Press

Our Observation of the Week is this Utricularia kumaonensis bladderwort plant, seen in Nepal by @elizabeth_byers!

Alan Weakley wants to help you identify the hot-pink wildflower that catches your eye on morning dog walks and distinguish between a tulip tree and a sweet gum without having to lug around a guide that could double as a cornerstone.

If you’ve ever found a plant that you didn’t recognize and wanted to know what it was, then this episode is for you. We talk about learning to observe plants, how to identify plants, why that’s important, and some exciting new tools that are available to help us better recognize and appreciate the diversity of plants around us.

Alan Weakley and the Southeastern Flora Team are thrilled to announce the release of FloraQuest: Northern Tier, a new plant identification and discovery app covering more than 5,800 wildflowers, trees, shrubs, grasses, and other vascular plants occurring in the northern part of The Flora of the Southeastern United States (FSUS).

We are thrilled to announce the release of FloraQuest: Northern Tier, a new plant identification and discovery app from Alan Weakley and the Southeastern Flora Team covering more than 5,800 wildflowers, trees, shrubs, grasses, and other vascular plants occurring in the northern part of The Flora of the Southeastern United States (FSUS).

Oregon's wildflowers typically begin blooming in early March and continue through mid summer, as late as July, with "peak bloom" happening in May and early June.

I always forget what cauline means! In plant descriptions and the dichotomous keys, words from the Flora glossary are now hyperlinked (left) to their glossary entry. Tap a blue word, and its definition pops up (right). Example: the key for Spring Beauty.

With a small staff and a large network of volunteers, OregonFlora has created a repository of information about plants across Oregon. The project manages oregonflora.org and a wildflowers app, has produced two Flora of Oregon print volumes and is finalizing production on a third volume.

Some lucky prizewinners received free flora apps from High Country Apps during our Fall 2021 Annual Meeting n Zoom. For those not familiar with this Montana-based company and their plant identification apps, read on for an overview.

OregonFlora, an Oregon State University-based organization devoted to the state's plants, has launched a revamped website that makes its database of over 4,700 plant species that grow in the wild in Oregon more broadly accessible. Oregon Flora also created the Oregon wildflowers app, which can help identify more than 1,050 common wildflowers, shrubs, and vines found in Oregon and adjacent areas of Washington, Idaho and northern California.

... Shannon Kimball Kimball, who is also the curator of the herbarium at the University of Montana, is working on a second edition of her book and an expansion of her Glacier Wildflower app for phones. The app is more expansive and the updates will include more than 100 additional species than the book. The book is still a great guide, but the number of species has to be pared down or it would get too heavy to carry. For the app search for "Glacier Wildflowers".

Vegetation ecologist Elizabeth Byers has partnered with the Flora of Nepal Project, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Nepal, and High Country Apps to produce Wildflowers of Mount Everest, the first-ever plant identification app for Nepal, with a focus on Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone. This World Heritage Site and Ramsar location is famously dominated by Mount Everest and home to the Sherpa people.

It may have been a soggy start to Glacier National Park's reopening to visitors last week, but all that rain has proven largely beneficial to Glacier's plants.

Spring has again returned to Nepal. Wildflowers are blooming about the mountains and plains. Rhododendrons and primroses paint the scene with colorful hues of purple, pink, red, and yellow, and soon summertime will bring strange alpine blossoms like the Hippolytia gossypina, with its golden flowers atop white-haired stalks.

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Nepal is famous for its spectacular scenery of mountains and plains, rich cultural heritage. But no less wondrous is the beautiful flora that adorns it.

RBGE's Flora of Nepal team have partnered with vegetation ecologist Elizabeth Byers, Nepal's Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, and High Country Apps to produce Wildflowers of Mount Everest, the first-ever plant identification mobile app for the country. The app focuses on Sagarmatha National Park and Buffer Zone which is famously dominated by Mount Everest and home to the Sherpa people. Less well-known, but equally spectacular, are its beautiful rhododendron-filled forests and alpine flowers.

