Digital tools exist now to give correct scientific and common names to the trees, wildflowers, amphibians and birds we see–but only if we bother to go outdoors.
They can offer even the home-schooling parent, untrained hiker or park visitor a NAME for a thing, and that is the essential first step towards creating the world we want. Let me explain this odd claim.
Having a name for a previously-anonymous yellow flower you see on your morning walk brings it into a kinship with you. That specificity brings into your acquaintance a previous stranger now familiar, so that when you meet again, there will be the nod of recognition.
But we need more than casual acquaintance in the natural world if we are to really know enough to care enough to do enough to matter, seven generations hence.
So snapping that image in Seek or PlantSnap is just a beginning–and not always a reliable one at that. The AI technology is not complete or perfect. And there is variability in the “faces” of plants, just like people. All individuals of a species are not identical, and they change through the season.
You know this is a limited and imperfect tool when you get an identification of a plant that offers the unhelpful revelation stating “This plant is a “Dicot.”
This is like an FBI facial recognition program identifying the perp in the mugshot as a “Human.” Not so helpful. People have names that separate them from all others. So do plants, mushrooms, birds and even cloud types.
And so it is always best after finding the ID given by the app and follow up with web or field guide confirmation that you are, indeed, looking at Common Mullein.
The digital ID is a serving suggestion
Almost always, more work needs to be done to at least compare the image-recognition AI results with trusted botanical or zoological resources.
Even small children can compare a web picture to the creature in hand (or in jar with lid with holes punched.)
Look for Part 4 next Saturday: No More Anonymous Strangers
“Giving nature’s non-human beings names should be just the beginning of a relationship.”