Thank you for your interest in the BGANZ PlantSnap Initiative.

We are excited to be working with you on this global citizen scientist project and co-creating possibly the world’s largest geo-located plant photos open-source database.

What is PlantSnap?

PlantSnap – Plant Identifier App is a technologically advanced, comprehensive and easy-to-use plant identification app. The technology “learns” to recognize many types of plants from photographs that are submitted by users into the apps database.

PlantSnap can provide very accurate results and is also constantly learning and improving. The more photographs we can take to teach the app the better the App becomes in recognising different plant species.

More Info:

BGANZ PlantSnap Initiative
PlantSnap Initiative FAQ

We need your help!

The ANBG has been working with BGANZ and PlantSnap to improve the accuracy of the PlantSnap App’s identification of Australian plant species.

To contribute to this citizen-science project and global initiative, we need you to do what you love, take photos of plants!

The machine learning process needs at least 20 photos of each plant to teach the PlantSnap App to correctly identify a plant. The photos need to be clear, in focus and contain key features of the plant to be useful for teaching identification.

With each new photo and feedback from users, the PlantSnap App continues to hone its identification skills.

The ANBG has provided access to the ANBG plant photograph collection but we still need more photos to further increase the accuracy.

The contribution you make by providing photographs to the BGANZ PlantSnap initiative is invaluable. The plant photographs you provide will make a significant impact on the PlantSnap Apps capacity to correctly identify Australian Native plants.

What photos do we need?

You can take new photos for this project or use photos taken previously.

Make sure that your photos are —

Positively identified to species:

• Preferably only take photos of plants in the Gardens that are clearly identified with an accession tag.
• Photos of hybrids are cultivars are welcomed, the app needs to learn these as well. Please make sure that you have recorded the Genus and cultivar name.

Only of ONE plant:

• Make sure that there is only ONE plant in the photo – multiple plants in the photo frame may confuse the machine learning.

Clearly showing features of the plant:

• photos showing leaves and flowers/fruits in detail and in focus are ideal. You are encouraged to take and upload multiple photos of the same plant.
• Getting in close to see the details is preferred. However at times a photo of the whole plant is useful, make sure not to have any other plants in the photo if you do this.
• Try to get the flower/fruit or feature of the plant in the centre of the photo.
• Good quality and well exposed images – Dark, blurred, and overexposed photos will make the plant look unnatural and this will make identification harder
• Dark, blurred, and overexposed photos will make the plant look unnatural and this will make identification harder

What to avoid?

Too many plants in the photo

Damaged flower

Plant too far away

Your photos are yours!

Copyright and ownership of photos you submit to the training of the app remains with you.
Your photographs will only be used for the purpose of training the app machine learning algorithm, they will not be shared or viewed publicly.

If there is an opportunity to use your photographic work in the public domain, PlantSnap will seek your permission prior to publishing the photograph. In consultation with you, PlantSnap will acknowledge and attribute your creative work to you.

Getting Involved

• Email media@bganz.org.au to indicate your interest in providing photos for PlantSnap machine learning
• You will be provided with a private link to your own folder on Dropbox where you can upload your images
• Please make sure that images are less than 2 MB
• Naming images – Please ensure that you provide the commonly accepted scientific name or hybrid or cultivar name. If uploading multiple photos of the one plant, please use the following naming convention:Genus species-1
  Genus species-2
  etc
• We encourage you to download the Plant Snap App and test out each month over 2021 how much the App improves.