Wildflowers of Mount Everest is the first-ever wildflower identification app for Nepal. The app virtually transports travelers to the world's highest peak and showcases its remarkable native flora through beautifully detailed images and easy-to-use graphical keys.

Dreaming of your next trip to Nepal? Or going through photos and memories from your last trip? High Country Apps announced a new app, called "Wildflowers of Mount Everest", the first-ever wildflower identification app for Nepal. The app virtually transports travelers to the world's highest peak and showcases its remarkable native flora through beautifully detailed images and easy-to-use graphical keys.

Wildflowers of Mount Everest, a plant identification app designed for iOS and Android devices, provides more than 2500 detailed images, 1000 local names, descriptions, plant facts, and local lore for 557 wildflowers, shrubs, and trees that grow on the slopes and trails of Mount Everest.

Not sure what this flower is? Your smartphone may know. Thanks to the latest apps, identifying flowers, trees, and other plants has gotten easier. Flora of Virginia is a reliable, comprehensive guide to 3,200 plant species native to or naturalized in the state of Virginia.

Vegetation is expanding at high altitudes in the Himalayas, including in the Everest region, new research has shown. The researchers found plant life in areas where vegetation was not previously known to grow. A team used satellite data from 1993 to 2018 to measure the extent of plant cover between the tree-line and the snow-line.

As the planet warms and Himalayan glaciers melt, a small miracle is taking place. On the boulders and rubble that are exposed by melting ice, pioneering wildflowers are colonizing the new land. This is an extreme environment with essentially no soil and with freezing temperatures much of the year.

I've had numerous people reach out to me with photos and the simple question, 'What is this flower I saw on a hike last weekend?

They can be as much fun to say -- fairy lantern, bog candle, goose grass, honeysuckle, glacier lily, foxglove, fiddleneck, Sitka mistmaiden, fragrant fringecap, Columbia kittentails -- as they are to see.

Harrington's penstemon,' I call to my friends. I stop the truck. It's late May, and I have been driving slowly in a sage-oak plant community south of Eagle. Our quest: to find wildflowers. Upon closer inspection, the two exerted stamens confirm it is, indeed, a Harrington's. This half-foot-tall hyper-color purple penstemon is uniquely endemic to Eagle and surrounding counties.

Outdoor hikes and excursions in Virginia provide acres of lush greenery and always guarantee eye-opening botanical experiences. But have you ever stopped to admire a piece of vegetation...?

Did you know you could use the Flora of Virginia Mobile App to pick plants that suit your yard, garden, or other site?

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Need a little incentive to purchase and/or start using the Virginia Flora Mobile App? Come to the March 1st meeting of the Pocahontas Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society and learn all about the App from the Flora of Virginia Executive Director, Bland Crowder. The App features just about everything from the print Flora, as well as the new Graphic Key and a lot of new features, like photos and range maps. As expertise grows, botanists learn to leap to just the right point in the dichotomous keys. And you can fit all that information in your pocket.

High Country Apps offers three wildflower recognition apps that are getting rave reviews from users.

Last spring, while perusing the Winter 2017 issue of Sempervirens, the quarterly publication of the Virginia Native Plant Society, I came across a short article announcing plans for a mobile app version of the Flora of Virginia.

Good news for native plant lovers. The Flora of Virginia app is out for both Android and iOS devices. If you have used the 'Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora' to help identify natives, you know how easy it is to use, and you probably have been wishing for a phone app to use in the field.

Good news for native plant lovers. The Flora of Virginia app is out for both Android and iOS devices.

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A well thought-out app for pros and beginners alike

The Flora of Virginia Mobile App has been released.

This article continues the discussion of how to use the Washington Wildflowers App

Five apps that help navigate the outdoor experience without spoiling it

Interested in the wildflowers of Yosemite National Park? Now is the time to get the Yosemite Wildflower App.

