A plant record becomes much more useful once it has a reliable botanical name and taxonomy. Family, genus and species make your collection easier to search, keep naming consistent and help you check whether two records refer to the same plant.

BotanicalMapper provides two tools to help with this:

Pl@ntNet uses photographs to suggest what a plant might be.
GBIF starts from a botanical name you already have and helps you find the accepted name and associated taxonomy.

The key idea
Use Pl@ntNet when you do not know what the plant is.
Use GBIF when you already have a botanical name and want to check or complete its taxonomy.
You choose which fields to apply, review them in the form, and nothing is written to the plant record until you click Save.

Pl@ntNet is available on Basic and above, with a daily identification limit.

GBIF is available on every plan and has no identification quota.

Two different jobs

It helps to keep the two questions separate.

What is this plant?

Use Pl@ntNet.

You send photographs of leaves, flowers, fruit, bark or the overall habit of the plant. Pl@ntNet returns a ranked list of possible species, with confidence scores and reference images that you can compare with your own photographs.

What is the accepted name and taxonomy for this name?

Use GBIF, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Enter a botanical name and GBIF searches its taxonomic backbone. It can provide information including:

family;
genus;
species;
subspecies;
variety;
accepted names and synonyms.

It may also show a common name, conservation status and wild photographs.

GBIF cannot look at a photograph and tell you what the plant is.

If you do not know the name, start with Pl@ntNet.

Where to find Pl@ntNet and GBIF

Open a plant on the Map and click Edit in the Details panel.

Above the plant name you will see one or both of these buttons:

Identify with Pl@ntNet — shown when the plant has at least one photograph and your plan includes plant identification;
Taxonomy on GBIF — shown whenever you are editing a plant.

The same controls are available in the mobile Details view.

If you are on the Free plan, the Pl@ntNet button is not shown. GBIF remains available.

If the plant has no photographs, only GBIF is available.

Add photographs first if you want to identify the plant using Pl@ntNet. See Working with photographs in BotanicalMapper.

Identifying a plant with Pl@ntNet

Pl@ntNet uses photographs already attached to the plant and takes you through a three-step identification process.

Before you start

Add clear photographs to the plant.

Close-up images of useful identifying features generally work better than distant whole-plant photographs.

Good subjects include:

leaves;
flowers;
fruit;
bark;
overall habit.

You can send up to five photographs in one identification.

Plant identification is available on Basic and above.

There is a daily identification limit. If you have reached it, the button is disabled and you will see:

Daily identification limit reached. Try again tomorrow.

Step 1: Choose photos

Click Identify with Pl@ntNet.

Choose up to five photographs already attached to the plant.

Select images that clearly show useful identifying features such as leaves, bark, flowers or fruit.

When you are ready, click Next - Tag Organs.

Step 2: Tag and identify

Tell Pl@ntNet what each photograph shows.

Correctly tagging the part of the plant can help improve identification accuracy.

For each image you can choose:

Auto-detect
Leaf
Flower
Fruit
Bark
Habit

Leave a photograph as Auto-detect if you are unsure.

You can also choose the flora, or project, used for the identification:

All Floras - General (recommended)
World Flora (KT) - Worldwide Search
Northern Europe - Native Plants
Cultivated & Ornamental Plants

All Floras is the usual starting point.

For garden cultivars and ornamental plants, Cultivated & Ornamental Plants may be more appropriate than a wild flora.

When you are ready, click Identify with Pl@ntNet.

Step 3: Review and apply results

Pl@ntNet returns a ranked list of possible species.

Each result may include:

scientific name;
common name;
confidence percentage;
reference photographs.

Confidence levels are a guide, not a verdict.

Always compare the suggested plant with your own photographs before applying anything to the record.

You can:

compare your photographs with Pl@ntNet reference images using the wipe slider;
switch between Reference and Your photos;
open photographs fullscreen;
open the species on GBIF or POWO where those links are available.

Choose which fields to apply

Under Attributes to apply to plant, select the fields you want to copy onto the record.

Pl@ntNet can offer:

Common name
Botanical name
Genus
Family
Species epithet
Hybrid

Empty fields are selected automatically.

If a suggested value differs from something already stored, it is labelled Replace existing, so overwriting an existing value is always a deliberate choice.

Matching values are labelled Already set.

Click Apply when you are happy with your selections.

The identification panel closes and the selected values are added to the Details form.

The Taxonomy section opens automatically and Save is highlighted to show that the form has changed.

