Not everyone is a botanist, and sometimes the only thing you can do is stare at a plant wondering what on earth it is.
Luckily for us, the internet is ready to help. The subreddit r/whatsthisplant is a place where us clueless folk upload photos of mystery greenery to get IDs. The 490K-strong community jumps in, often sharing more than just a name—they add care tips, mention quirky features, and never criticize you for asking questions.
Not every living being can introduce themselves, so it's nice that others can do it for them.
#1 What's This Curly Cactus?
Cereus forbesii cv Spiralis
and that is a stunning specimen of it.
Image credits: black_rose_
#2 I Thought You Would All Enjoy This Chimera Rose, My Friends Parents Have A Red Rose Bush Where On One Particular Branch It Blooms These Beauties
Plant geneticist here!
1 Nice rose!
2 I bet this was caused by a somatic mutation, specifically a transposon (jumping gene) inserting near something that activates color in petals (a transcription factor or anthocyanin gene). The unevenness could be due to variable epigenetic silencing of that region to keep the transposon from jumping again. The same mechanism causes striped flowers in petunias and morning glories.
Anyway, I think it's cool from a professional standpoint and wanted to share. 🙂
Image credits: dishsoapalmighty
#3 Seen In Santa Monica, CA. I Couldn’t Get Any Closer But It Looks Gorgeous!!
It's probably a Bougainvillea.
Image credits: arkwl
Dr. Erin Hill from the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University says people are driven to identify plants for many reasons; sometimes it is out of curiosity to know more about the world around us, while other times it is out of the desire or need to manage areas like gardens, agricultural fields, restored habitats, and/or natural preserves.
"Plants are the foundation of food webs, and they are tied to our understanding of how ecosystems function," Hill explains. "Plant identification has been and continues to be a matter of familiarity—knowledge passed down through mentorship by family or friends, or perhaps something learned in school."
One can also seek expert advice. For example, plant identification is one of the many services offered at Michigan State University (MSU) Plant & Pest Diagnostics and the MSU Herbarium, and help is available through the Michigan State University Extension Lawn. But you should be able to find similar resources at your local university, botanical garden, or natural history museum if you live elsewhere, too.
#4 Beautiful Picture My Friend Sent Me To Identify
Santa Rita prickly pear
Image credits: mixed-episodes
#5 Tree In My Neighborhood That I Have Been Wondering About
Caribbean tree cactus!
And one of the largest, oldest and most beautiful ones I've ever seen even online. this thing is absolutely awe inspiring
Image credits: cl4ptpbot321
#6 Noticed This Thing Popped Up In Front My Window About A Week Ago And It Keeps Getting Bigger. I Don’t Know What It Is, We’ve Had This Plant For 5 Years And It’s Never Done This Before
Agave only flower once--one absolutely giant asparagus-like flower stalk--and then die. It will make many little pups though.
Image credits: TheNarcissisticNobod
Hill says that there are several smartphone apps available to assist with plant identification as well. "I began evaluating plant identification apps in 2018 for use in the weed science laboratory class at MSU, and for presentations to various garden and commodity groups. From 2018–2020, I evaluated a minimum of six apps (available for both Android and iOS smartphones) using 10–12 plants, with the best-performing apps carrying over to the next year's evaluation."
"In the fall of 2021, I drastically increased the number of identifications used to rank the apps by involving groups of university students enrolled in the lab," the scientist adds.
Since 2018, she and her students have evaluated a total of 16 apps. In 2023, all the apps tested used photo recognition software and geolocation information to identify plants, but some tested in the past required more descriptive input from the user, similar to traditional plant keys. "Most are free or have a free version. It is important to read all terms prior to downloading or purchasing apps. This assessment is for educational purposes only."
The top six apps were found to be:
- PictureThis;
- PlantStory;
- PlantNet;
- PlantIn;
- iNaturalist;
- Google Lens.
#7 Moved In To This House Last Fall. I Mowed My Grass 5 Days Ago... And This Plant Sprouted Out Of No Where. 3 Of Them, And This Is The Biggest
Asparagus
Image credits: Lana-Next-Door
#8 This Plant Is Not Dead! I’ve Had It For Years And It Has Neither Died Nor Grown. The “Branches” Are Not Particularly Woody Or Stiff, At Least Not As Much As They Look. What Is It?!
It's dead. It's been dead for years.
What exactly makes you think it's alive? It's not green, it doesn't grow.
Image credits: BuriedComments
#9 What Plant Is This? It Has Pink Flowers… I Was Curious To Whether My Neighbours Are Growing Opium
Opium poppy, but plenty of people grow them as ornamentals
Image credits: OutlandishnessOk3735
However, keep in mind that an automated ID still makes mistakes. "The top-performing app was PictureThis, with 73% of the suggested identifications being correct," Hill says. "If the partial ratings (16%) are added to the correct ratings, we see that the app was helpful 89% of the time, averaged across all plant categories."
