When you’re out and about in nature, and find a flower or tree or insect you can’t identify, there’s a phone app that may help. It’s called iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/).
iNaturalist (or “iNat” for short) is a “citizen science” tool for visually documenting and sharing the natural world. People from all over can document what they see, which is not only fun and informative, but the data can be used for serious scientific study and inquiry.
Making an observation is pretty easy. You just take a photo, then upload the photo to iNat, using either the web site or an Android/iOS smartphone app. The site/app will help you to identify whatever it is you uploaded (it’s not perfect, but usually pretty good). If you have old photos you’ve taken, you can upload them as well, and it will automatically pick up the date and location of the shot (assuming the info is embedded in the image).
You can also look at other people’s observations (here’s Kansas, for example), and help them identify and confirm their observations. Click the “Filters” button to limit the observations to different taxa (plants, insects, etc) or dates or other parameters.
iNat also allows you to show only the observations for a particular place. For example, at Lehigh Portland Trails:
Play around!
Here’s a short video that explains how to make an observation: