Review of Virginia Wildflowers

I tried a couple other apps to see what the experience would be before downloading Virginia Wildflowers. It was recommended to me by a coworker who is a wildlife biologist for the US Forest Service. The other apps I used were picture based apps. That is, the user takes a picture of the plant being identified and the app attempts to match it. Virginia Wildflowers doesn't work like that. Also a side note, it isn't just for wildflowers. The app will help you identify everything from conifers to seaweed. VA Wildflowers works off the user inputs. The data you will need to put in is plant type, color, petal arrangement, leaf arrangement, location, elevation, month, and habitat. The database of plants in the app is 3,071. According to landscope.com there are about 2,500 vascular plants in Virginia so the database should have the plant being identified available. I tried it out with several plants during a work project involving invasive species reduction along a prescribed burn unit edge. It worked for me pretty well, with only a few lapses that I believe are due to the roadside nature of some of plants being identified. Queen Anne's lace being one of them, since it is more of a meadow plant but was occurring along the roadside in this instance. In general, if the plant is in its common habitat the app will properly identify it. Apps that identify based on a picture eliminate the need for user input and therefore mitigate a common cause of misidentification, user error. However, if the user can get all of the inputs right, it works. One component that I really like about the app is that the user ends up expanding their knowledge about plants in general if they pay attention to what the app is spitting out. For instance, i didn't know that there are so many more trees with an alternate leaf patter than an opposite leaf pattern - common trees with an opposite leaf pattern are almost all Ash or Maple. The user can learn to make some of their own guesses about identification based on trends from using the app over time. This is not possible with apps that are based on picture ID only. Overall, if the plant is occurring in its normal habitat, especially during its mature, reproductive phase when flowers or berries are on the plant, and in its primary state, this app will catch it.