[FamiliarFace]

I use the “Picture This” app to identify plants. There’s a free version. Once you open the app, look in the top right corner, and you’ll see a very, very, VERY faint “Cancel” . Press that and it takes you to the free version. Use the camera feature on your leaf or plant. It’s not 100%, but it usually points me in the right direction.

I use “Seek” for trees, insects, etc, but it often only gets me to the genus and not the species.

I use Picture This almost every day.

[Paul R.]

Thanks - I’ll give that a try this weekend!

[Paul R.]

Thanks again - I searched for “Picture This” and came right up with this link:

https://www.picturethisai.com/identify

No need to even go through the app / free app to get it: Just upload the image and “voila!”

In this case, we come up with “Giant Ragweed”.

https://www.picturethisai.com/wiki/Ambrosia_trifida.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosia_trifida

This had thrown me, because the leaves of the ragweed varieties I was familiar with are more “ragged” — more lobes (5, 7, or even more) and (usually) larger serrations on a given size leaf. Even the pics of giant ragweed I found online are a bit different - I likely just have a little less common subspecies or variant. Plus, there’s the size aspect: It turns out these things can get 20 ft. high in the right conditions, and a few of “mine” look to be on the way...

SFAIK, this stuff doesn’t affect my allergies or at least it does so less than many other pollen sources we have around here! Thank heavens, or I’d have another “war” to fight. The flowers are edible too - maybe I’ll try ‘em when they come out. When I harvest the plants for the chickens I just break off a plant or two, depending on size, and toss ‘em in the runs early in the morning.

The stems, once fully dry, make very useful 2nd stage kindling. (I break ‘em up into ~ 1 ft. pieces and put several of them on top of dry leaves or a little dry grass, or paper.)