Yosemite National Park is blooming. Pretty wildflowers of all sorts are blossoming thanks to the heavy rainfall these past few months.

How can you determine the name of a plant that's in bloom along a beach, in a forest, a desert area or mountain meadow? The Washington Wildflowers app, created by High Country Apps, will help! It's easy to use and has great photos and illustrations.

TOP APPS FOR OUTDOOR ADVENTURERS: High Country Apps builds wildflower identification apps for some of America's greatest wilderness destinations.

The Mobile App will run on smart phones and tablets and will include all the 3,164 species covered in the Flora.

Linda Hardison and her colleagues continued to turn the project into a comprehensive resource for the general public. In addition to ongoing development of the herbarium, they have produced an interactive web site, a book, and a popular wildflower app [Oregon Wildflowers].

Al Schneider's popular Colorado Rocky Mountain Wildflowers app ...

With 2017 nearly upon us, we thought that it would be a good time to look back at the accomplishments of the past year.

If you want to learn which plants are native to the Willamette Valley, I suggest you get the Oregon Wildflowers app.

Think Utahns aren't passionate about their wildflowers? Think again. There are no fewer than four (FOUR!) Utah-centric apps specifically dedicated to identifying the little four-petaled lavender flower that sprung up by your tent overnight. (Check the apps out here.) These apps are great for identifying obscure flowers and can even help you pronounce the wildflowers' names, which is essential because they sound like the latest edition of Pokemon creatures: Zauschneria? Monkshood? Viscosissimum? Gotta catch them all!

As an amateur botanist who bores my husband with plant names wherever we go...

On your next hike, you can lookup the beautiful wildflowers that you discover. Here's a great cell phone app that downloads a library of over 1050 wildflowers, shrubs, and vines in Oregon.

Whether you plan to hike the mountains of Yosemite National Park in California or take a nature walk through the Texas prairies...

For many of us, the days of atlases, paper maps and word of mouth recommendations are a thing of the past. When planning a trip or just a night on the town, we now peruse the app store on our smartphones and tablets in search of the best app.

In this age of technology our smart phones are being utilized more and more for practical purposes on the trail. You can download trail maps, track hikes with GPS, and take amazing print quality photos with them! They can be even be used as a portal reference library!

A great new wildflower App for Yosemite is available for iPhone, iPad, or Android. The app provides images, descriptions, and interesting information for 584 plants that grow in Yosemite National Park with 2,700 images.

Bellingham photographer co-develops native plant identification app.

The Montana Grasses app from Montana State University's College of Agriculture assists users in identifying the various grasses and grass-like plants found in Montana and the surrounding states. The app includes photographs, descriptions, maps as well as other information on over 100 grass plants. The Montana Grasses app is $6.25 and available for both Android and iOS operating systems.

From local naturalist Patricia Berman: Patricia hiked Sheep (Snow) Mountain this week. Many flowers and shrubs are blooming under the pine trees. If you want to identify the flowers and shrubs you are seeing on your hikes she recommends Guide to Colorado Wildflowers: Mountains, Vol 2., by G. K. Guennel, the Colorado Rocky Mountain Wildflower App by High Country Apps and the website SW Colorado Wildflowers (covers the wildflowers on the Western Slope).

If you've ever looked at a plant and wondered how it fits into the ecosystem, well, now there's an app for that. The Botanical Research Institute of Texas, the international award-winning non-profit based in Fort Worth, has created a new digital tool to promote conservation and learning.

The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) and High Country Apps have partnered to release a plant identification app for the Fort Worth Prairie Region called Flora of Texas: Fort Worth Prairie Region. The app includes images, technical descriptions, and ethnobotanical and biodiversity information on more than 300 forbs, vines, and grasses that grow in the Fort Worth Prairie and parts of the Western Cross Timbers.

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The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) and High Country Apps have partnered to release a plant identification app for the Fort Worth Prairie Region called Flora of Texas: Fort Worth Prairie Region.

