Jane found a surprisingly impressive Android app today (iOS version also available) called Seek. I couldn’t resist the Bible quotation (Mt 7:7) in the title but this one is actually all about plant identification. Present it a photo of a plant or load one you’ve taken earlier and it will try to tell you what it is.
I hadn’t expected much but it turns out to be pretty good. In particular, we were interested in a climbing plant growing through the privet hedge at the front of our rental house. From the flowers, I wondered if it was some kind of nightshade but it turns out to be White Bryony (Bryonia dioica).
The RHS classifies it as a weed and Wild Food UK notes that it was “… used as a laxative in the past but the results were so explosive it is not considered safe for this use anymore”! We’ll heed that warning and not eat any of it then. It is rather pretty and uncommon enough that we didn’t recognise it without the app so we will trim it back a bit but at least let a few more flowers come out before we cut it down further.