My plant ID app hit 500 confirmed species and it feels like a different hobby now

I was cleaning up my phone photos last week and saw the number in the app's profile. Five hundred plants, all logged with pictures and locations from walks around Portland over the past four years. It started as just a way to figure out what was growing in my own backyard, but now I've got folders for native ferns, street trees, and even weeds. The weird thing is, I don't really feel like I know more. Instead, I notice how much I don't know, like all the tiny mosses or the different kinds of lichen on one log. It's less about checking names off a list and more about seeing the whole picture of a place. Has anyone else hit a point where counting things stopped being the main point?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix_bailey15d agoTop Commenter

Switching to a sketchbook helped me see patterns instead of just names.

adams.uma14d ago

My old boss made us use whiteboards for this exact reason, and it actually worked.

dixon.james14d ago

Tried that with sticky notes on a wall. Let me move them around to group ideas. Way easier to spot connections.