"Following this lead were PlantStory (48% accuracy) and PlantNet (40% accuracy). If you add in the partially correct answers, these apps were helpful 65% and 67% of the time, respectively."
So communities like r/whatsthisplant continue to be invaluable—a kind of crowd-sourced, peer-reviewed system where members correct each other’s guesses on the off chance someone gets it wrong.
For more examples of their work, check out our older publication on the subreddit.
#10 My So’s Mother Has This Magnificent Plant, But She Couldn’t Identify It. Can Anyone Help?houseplant Is Located In North Carolina
This woman grew the most epic fiddle leaf fig anyone has ever seen and has the audacity to not even know what it's called?
Image credits: glowphotosglow
#11 Not Looking For The Tree, Wondering What The Lump Is
Congratulations, it’s a burl!
Image credits: -Glowl
#12 Unedited Photo. Deepest Must Vibrant Purple I Have Ever Seen In Nature. What Is This Little Guy (Flowers Are A Penny In Diameter Or Less)
Blue lobelia
Image credits: GnarlsGnarlington
#13 Found Sitting Alone On A Bed Of Moss In The Middle Of The Woods
A red trillium! Nice find.
Image credits: okaysureyep
#14 What’s This Purple Guy? Found Hiking Near The Hollywood Sign. Super Cool Shape And Color:
Datura
Image credits: rossblanket
#15 Growing Corn In My Garden And Thought My Corn Was Growing Rocks. What In The World Is This!?
Corn smut. It’s an infection. Totally edible though. As a matter of fact in Mexico it’s called huitlacoche and it’s considered a delicacy
Image credits: s0njc
#16 Found The Most Intricate Flower I’ve Ever Seen Today In A Regular Roadside Bush
Passionflower. They're very distinctive!
Image credits: ThatMarionberry5465
#17 Please Help Identify I’m In Love
its a bougainvillea
Image credits: Biogirl0322
#18 What Is This Spectacular Yellow And Pink Tree?
Looks like a Redbud to me, too. I've never seen one with so many blossoms coming directly from the bark like that. A few, but not such dense clusters. Very pretty.
By the way, those pretty golden newborn leaves will be regular ol' green leaves in a few days.
Image credits: BenevolentCheese
#19 What Is This Fruit My Friend’s Mom Handed To Me?
No offense intended but, where are you from that you don't know this is a pear?
Image credits: reddit.com
#20 A Strange Big Plant
That is 💯 giant hogweed. Observe from a distance only. DO NOT TOUCH!
Image credits: Accomplished-Yak7289
#21 This Strange Thing In My Onion Field
Egyptian walking onions do this.
They get heavy and fall over, planting themselves
Image credits: Clear_Rise_5005
#22 What Is My Sunflower Doing?
A sunflower is actually made up of a bunch of individual flowers of 2 different types. The petals around the outside are called ray flowers. The middle is made up of many disk flowers. This one just has a few ray flowers where there would normally be disk flowers.
Image credits: notgingerbutnotred
#23 What's This Bush?
Smoke bush
Image credits: ColourMeCrazyDoctor
#24 What Flower Is This? Is It Real?
RuiYunDian Chrysanthemum. Google showed me similar images when I typed in "flower that looks like icing."
Image credits: Acceptable_Link_6546
#25 Help
Spiral Aloe, Aloe polyphylla
Image credits: Pretty-Initiative630
#26 Just Caught 5 Y/O Son Eating One Of These Berries, Made Him Spit It Out Soon As I Saw, ID Please? Located In East Sussex, UK!
This plant has been identified as Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna.) OP's son ate some of the fruit, experienced mild poisoning symptoms and was treated by a local emergency room. The child is now ok. The doctor commented that the child was lucky he did not consume more of the fruit. This occurred in the UK.
This demonstrates the importance of not eating random plants you find in the wild and keeping an eye on children around wild plants. This isn't always an easy task so you should be prepared.
If in doubt, call poison control for advice (link below to all poison control phone numbers worldwide.) If you're unable to talk to anyone on the phone, take the person or animal who has ingested the plant material straight to the doctor/emergency room or vet/emergency vet.
Post here to get an ID from the community, but do not wait for an ID as time is critical in cases of poisoning. It's always better to err on the side of caution.
Note: It is important to note that you should NOT induce vomiting if you think a poison has been consumed. There is a risk of choking on vomit, and plants can sometimes be toxic in a caustic way, meaning you will cause more damage by vomiting. Always let medical professionals make the decision whether to induce vomiting.
Image credits: reddit.com
#27 What Is This Flower Seen In Paris
The cultivar is called Bumble Rumble!
