elliot_taylor•6d agoProlific Poster

PSA: That free plant ID app ID'd my mint as poison ivy three times

I was trying to figure out what was taking over my raised bed last spring. My peppermint and some random vine were tangled together, so I snapped a picture with one of those free plant ID apps. It kept saying 'poison ivy' no matter which leaf I focused on. Took me about 45 minutes of digging through old gardening forums to realize the app can't handle overlapping leaves from different plants at all. Has anyone else had a plant ID app give them totally wrong results like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

logan2366d ago

Bro come on the app was probably right though. Mint and poison ivy do look kinda similar when they're all tangled up especially if you're not zooming in close enough. I've used those apps like a hundred times and they've never steered me wrong when I actually take a clear photo of just one leaf with nothing else in the frame. People blame the tech but half the time it's user error lol.

drew_bennett246d ago

You're putting way too much trust in a glorified google image search. Those apps are notoriously bad at distinguishing plants that share even basic features like leaf shape or texture. Mint has square stems and a distinct smell, poison ivy has that compound leaf structure with three leaflets that's literally unmistakeable if you look for more than half a second. The app probably just scanned the shape and spit out a generic answer without considering context. Plus the whole "user error" excuse is weak because the app is supposed to be the expert here, not the user. If a plant identification tool can't handle a slightly messy photo then it's not reliable enough to trust with something that could land you in urgent care.