Flora Incognita

Active

Country: Germany (DE)
Founded: 2018
Developer: Technical University of Ilmenau (Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry collaboration implied)
Pricing: Free
Open source: No
Platforms: Android, iOS, Harmony OS

Indexes

Plant Care

Overview

Flora Incognita is a mobile app that uses AI and deep neural networks to identify over 30,000 vascular plant species from smartphone photos of plant parts like flowers or leaves. It provides fact sheets with details on characteristics, distribution, and protection status, allows users to save observations on personal maps, and contributes data to scientific research on topics like invasive species and climate change effects.¹²⁵⁶

Key Features

AI Plant Identification - Automatically identifies plants from photos using deep learning with over 90% accuracy, even for non-blooming specimens.
Interactive Photo Guidance - Adaptively requests specific plant organ images based on context like growth form and season.
Plant Fact Sheets - Displays comprehensive information including characteristics, distribution, and protection status.
Observation List and Maps - Stores user findings with location mapping to track discoveries.
Offline Functionality - Operates without constant internet connection for identification.
Multi-Language Support - Available in 20 languages.
Citizen Science Contribution - User observations support research on plant diversity and environmental changes.

Pricing

Plan	Price	Includes
Free	Free	Full access to identification, fact sheets, observation tracking, and scientific contribution.

Platforms & Requirements

Available on Android, iOS, and Harmony OS devices. Requires smartphone camera for photo capture; works offline but uses cloud processing for AI analysis. No specific minimum requirements detailed; launched in 2018 and actively updated.¹⁶⁹

Integrations & Ecosystem

Twitter sharing
Instagram sharing
Application Programming Interface (API) for external apps
Batch identification for complete observations
Training services for model updates

Alternatives

App	Difference
PlantNet	Crowdsourced identification with broader global plant database but less emphasis on AI-guided imaging.
iNaturalist	Community-driven observations with expert verification, focused more on biodiversity logging than instant AI ID.
PictureThis	Commercial app with premium features for plant care advice, unlike Flora Incognita's free scientific focus.
Seek by iNaturalist	Real-time identification via camera but tied to iNaturalist community without dedicated fact sheets.

Reputation

Flora Incognita is recognized for its high accuracy (over 90%) in identifying wild plants via AI, praised in scientific literature for enabling reliable species ID regardless of user expertise and contributing valuable observation data to research.⁶⁸ Users appreciate the free, ad-free model, offline capability, and educational fact sheets, making it suitable for schools and nature conservation.²⁵ Some note that optimal results require sharp, close-up photos of specific plant parts.⁴⁵

Sources (9)