How does it work?

Identify from a photo

ObsIdentify recognition (NIA). The image recognition behind the ObsIdentify app, developed by Observation International and Naturalis, trained on millions of verified observations from waarnemingen.be, waarneming.nl and observation.org. This site uses the free public endpoint: your photo goes directly from your device to the recognition service, with a limit of 10 identifications per day per user.

Pl@ntNet. A worldwide plant recognition service from a French research consortium. Your photos go to Pl@ntNet via our server.

If both engines suggest the same species, you will see the label both agree. An identification is still a suggestion: always check the features.

The identification keys

Two keys of our own, with 68 questions in total, leading to 144 common species in Belgium and the Netherlands: native trees, park and street trees, fruit trees, garden shrubs, hedging plants, berry bushes and climbers. The keys use leaf, flower and fruit features, so they work best from spring to autumn. They also work without internet.

Dutch names follow waarnemingen.be; the status (native, naturalised…) and rarity come from the same database. Photos on the species pages and in the photo gallery come from Wikimedia Commons, crediting the author and the licence.

My gardens and the pruning schedule

Plot boundaries come from the land registry: CadGIS from FPS Finance for Belgium and the Kadastrale Kaart of the Kadaster (via PDOK) for the Netherlands. They are indicative and not an official survey. The aerial photos come from Digitaal Vlaanderen, the Service public de Wallonie and PDOK.

The pruning schedule is a personal, secret calendar link (iCal). Your calendar app fetches it itself; it contains your garden names and pruning tasks, but no address or map.

The planting advice (Will it fit here?) is a rule of thumb, not a guarantee. It looks at light, soil and moisture, the space in your garden, the distance to the plot boundary (2 m for trees, 0.5 m for shrubs and hedges), and at known combinations: walnuts inhibit their neighbours, juniper and pear share pear rust, currants and five-needle pines share blister rust, and fruit trees need a pollinator. Local rules and soil may differ.

Working together and tree surgeons

You can share a garden with housemates, neighbours or your tree surgeon. For each person you choose whether they can only view, can also edit, or, as a tree surgeon, record prunings and follow up jobs. You can always revoke access. Tree surgeons appear in the list with their own details; Bladwijzer does not act as an intermediary and is not a party to the arrangements or the price.

Your guide and your data

• Your observations, gardens and photos are stored on this server. Other users cannot see them unless you share your guide or a garden.
• Every photo you have identified is stored as a scan: the suggested species, the confidence, a small version of the photo and your location if you already share it with the app. This lets the administrator of Bladwijzer see how the site is used, what is identified and where. This data is not passed on to third parties.
• In the admin area, the administrator can view all users, observations and scans, only to manage and improve the site.
• If you share your guide, species, photos, dates, place names and notes are visible via your link, but never your GPS coordinates.
• You can export everything (JSON) or print it as a booklet, and delete your account with all its data. Your scans then remain only anonymously for statistics: without name or photos, with a location rounded to about a kilometre.
• For place names at your GPS position we use OpenStreetMap Nominatim; the map uses OpenStreetMap.