Review the fields before saving.

You can edit any value you disagree with.

When you are satisfied, click Save.

If you click Cancel instead, the unsaved identification changes are discarded.

Filling taxonomy with GBIF

Use GBIF when you already have a botanical name and want to check or complete its taxonomy.

This is particularly useful after importing records that contain botanical names but little or no taxonomy.

Opening GBIF

While editing a plant, click Taxonomy on GBIF.

The search field is automatically filled from the plant's existing Botanical Name, so in many cases you can begin searching immediately.

Type at least three characters to search.

Results appear as you type.

Choosing a taxon

Each result can show:

botanical name;
authorship, where supplied by GBIF;
taxonomic rank;
family;
whether the name is accepted or a synonym;
a thumbnail photograph, where available.

Select the plant you want to examine.

The search results remain visible so that you can compare several candidates without losing your place.

For the selected taxon you may also see:

a small photograph strip;
image attribution;
IUCN conservation status, where available;
the number of GBIF occurrence records for that taxon;
links to GBIF;
links to POWO where available.

About GBIF photographs
GBIF photographs come from wild occurrence records. They can help confirm a species, but they are not photographs of a named garden cultivar and may look quite different from the plant in your collection.

If you select a synonym, photographs are shown for the accepted name and the panel indicates this.

Choosing which fields to apply

Under Attributes to apply to plant, select the fields you want to copy.

GBIF can provide:

Common name
Botanical name
Family
Genus
Species epithet
Subspecies
Variety
Hybrid

Empty fields are pre-selected and labelled Fill empty.

Fields that would replace existing information are initially left unticked and labelled Replace existing. The current value is shown struck through.

Matching values are labelled Already set.

Select only the information you want to apply.

Click Apply, review the Details form and then click Save.

As with Pl@ntNet, clicking Cancel before saving discards the unsaved changes.

Apply, review and save

Both tools follow the same principle:

Apply fills the form. Save writes the record.

That extra step is deliberate.

BotanicalMapper gives you a chance to review, change or reject suggested information before anything is permanently stored.

After you apply values:

the Taxonomy section opens automatically;
applied fields are highlighted until you edit them manually;
Save is highlighted to show that the form has changed.

You can edit any field before saving.

Once you type into an applied field, BotanicalMapper treats it as your value.

Identification and taxonomy history

When you save the plant, BotanicalMapper also creates a History entry.

Depending on the tool used, this may record:

Identified by Pl@ntNet, including the species and confidence score;
Taxonomy from GBIF, including the taxon you selected.

You can open these cards later from the plant's History to see which fields were applied.

Where captured, you can also follow links back to GBIF or POWO.

Cancelling a later edit does not remove History that has already been saved.

It only discards the changes currently waiting in the form.

What each source can fill

Pl@ntNet

Pl@ntNet can offer:

Common name
Botanical name
Family
Genus
Species
Hybrid

GBIF

GBIF can offer the same core taxonomy plus:

Subspecies
Variety

Neither source fills horticultural traits such as:

flower colour;
flowering season;
leaf type;
height;
spread.

Those remain your own records.

Cultivars

Neither source should be treated as an authority for cultivar names.

For example:

Acer palmatum 'Bloodgood'

may resolve through GBIF to:

Acer palmatum

The species taxonomy may be correct, but the cultivar name belongs to your own plant record.

If you want to keep the cultivar in the Botanical Name field, do not overwrite that field with the GBIF result.

You can still apply fields such as family, genus and species.

Native range and conservation status

Native range, or origin, is left for you to enter.

GBIF distribution data is too mixed in scale to use as a clean automatic source for this field.

IUCN conservation status may appear in the GBIF panel for reference when a species has been assessed.

It is not currently stored on the plant record.

Practical workflows

Unknown plant with photographs

Add two or three clear photographs to the plant.
Open the plant and click Edit.
Click Identify with Pl@ntNet.
Tag the plant organs if you know them.
Compare your photographs with the reference images.
Select the fields you trust.
Click Apply.
Review the Details form.
Click Save.

Imported plant with a name but no taxonomy

Open a plant that already has a botanical name.
Click Edit.
Click Taxonomy on GBIF.
Confirm the suggested taxon, paying attention to synonyms and rank.
Apply empty fields such as family, genus and species.
Review the Details form.
Click Save.
Repeat for the next record as required.

Correcting a misspelled name

GBIF can also help with slightly incorrect botanical names.