A new smartphone and tablet app, "Idaho Wildflowers," is designed for people hitting the trails for wildflower hikes.The app is the first time extensive information.

A new smartphone and tablet app, "Idaho Wildflowers," is designed for people hitting the trails for wildflower hikes.

Do you know the difference between a purple-eyed grasswidow and a clasping Venus' looking glass? I download the Oregon Wildflowers app to find images, descriptions and range maps for these two beauties, as well as for nearly 1,000 additional wildflowers, shrubs and vines common in Oregon.

It's early May and we're half way through Wildflower Month in the Willamette Valley (officially April 17 through May 17), but fear not, there are blooms aplenty, real and rendered, if you know where to look.

Most of the time when people are looking down at a screen outside, they're oblivious to their surroundings. But just as possible is their use of technology to enjoy and connect with nature.

Smartphone field guide lets you stop and smell Idaho's wildflowers

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We are pleased to report that the Washington Trails Association selected our Washington Wildflowers app as one of the "Best Apps" for 2015.

The flower blooms is earlier than usual this spring in the Columbia River Gorge, a place famous for its profuse wildflowers.

(read more on p.11)

Looking to refresh your outdoor apps in the new year? Don't miss our list of Best Outdoor Apps for 2015. Some will help you identify wildflowers and birds; others will help you navigate your favorite trail. And a few just might save your life.

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If you enjoy our planet's colorful adornments, you'll love this resource. A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. The University of Idaho's Stillinger Herbarium, the University of Washington's Herbarium at the Burke Museum and Idaho State University's Ray J. Davis Herbarium have partnered with High Country Apps to create the "Idaho Wildflowers" app, now available for iOS, Android and Kindle devices, according to a UI press release.

The University of Idaho's Stillinger Herbarium, the University of Washington's Herbarium at the Burke Museum and Idaho State University's Ray J. Davis Herbarium have partnered with High Country Apps to create the Idaho Wildflowers app, now available for iOS, Android and Kindle devices.

A recently released app is another example of how science and new technologies are being used together to create educational experiences for users.

Whether an amateur botanist who's spotted a rare wild orchid or a professional biologist studying plant diversity, Idaho wildflower enthusiasts have a new tool to help them identify and study the state's flora.

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There's an old cliche about stopping to smell the roses, a widely used maxim whose sentiment, though cheapened like dime-store perfume through the years, remains basically intact -- we must indulge these fleeting moments if we're to enjoy life's essence.

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Oregon app puts petals to the mettle. Have you ever been on an outdoor excursion in Oregon and wanted to know the name of the wildflowers around you? There's now an app for that thanks to a team of botanists at the Oregon Flora Project at Oregon State University.

An Oregon State University project blooms into an app to help identify thousands of Oregon wildflowers

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In the past, I've written about various smartphone "apps" of interest to woodland owners (if you missed them, you can read these past articles here). Here is another, released last week just in time for the peak of our spring wildflowers.

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The Oregon Flora Project, together with High Country Apps, has released its /Oregon Wildflowers/ app! This app is an interactive field guide to 947 species of wildflowers, vines and shrubs that occur in nature in Oregon (whether they are native or introduced). It provides photos, range maps and brief descriptions for each species in addition to providing an easy-to-use interface for identification using just a few basic plant characters.

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Information about the Pacific Northwest's wide array of wildflowers is just a swipe away with a new mobile app designed in part by botanists at Oregon State University.

It's happened to probably every hiker somewhere along the trail. You're walking and a bright wildflower catches your eye. You've never seen it before -- and you want to know more.

If you like to plant, grow, or learn about flowers, then check out our list of the best flower apps for your iPhone.

Sure, my smartphone is a communication device. But it's also my portable notebook, a map in the wilderness, a camera that makes me look like I know what I'm doing, and even a contemporary iteration of an old-school transistor radio that keeps me company while I work in the garden. But I never thought it would allow me to take my garden library along on every hike and road trip.

Learn how to recognize these and other popular wildflowers and enter for your chance to win a free flower-recognition app from High Country Apps.

