Here you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions.The questions are also separated by category and can be easily filtered.
There’s something wrong with the app. What can I do?
Please read the FAQ on this page carefully first. If this does not solve your problem, please send an e-mail to support@floraincognita.com with the following information:
- Mobile phone model
- operating system
- exact error message or a description of the app behaviour that was expected and did not occur.
You can also use the “Contact” function, which you will find at the bottom right of the help area. This feature will automatically find the system-related information.
Are there any costs with regard to the app?
No, the app is completely free of charge and advertising. All you need are sharp, close-up photos of the plant you want to identify.
How does Flora Incognita work?
With the camera of the smartphone, you snap a picture of the flower, then if necessary the leaf, and in seconds you receive a suggestion for the name of the plant as well as further information. The app thus allows easy and safe plant identification for people of any age and any level of prior knowledge. Further information and screenshots can be found on our page: The Flora Incognita App.
Here’s how to identify a plant:
Can Flora Incognita identify wild plants only?
Currently, Flora Incognita can distinguish over 30,000 different vascular plants, including wild herbs, trees, grasses, cacti, palms, ferns, and some cultivated plants. In addition, it knows about 500 common moss species, and since 2025, Flora Incognita is also able to identify approximately 3,000 lichen and fungus species.
The database is continuously being expanded so that more and more species can be reliably identified.
Is Flora Incognita available in different languages?
Flora Incognita is available as a German and English full version. We also offer over 30 other localisations: Arabian, Bulgarian, Czech, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Kroatian, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Spanish, Ukrainian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Turkish and Urdu – although some of the content is not in the corresponding language but in English.
Usually, the app is based on the current language of your device. If you use a language not supported by us, the English version of Flora Incognita will be used as fallback.
However, you can change the app language at any time manually under the menu item “Settings”.
Do I have to create a profile?
You do not need a profile to identify plants with the Flora Incognita app. If you do not want to have a profile, simply tap on “Without profile” on the login page.
What are the advantages of having a profile?
All your recorded observations are saved in your profile. When you log in to the Flora Incognita app on other or new devices, you will have your entire observation list with you wherever you go.
How do I create a profile?
To create a profile, all you need to do is enter an email address and a password:
What can I do if I forgot my password?
Reset password
If you have forgotten your password, you will find the “Forgot password?” option on the login page. Tap on this option and enter your e-mail address. You will then be sent a link that you can use to create a new password.
Change password
If you are already logged in and want to change your password, tap on the three dots in the top right corner of your profile page and then on “Change password”. You can create a new one there by entering your current password.
In the same place, you’ll also find the option to change your email address.
Why does the app want access to my location?
The aim of Flora Incognita as a research project is the monitoring of plant biodiversity. This is only possible if we have locations for all the plants recorded. When you share the plant’s location you make an important contribution to biodiversity monitoring and biodiversity research.
On the following page, you’ll find an overview of our research:
However, sharing the location also has advantages for you: Plant identification becomes more accurate, and much of the information in the species fact sheet is only presented in relation to your location because it is of local significance.
My camera or media upload doesn’t work. What can I do?
You want to identify a plant with the Flora Incognita app, but your camera does not open? Once access to the camera or media storage has been denied, the app cannot take a photo or identify from the storage. In this case, you must grant access to the media storage manually in the settings of your smartphone.
Here’s how you can grant access to photos and your location:
How can I grant access to camera, location or media storage once I have denied it?
Android: Open the “Settings” app on your Android device. Tap on “Apps” or “Apps & Notifications”. Select the Flora Incognita app and grant access to the camera, memory and location.
iOS: Open the “Settings” app on your iOS device. Select the Flora Incognita app within the menu “Apps” and allow access to Camera, Location and Photos.
Can I have plants identified if I don’t have a mobile signal?
When your phone loses internet connection, Flora Incognita switches to “Offline Mode”. Now, you can create observations by taking three pictures per plant (usually flower, leaf and whole plant). Save this observation and return o the Flora Incognita app when you are once again online. Then, you can identify the plants directly from your observation list.
Location information is also included in this type of observation if you have granted the appropriate permission.
How can I save observations?
Every observation you confirm via the green tick after identification is automatically saved in your profile and can be viewed at any time under “My observations”.
The bin in the top left-hand corner will cancel the identification and the observation will not be saved. If you use Flora Incognita with a guest profile, i.e. without a user account, your observations will be saved under this guest profile. If you log out or uninstall the app, these observations will be lost.
Were are my photos saved to?
You can save the photos you take with Flora Incognita directly to your photo gallery. You’ll find this option in the settings.
For this, you’ll need to allow the Flora Incognita app access to your media storage.
Can observations be exported?
