Solved Can anyone identify this flowering plant?

What is this flowering plant? It is a small plant with pink snapdragon-like flowers and thin, almost needle-like leaves.

 

Linaria I think ... There are several species but I don't know which this would be. I have a very tall one in my garden and the seeds go everywhere.

 

Probably L. purpurea 'Canon Went'...

linaria purpurea canon went - Google Search

Nick

 

I used a plant identification app (they are very useful) and it also said linaria purpurea (purple toadflax)

 

Someone told me about that and said I would like it, they looked it up on their phone and it seems you pay something every month or so to use it. As I remember it wasn't hugely expensive, but it was ongoing. I don't have a smartphone, so it would all work out very expensive.

After being pointed in the right direction by people answering this thread, I looked it up in my book "Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland" by Marjorie Blamey, Richard Fitter and Alastair Fitter, which lists Purple Toadflax, Linaria purpurea, "pink in the much less frequent cultivar Canon Went".

I have had this book for many years and look at it a lot. It has extremely clear descriptions for identification and beautiful illustrations, and lots of detail like the pink cultivar Canon Went.

 

Hi,

I pay nothing for mine. I am sure there are paid options as well, but when there are great free options, why do it? You would need a smartphone however, so perhaps not worth it for you, but I thought I would clarify in case someone else reads this.

The one I use is called PlantNet.

Cheers.

 

Thank you for this information. I just checked and PlantNet is available for iPad above iOS 11, so I can use it on my mini iPad which is iOS 12.5.

Eventually I might have to get a smart phone, but they are expensive and I would need to write down what I would use it for to justify the cost. I have a nice little camera I have had for twelve years, so a phone that takes photographs as good as my camera would be a start.

 

Plantnet for laptop, PC etc Identify, explore and share your observations of wild plants
I've been playing with this today it's interesting.
If a plant is relatively common and photogenic then yes it gets it to species level af a better than 75% confidence level.
There were some corkers though it was absolutely sure that the yellow dahlia was not a dahlia it was a helianthemum, helianthus etc.
Anything a bit unusual (latin name only) then the confidence goes off a cliff even for genus level id, best it managed was 30 to 50%, and species forget it. It was particularly bad for spring bulbs.
These results were obtained with reasonable quality, in focus, photos (at least 500kb).
It is a citizen science based project (donations please) the database relies on submitted photographs being of a reasonable quality and correctly identified and as usual it is a case of GIGO.
Would I use it yes for genus level id anything more no and not if it was important.

 

I've used plant net just to see what it comes up with.
But I find it odd that you then say whether the answer is right or wrong.
So kind of marking your own homework.
Not sure if anyone moderates or edits pictures that are wrong.

 

You can buy a Smartphone on Amazon for under £60.

 

That works for me actually. I might see a plant & have no clue what it is. The app gives me the most likely candidates (if there is no clear favourite) and by looking at the pictures I can tell which one it is, by observing the plant more closely. If needed, I can look on Google for more photos as well. So it is definitely not a professional tool that will give you a 100% confirmed answer, but it really helps.

P.S. It is definitely true that you need to use clear photos. It also helps if you don't just take a photo of the whole plant but also a close-up of leaves or flowers (you can add multiple images for the same plant you are trying to identify).

 

I think that is part of fun really, people like to ID plants and be given the chance.
A plant app has a use when you are out and about and want a quick ID but it's almost like googling during a pub quiz.