May 13, 2011 In the summer of 2009, I had the pleasure of
writing about John Kress, a research botanist at the
Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and his
efforts to create a DNA barcode for all 25o plant species on
Plummers Island, a 12-acre island in the Potomac River here in
Washington, D.C. At the time, Kress spoke about a day when
citizen scientists, even schoolchildren, would be able to
identify plants with handheld DNA sequencers. They would be able
to upload the barcode to a smartphone in order to access an
online encyclopedia with basics about the species, botanical art
and anecdotal information, he explained. The botanist’s vision
seemed so futuristic, but now, just two years later, it is
beginning to come to fruition. In fact, Columbia University, the
University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Institution have
announced that Leafsnap, an iPhone, iPad and Android app that
will identify a plant based on a leaf’s silhouette, will be
released this summer. The mobile app uses visual recogn