CORVALLIS, Ore. — Information about the Pacific Northwest’s wide array of wildflowers is just a swipe away with a mobile app designed in part by botanists at Oregon State University.
Available on iOS and Android devices, the Oregon Wildflowers app features nearly 1,000 wildflowers, shrubs and vines common in Oregon and adjacent areas in Idaho, Washington and California. For each plant, the app provides photographs, natural history, range maps and more. Once downloaded, it works without an internet connection.
A portion of revenues from the sales of the app supports conservation and botanical exploration in the region, said Linda Hardison, director of the Oregon Flora Project, an Oregon State effort to develop resources, like the new app, to help people learn about plants in Oregon.
“You can use the app no matter how remote your wanderings may take you,” said Hardison, a professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State.
“It’s designed for both budding wildflower enthusiasts and experienced botanists to learn about plant communities and ecology throughout the Pacific Northwest,” added Hardison, a botanist in Oregon State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
Built for quick lookup and deeper learning
Most species in the app are native to the region, with some established introduced species. Users can browse by common name, scientific name or family using high-resolution photos.
To identify an unknown plant, select from 12 illustrated categories, including geographic region, plant type, flower features (color, petal number), leaf characteristics (type, shape), plant size and habitat.
More resources from the Oregon Flora Project
The Oregon Flora Project published The flora of Oregon, a three-volume reference — the state’s only flora published in the past half century and the first illustrated floristic work devoted exclusively to Oregon. Volumes 1 and 2 were published in 2015 and 2020, respectively, and can be purchased from the publisher, the Botanical Research Institute of Texas Press, or other vendors.
The Oregon Flora Project website includes additional information about all of Oregon’s 4,380 native and naturalized plants. Its mission is to inform a broad range of audiences — policymakers, land-use managers, climate scientists, gardeners and plant enthusiasts — and to foster effective use of this information by all.
The Oregon Wildflowers app was developed in partnership with High Country Apps, which specializes in providing natural history information on mobile platforms.
Previously titled OSU app brings wildflower identification to your fingertips
