is–so to speak–and became a “backer!”)

Shifting gears….

😛 Let’s get back to the plants I CAN identify!  😛

From late February through mid March, the air along the Treasure Coast is redolent with the sweet fragrance of citrus blossoms:

The bees were working overtime when I snapped this today; for all their efforts, I’d hate to let them down!  I’ve got a plan in motion to save this tree from serious decline and you can read about it here!

In contrast, the Ludwegia Peruviana in the cutting garden (immediately opposite the tree) couldn’t look better:

And remember the watermelon seeds we planted in the newly ‘scaped rubber tree bed:

Looking mighty fine right now 😀 but technically this SHOULDN’T work!  If these vines can prosper (while competing with a rubber tree for water and nutrients,) it may be one for the books!    Oh!  and see those little red berries?  This whole shebang is five feet from a Brazilian Pepper Tree 😯 and you know what a disaster that is! DEFINITELY shouldn’t work!  😯

This last photo is of an “oddity”  which arrived in a bag of 5 bulbs marked “Lily Scarlet Delight,” from Dutchbulbs.com:

iBoPlanet...Help..Who am I??

😮  With this, it seems we’ve come full circle!!!  Perhaps in the future, iBoPlanet could solve the mystery of the mistaken bulb, but for now I’ll be waiting ’til the flowers open and figuring it out myself!  😉

Until next time…..

• Florida Gardening
• Garden
• Gardening
• iBoPlanet
• Kickstarter
• Lily
• Plant Identification
• Watermelon seeds