For example, a near match such as:

Acer palmatuum

may still return:

Acer palmatum

Check the result carefully before applying the corrected Botanical Name and associated taxonomy.

Partly filled or partly incorrect taxonomy

Use the GBIF checkboxes to choose exactly which fields you want to update.

If your existing common name or cultivar-bearing botanical name is already correct, leave those fields unticked.

Apply only the taxonomy fields you want to replace or fill.

Garden cultivar

If you are identifying an unknown garden plant from photographs, try Pl@ntNet with Cultivated & Ornamental Plants.

If you already know the plant is, for example:

Rosa 'Peace'

you can use GBIF to look up the species and apply fields such as family, genus and species while keeping the cultivar information on your own record.

Checking a synonym

If GBIF lists a botanical name as a synonym, check the accepted name before applying anything.

If you want your record to use the accepted name, apply it.

If you have a reason to retain the synonym, leave the existing Botanical Name unchanged.

What these tools do not do

Pl@ntNet and GBIF do not mark a plant as botanically verified.

They do not run automatically in the background.

They do not attach Pl@ntNet or GBIF reference photographs to your plant. Those images are shown for comparison and attribution only.

They do not update multiple plants in bulk.

Each identification or taxonomy lookup applies only to the plant you currently have open.

Most importantly, they do not replace your judgement.

A high Pl@ntNet confidence score is still a suggested identification.

A GBIF accepted name confirms how a name is treated taxonomically; it does not confirm that the living plant in front of you is that taxon.

Plans, limits and photographs

Pl@ntNet

Available on Basic and above
Plant must already have at least one photograph
Up to five photographs per identification
Daily identification limit
When the daily limit is reached, try again the following day

GBIF

Available on every plan, including Free
No photograph required
No identification quota
You must be signed in with a workspace selected

Photographs sent to Pl@ntNet are the photographs already attached to the plant and managed through Manage Photos.

The identification process does not upload a separate camera image of its own.

Troubleshooting

I cannot see Identify with Pl@ntNet

Check that:

your plan is Basic or above;
the plant has at least one photograph;
you are in Edit mode.

Add a photograph if necessary, then reopen Edit.

The Pl@ntNet button is visible but disabled

You may have reached the daily identification limit.

Try again the following day.

Identification failed or returned nothing useful

Try:

using clearer photographs;
photographing diagnostic parts of the plant more closely;
tagging the organs instead of leaving every photograph as Auto-detect;
selecting a different flora;
using Cultivated & Ornamental Plants for garden plants;
sending several photographs showing different features, such as both leaves and flowers.

GBIF finds the wrong plant or an unexpected name

Try entering a fuller botanical name rather than a short fragment.

Look carefully at:

taxonomic rank;
family;
accepted or synonym status.

Subspecies, forms and other ranks can look very similar in the results until you check the rank.

Prefer an accepted name over a synonym unless you have a specific reason to retain the synonym.

GBIF photographs do not look like my garden plant

GBIF photographs come from wild occurrence records.

Cultivars, garden forms, trained plants and clipped specimens may look very different.

Use the name and taxonomy as the information you are evaluating rather than expecting the reference photograph to match your garden plant exactly.

I applied values but they disappeared

Remember:

Apply fills the form. Save writes the record.

If you cancelled, navigated away or closed Edit without saving, the changes were discarded.

Apply the fields again and click Save.

I do not want GBIF to overwrite my common name

Leave the Common name checkbox unticked.

Empty fields are selected automatically, but replacing an existing value is optional.

The cultivar disappeared from my botanical name

GBIF usually resolves named cultivars at species level.

For example:

Acer palmatum 'Bloodgood'

may resolve to:

Acer palmatum

If you want to preserve the full cultivar name, do not apply Botanical name from GBIF.

You can still apply fields such as:

Family
Genus
Species

Alternatively, restore the cultivar to the Botanical Name field before clicking Save.

Quick checklist

Before you finish, check that you have:

opened the plant on the Map and entered Edit mode;
added photographs if you are using Pl@ntNet;
chosen the right tool — photographs for Pl@ntNet, an existing name for GBIF;
compared the results rather than simply accepting the first match;
selected only the fields you want to apply;
reviewed the Taxonomy section;
clicked Save;
checked History if you want to see what was previously applied.

Pl@ntNet and GBIF are there to save typing and give you a second look at a plant's identity and taxonomy.

They work best when you treat their results as careful suggestions, review what they offer, and save the version you are willing to stand behind.