Check it out. The next time you're on trail and say, 'Hey, I wonder what that flower is?' just whip out our phone and find out. You'll probably catch me doing the same thing!

Washington is blooming, and now there's an app that provides images and descriptions for more than 870 common wildflowers, shrubs, and vines found in Washington and adjacent areas of British Columbia, Idaho, and Oregon.

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Part of the allure of being outdoors in Colorado is the magnificent array of wildflowers found in the Rockies. With a new interactive app for smart phones and tablets, users easily can identify species while enjoying nature.

Cellphone apps make it easy to ID birds, flowers, not get lost

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The Washington Wildflowers app, out this week, includes an identification key and information for more than 870 common wildflowers, shrubs and vines in Washington and adjacent areas of British Columbia, Idaho and Oregon.

The University of Washington Herbarium at the Burke Museum, the authors of Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest, and High Country Apps have partnered to produce the new Washington Wildflowers wildflower identification app for iOS and Android mobile devices.

The University of Washington Herbarium and its partners have released plant identification apps for the wildflowers of Washington (1,021 species) and Idaho (810 species), based in part on information contained in the Burke Herbarium Image Collection web site.

If you love the images and information on this website but wish you could have them in the field ... now you can. Washington Wildflowers, the smartphone app, lets you take 870 species from Washignton state into the field with you.

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High Country Apps has developed an inexpensive ($10) mobile field guide called "Colorado Rocky Mountain Wildflowers." Designed for the tablet, smartphone, or Kindle, the app functions without a phone signal and is well-suited to field use.

A Columbia Falls native and botanist has developed a new wildflower identification app for Glacier National Park and surrounding wildlands.

We selected three reviewers to explore the app and report back to us, one interpretive ranger, one resource specialist, and one guide from a partner organization. Reviewers found that the app was easy to use and deemed it appropriate for professional guides as well as novice nature enthusiasts. They liked the search key which allows the user to select flower color, leaf type, and other characteristics to quickly identify unknown plants."

Steve Hegji, author of Wasatch Wildflowers has created a Smart Phone app for wildflowers on the Wasatch Front. Be sure to check it out!

As a confirmed bibliophile and borderline luddite, I'm apprehensive about diving into new technology, such as iPhones, iPads, Kindles, and the like. But the world marches on, and I realize it may be time to see what all the hubbub is about. With new apps, such as Colorado Rocky Mountain Wildflowers and Flora of the Wasatch by Al Schneider and Steve Hegji, my transition from bulky paper field guides to mobile form will be a lot easier. ...The advantage of the app format is portability & search-ability. Users can search for species by family or use the clever built-in "keys" to narrow the pool of potential taxa when identifying an unknown plant.

Wondering what that beautiful rose-pink flower is that's blooming close to the ground? There's an app for that, thanks to the collaboration of Bozeman residents Katie Gibson and Whitney Tilt, who formed a new business a year ago called High Country Apps.

It's not all gear-geeking and ski porn here on Master of None, and to that end I want to hype a really well designed and fun app called "Colorado Rocky Mountain Wildflowers." The folks at High Country Apps are scientists first and designer/entrepreneurs second, but even so their app is the easiest I've used amongst the naturalist stuff out there which is saying something, because I've blown cash on the Audubon bird guide and a few others. Rocky Mtn. Wildflowers is easier and more accurate for a bumbler like me, which is great!

Not long after Whitney Tilt moved to Bozeman from Washington D.C. he was stunned to learn there wasn't a single good field guide to the area's flowers.

Having had a chance to play with a beta version of this app here at the IoE, we give it a big thumbs up! Developed using an innovative and easy to use interface, this app will help you identify flowers on the trail and a lot more.

The Oregon Flora Project (OregonFlora.org) in partnership with the Botany & Plant Pathology Department at Oregon State University and High Country Apps have partnered to produce the new Oregon Wildflowers plant identification app for mobile devices.