The app  is a joint development by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena and Ilmenau University of Technology. Initially the algorithm was trained using several million images of plants. The app has been online since 2018 and learns more with every use.

Is this plant poisonous? Is it common or rare? Is it a protected species? The app offers users plenty of information about the plant they don’t know, right on the spot. At the same time researchers are receiving new data and facts about plant diversity: where and when are which varieties flowering? How much variation is there between plants of the same species? How does the composition of plant species change at a particular location?  As part of this Citizen Science Project everyone can help to find out more about biodiversity and how it is changing, for example due to climate change.