To export photos to the photo gallery, you need to grant the Flora Incognita app access to your photos.
If you have activated the “Save to gallery” function in the settings, all photos that you take for identification will be saved directly in your phone’s photo gallery.
Export or share a single observation
Under “My observations” you can export your observations to your photo gallery or share them directly with other people via social media. Tap the icon in the top right corner of the screen. If you are in full screen mode of a photo, you can only export or share that one photo.
Export multiple observations
It is also possible to export a list of observation list with images, species names and coordinates as a .csv table or .gpx file. You can use the tags function or the map section to limit your observation list if necessary. Then click on the share icon in the upper right corner. The file created in this way will then be sent to you via e-mail or saved in a cloud, transferred via AirDrop etc.
How to subsequently display your observations on your own map, e.g. in Google Maps, we have described in this article:
How to export your Flora Incognita records to a custom map (Google Maps, QGIS and R)
For some Android phones, an additional file manager has to be installed (e.g. TotalCommander).
Can I add more photos to my observation?
During the identification process, you can take additional photos to help narrow down the identification or to expand your plant photo collection. To do this, tap the cropped photo the lower-left corner of the camera mode or results screen. This will open a menu where you can add more photos. Once an observation has been saved, no further images can be added to it.
Can I edit observations afterwards?
Yes, if a plant observation has been saved, you can change the plant name afterward. Select the relevant observation and tap on “Edit” to the right of “Results”.
You can also edit notes, tags and projects affiliation this way.
How can I delete observations?
You can delete individual observations by swiping the observation to the left in the observation list. The possibility to delete several observations at once does not exist yet.
Can I have photos from my phone’s media storage identified?
Yes, tap the gallery icon next to the camera when asked to take the first photo. Now you can load pictures from your phone’s photo library into the app. The location and time of the shot are read from the photo and saved in the observation.
Alternatively, you can send photos directly to the Flora Incognita app from the photo gallery (Android) or the photos library (iOS).
What should I do if the required perspective of the plant cannot be photographed?
If it is not possible for you to photograph a perspective required by the app, e.g. because the plant is not in bloom or has no leaves, you can skip that perspective. Tap on the arrow to the right of the shutter button when in shooting mode. This will take you to the next perspective.
How can I take good photos of small or delicate plant parts?
If you want to take a sharp and close-up photo of a small plant part, the camera’s autofocus often fails. Therefore, tap the flower icon in the top right-hand corner; it changes color from white to green. Now the camera’s focus is set to the smallest distance. Now move your smartphone towards the object and bring it into the focus range of the camera.
Can I filter and sort my findings?
You can add one or more tags to your observations so that you can then sort, filter and export the observations according to your tags. You can also always search or filter your observations by species, recording date, life form or location.
Can I have tags assigned automatically?
Yes, with Flora Routines you can automatically link tags to specific plant observations. Go to your profile page and tap “For Experts.” Here you’ll find the Flora Routines option. Set up a new routine to automatically tag observations within a defined time period, of target species, or at specific locations. This allows you to participate in projects with minimal effort or manage and export your findings more easily.
What are projects mentioned in the app?
You can participate in projects within the Flora Incognita app to collect targeted data for answering research questions. Tap the project icon on the home screen to open an overview of all public projects. If you decide to join one, accept the terms of participation. Then, you need to tag the appropriate plant observations with the corresponding project tag so that the findings are available to the project coordinators. Perhaps you can use a Flora Routine in order to assign the tags automatically.
In addition to the public projects, there are also some non-public projects. To unlock these, you’ll need a code, which you must enter via the plus icon on the project overview page. You can obtain the code from the respective project coordinators.
You can find more information about the project feature here.
I am a guest user. Can I transfer my observations to a new device?
Yes. To do this, please go to “Profile” in the old phone in the Flora Incognita app and tap on “transfer profile”. A QR code will be displayed, which you scan with your new device. Confirm the transfer with the PIN displayed.
However, it is easier to create a user profile. Then you just have to log in on each new device and have all your plant collections at your fingertips.
I have made observations as a guest, but I actually have an account. Can I merge the observations?
Unfortunately, this is not possible. To access your existing account, you must delete the guest account in the profile section and then log in with your existing account. However, the observations in the guest account will be lost.
Not all of my previous observations are showing up on my new device. What can I do?
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I’m sure a plant has been identified wrong. Can I correct that?
You have the option to manually correct the species name. To do this, find the relevant plant in your observation list, tap “Edit” next to “Result” at the bottom, and select the new name from the list of globally documented species. Please note that cultivated varieties and cultivars are rarely supported.
FAQ didnt solve your problem?
Need Support?
Please write us an e-mail to support(at)floraincognita.com
Check Videos
On our YouTube channel you find several videos explaining the app.
