Apps that identify plants can be as little as 4 per cent accurate

Smartphone apps that identify plants from photographs can be as little as 4 per cent accurate, which could put people foraging for food at risk and also lead to endangered plants being mislabelled as weeds and eradicated. Julie Peacock at the University of Leeds, UK, and her colleagues evaluated six of the most popular apps: Google Lens, iNaturalist, Leaf Snap, Pl@ntNet, Plant Snap and Seek. They attempted to identify 38 species of plant in their natural habitat, at four locations in Ireland, with each app. The team found that some apps scored extremely poorly, while even the best fell short of 90 per cent accuracy. "There are lots of reasons why it's important that either the apps are accurate, or people are aware that these apps are a guide but definitely not perfect," says Peacock.