Image credits: ThunderyIndigo
#28 What Is This Grape-Like Vine Thing Growing Over My Fence In New Zealand?
Grapes
Image credits: arheff
#29 Lived Here 3 Years And Never Saw This Before
Morel Mushroom, Morchella sp.
Image credits: comicconnie
#30 Cut Open A Peach And There Was An Almond Inside?
Peaches and almonds are related. Do Not Eat Peach Seeds!!!
Image credits: KingofCam
#31 Need Some Help Iding These Blue Flowers That Look Like Tiny Wizards
It's called Corydalis, from mountains of China originally! It's perennial so enjoy for years!
Image credits: twilson1209
#32 It Looks Like An Orchid. What Is It?
I call them Johnny Jump Ups because my father always did. But yes, violas.
Image credits: melocotonn_
#33 Watching A Friend’s Plants And Noticed A Nasty Smell In My Kitchen. It’s Coming From This Thing That Just Flowered, What Is It?
Stapelia lol
They smell bad because they attract flies as pollinators
Image credits: baconwitch00
#34 My Friend Took A Bite, I Said Not To
Rose hips. The fruits of a rose plant
Image credits: BecomeTheMeme
#35 Should I Keep This In The Garden?
Monk’s Hood - Aconitum genus
In the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Aka Wolf’s Bane
Image credits: ramakharma
#36 The Pups Keep Digging These Up In The Yard. It Smells Like Garlic And Onions But Not In A Good Way. My First Guess Was Truffles But My Plant ID App Says It’s A Fungus
Truffles are fungi.
Image credits: imgotcheese
#37 What’s This Trippy Fella Called? Found This In A Group Post On Facebook. No Details Including Location
Rising Sun Redbud
There was a post on r/mildlyinteresting featuring one of these about a year ago. Cool trees, I’ve never seen one IRL.
Image credits: Release1975
#38 What Is This Alien Looking Flower?
Looks like a bromeliad, Puya.
Image credits: Luckydog12
#39 Found In A Small Body Of Mossy Water Just Underneath A Statue, Slimy Texture And Burst When Slightly Pressed
Wow! So many people have never seen frog eggs yet keep saying that’s what these are. The biggest giveaway that these are not frog eggs is that there are no baby frogs in them!
This is a type of freshwater cynanobacteria, much like the common bubble algae that people get in their reef tanks.
Image credits: AntonioGarzaHi123
#40 Found This On A Stroll In Vancouver
monkey puzzle tree
Image credits: Trail_Blaze_R
#41 Are These Blueberries? Found Near A Mica Deposit In New Brunswick, Canada
Oh, it’s actually blueberries.. crazy
Image credits: somefishingdude
#42 Whats Is The Name Of This Plant?
Aglaonema pictum Tricolor cultivar
Araceae family
Image credits: reddit.com
#43 Look What They Did To My Boy. .
Sometimes I see this type of damage when a caterpillar ate a hole through leaves before they unfurled. The inner leaves have smaller holes bc it didn’t eat all the way through-
Image credits: ExtraRaw
#44 From The Japanese Garden In Singapore
Judging by the super pink flower in the blurry back this is probably just lotus. Nelumbo nucifera.
Image credits: blabgasm
#45 Little Plant Growing Where My Cat Was Buried
If it is indeed fleabane
Image credits: juhbekky
#46 My Sweet Kind Neighbors Who Dont Speak English Very Well Gave Me This... Squash? Because It Was Growing On My Side Of The Fence. Any Help?
It's a long bottle gourd.
Image credits: poisonivy4444
#47 What Are These? The Devils Testicles? I Stepped On One With My Bare Heel And My Life Flashed Before My Eyes
Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua seed pods.
Image credits: cookiemonstrosity54
#48 Very General White Flowers.. All Help Is Appreciated!
I put it through google lens, looks like Saxifraga Findling.
Variety or Cultivar 'Findling' _ 'Findling' is a low, cushion- to mound-forming, evergreen perennial with rosettes of small, oval to spoon-shaped, mid-green leaves and short stems bearing cup-shaped, white flowers from mid- to late spring.
Image credits: distinct--shuffle
#49 Identify This Plant? A 6years Old Boy Ate Some Berries And Currently Developing Seizures And Is At Emergency
Tanner's tree (Coriaria nepalensis) maybe? "Toxicity : All parts of tanner's tree are toxic, containing coriamyrtine. Ingestion leads to severe symptoms like seizures and death."
Image credits: Middle-Chemistry810
#50 Pulled These Out Of My Dogs Armpit, What Is This?
Nassella leucotricha. It's a species of speargrass. It is engineered to spin itself with changes in humidity, which will self plant in soil. It will do something similar in fur.
Image credits: Previous_Remote_6892
