I bought an iPhone 13 Pro Max several months ago and have thoroughly been enjoying this new phone! I actually bought this model for its camera, and have been having a blast playing around with all the camera features.
I’ve been experimenting with various f-stops and other settings while taking photos of my houseplants – of course! You know how much I love my plants! While doing this, I stumbled upon something by accident and I think it’s the greatest thing ever! I had to share this with you!
Are you ready for this?!?!?!
Your iPhone can identify any plant for you! No extra app needed! What?!?!?! Yes! You heard that right. All you need is iOS 15. Check it out!
How to Use Your iPhone to Identify Plants
- Use your iPhone Camera to take a photo of a plant you want to identify
- Tap on the photo preview in the lower left corner of the camera screen to preview the photo
NOTE: You can also go to the Photos app and tap on any image stored there.
- Swipe up from the bottom of the photo to display the image information panel
The Photo Information Panel appears, similar to the image below.
TIP: As an alternative to swiping up, when viewing a photo, you’ll see an icon at the bottom of the photo that looks like the letter i inside a circle. This is the Visual Lookup icon. If there is a ‘sparkle’ on the icon, it means your iPhone has found information you can lookup about that photo. Just tap this icon to open the information panel.
- Tap the Look Up-Plant> link just beneath the photo, at the top of the information panel
Additional information about the plant will appear in this panel, similar to the image below. Notice the leaf icon that appears on the plant – when you see this icon, you know your iPhone has identified your image as a plant (versus a person or place).
- In the panel that appears on your screen, you can tap on Siri Knowledge or on Similar Web Images to further investigate your plant
If you tap on one of the plant choices beneath the Siri Knowledge heading, you’ll see more information about your plant, similar to the image below.
- If your iPhone didn’t correctly identify the plant, tapping on the Similar Web Images area will display similar plants that you can explore to help identify the plant you took a photo of
- Tap the X to close the window and return to your photo
See below for additional tips and tricks for using this feature.
Additional Tips:
- Cannot Identify – It doesn’t happen too often, but… sometimes your iPhone won’t be able to identify the plant. This is usually because the photo makes it hard to distinguish the plant from the background or surrounding items. If this happens, try taking a photo of the plant either moved away from a cluttered background, or away from other nearby plants. You may also need to take a photo further away from the plant (if you were too close initially), or closer to the plant (if you were too far away initially). By taking several different photos and experimenting, you’ll find a method of taking photos that works best for plant identification.
- Incorrect Identification – Sometimes the photo you take will lead to an incorrect identification of the plant. You can usually fix this by taking a photo of the entire plant (further away from it), or by taking a close-up photo of a leaf. Play around with different techniques until you find what works best for you.
- Correct Species, Wrong Variety – While this plant lookup feature is pretty awesome, it isn’t flawless. Sometimes it will identify the correct species of a plant, but the wrong variety. This is where the Similar Web Images link can be really handy at getting you one step closer to identifying your plant! For example, this ‘Satin Pothos’ wasn’t exactly identified in the Siri Knowledge area, but it did say it was a Pothos or Epipremnum, and the Similar Web Images shows photos of this plant that can be tapped on to read about what kind of plant it is.
- No Content Found – It happens. Sometimes your iPhone just won’t be able to identify your plant, no matter how good the photo is. I find that this usually happens with obscure plants, like this Nepenthes ‘Monkey Cups’ plant.
One Step Further:
- Garden Plants – This build-in feature not only identifies houseplants, it can also identify any plant in your garden!
- Plants Online – Found a picture of a unique houseplant on Pinterest or on the internet, but don’t know what it is? Just snap a photo of your screen, and you can identify that plant!
- Flowering Plants – When you’re shopping at the garden center and find a flowering plant with no identification, no problem! Your iPhone to the rescue!
- Works on Animals and More – Don’t stop at just plants! This Visual Lookup feature works on pets, animals, and much more! Use this feature to look up pet breeds, landmarks, works of art, books, and historic places. It’s pretty cool!
I hope you can use this feature! If you have additional tips about it, please leave a comment below.
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