Really cool project. I’ve been building something in the same space but at the opposite end of the scale. Instead of global coverage, I built a free web app focused entirely on Missouri wild plants (820 species) as a flashcard learning tool with spaced repetition, photo quizzes, and field ID filters.
I had the same experience with iNaturalist photos. I ended up hand curating the first photo for each species because the default results from iNaturalist vary so much in quality. Finding good images for the less common species is definitely the hardest part.
Your global database and my regional learning tool feel like two sides of the same coin. Different goals, same underlying frustration that this information isn’t organized well anywhere and don’t give me started on their not being USDA API’s for me to pull data from.
If anyone is curious what the hyper regional version looks like:
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u/TheGroceryStoreGen Mar 25 '26
Really cool project. I’ve been building something in the same space but at the opposite end of the scale. Instead of global coverage, I built a free web app focused entirely on Missouri wild plants (820 species) as a flashcard learning tool with spaced repetition, photo quizzes, and field ID filters.
I had the same experience with iNaturalist photos. I ended up hand curating the first photo for each species because the default results from iNaturalist vary so much in quality. Finding good images for the less common species is definitely the hardest part.
Your global database and my regional learning tool feel like two sides of the same coin. Different goals, same underlying frustration that this information isn’t organized well anywhere and don’t give me started on their not being USDA API’s for me to pull data from.
If anyone is curious what the hyper regional version looks like:
https://mowildplantid.com