I have always been fascinated with the lore behind the knowledge of a true name (sometimes referred to as the 'Law of Names'). This folklore suggests that knowing someone's - or something's - true name gives one power over them. I feel like - to a certain extent - the same can be true of organisms and species in our world.
Once you know the true name (or scientific, in our reality), of a species, you now have access to any and all relevant information about it: what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats/what eats it, if it's edible, medicinal properties, economic uses, and so on.
If you're anything like me, you want to know the names of all plant and animal species you come across. While I am a huge fan of "keying it out" using an old-fashioned field guide, sometimes it's nice to have the quick & easy option of using the amazing technology we have in our pockets and at our fingertips.
I've tried probably a dozen different species identification apps, and iNaturalist is by far the best (in my humble opinion). Not only does it give you an accurate ID 99% of the time (at least in my experience), you are also sharing your observations to a larger database which is accessible to people around the world and can be used by scientists conducting real research!
The app is incredibly user friendly, and can be a fun way to "interact" with other amateur, recreational, or professional naturalists in your area. Let's walk through how it's used to make an ID:
This is the screen presented when you first open the app, showing all your past observations. To make a new observation, we'll click on "Observe".
This will open up your camera to allow you to either take a new picture (seen here), or select a photo from your camera roll by selecting the Picture image on the bottom right of the screen.
Since I don't think they'll have an ID for a sleepy house cat, we'll select an image from my camera roll of this perfect little flower I found on the side of a biking trail. Once we've selected our photo, we'll click 'Next'.
Here's where we begin making our ID. Note that this screen allows us to add additional information to our observation. I can make a note maybe detailing what the weather has been like recently, it gives me the location of where the picture was taken, I can choose to make my observation open to the public or private, and I can add it to a particular project I'm working on (if I were trying to ID as many VA wildflowers as possible, I could make a Wildflowers project folder to keep all those observations together - kind of like making your own little field guide!). To figure out what our little flower friend is, we'll click on the 'What did you see?' box to see a list of suggested IDs.
The first ID displayed will be the suggested Genus, which in my experience has always been correct. Then, listed below, we get into specific species. Sometimes it may take a bit of scrolling to get to the correct ID, but a lot of the time (especially if you have a good, clear picture) your accurate ID will be one of the first listed. Click the 'i' in a circle button next to the species you want to see more in depth. The first species looks pretty similar to my picture, so we'll click on that one.
This screen gives us additional photos, information about where this species is found, a map detailing this information, and a link to more info on iNaturalist.com. At this point I'm pretty convinced this is our winning ID, so I'm going to click the 'Select 'back-eyed Susan'' button to complete our observation.
Once I've selected my identification, this observation now shows up in my feed on the home page. Note how some observations have little comment boxes next to them. This indicates another user has confirmed the species I've selected for that observation as being correct. Once your observation has been verified, it's then considered 'Research Grade' and is submitted to the larger database to be used by other naturalists or scientists!
By clicking 'Explore' on the homepage, you are able to see other user's observations in your area. From there you can verify their IDs and see what types of flora and fauna people come across near you!
I mostly use this app for plants, as they tend to stand still for pictures, but it works really well for animals, insects, and everything in between, too (note the little Squareback Marsh Crab I managed to snap)! I use this app almost every time I go outside to further explore the world around me. It's a great tool to make a quick ID and keep tabs on species you want to look into further when you've got time to sit down and crack open a field guide. And, as I said before, once you have its true name it will reveal all of its secrets to you.