Telling look-alikes apart
The native, and the impostor next to it.
Last updated August 2026
You look a plant up because you're not sure what you're holding — and half the time the plant on the nursery bench isn't quite the one on the label. A garden centre sells the invasive Callery pear beside the native serviceberry; a hedge of cherry laurel reads as holly at a glance. So for each native we recommend, we've written up the plants it gets mistaken for, and — standing right in front of it — how to tell them apart: a smell, a thorn, a leaf stalk that bleeds white, not a botanical key you'd need a lens for. Not every look-alike is a villain, and the label on each says which: invasive here, merely not from here, or a wild native the mix-up still matters for. When you're truly unsure, photograph it and ask iNaturalist — real people identify what you've found.
Learn more
- Identify a plant from a photo — iNaturalist
- Why invasive plants are a problem — National Invasive Species Information Center
How this grew
Every change to this part of the app, newest first — the same plain notes that go out with each update.
Version 0.28
August 30, 2026- A share card for every look-alike. Post a link to a plant often mistaken for a native and the preview now shows it in a cautioning amber, where it's really from, and how many natives it's confused with — the look-alikes page gets one too.
Version 0.27
August 28, 2026- The impostor and the real thing, side by side. Every look-alike now has a photograph, shown next to the native it gets mistaken for — two pictures in one row, above the words that tell them apart. Tap either to swap between them full size. Look-alikes
- And a picture on every card in that list. The look-alikes index used to be names and paragraphs; now each one leads with the plant, for the reader standing under a street tree trying to work out which it is.
- *A look-alike is only invasive somewhere.* The list called plants invasive or not-from-here before you'd picked a region — and a few of them are natives of ours. Each now names the regions where it's a problem, on the list and on its own page. Look-alikes
- A look-alike's write-up ran to the edges of its card. The description and its sources sat flush against the border while everything above them was indented. They line up now.
Version 0.25
August 8, 2026- Cow parsnip has a dangerous twin, and the app now says which is which. Giant hogweed is twice the height and its sap can blind. Both burn skin in sunlight, so the look-alike page gives you the tells from a safe distance.
Version 0.24
August 7, 2026- Three plants a nursery might sell you by mistake in southern California. Tropical milkweed beside the native narrowleaf one, pampas grass beside deergrass, firethorn beside toyon — each with the tells you can check standing in front of the plant. See them.
- The French edition is finished. Choosing French used to translate the buttons and then hand you English paragraphs. Every one of them is now in French: all 229 plants, the 65 animals and the 27 look-alikes.
Version 0.18
July 31, 2026- A new section of the app for the plants that get mistaken for natives. Look-alikes puts each impostor beside the native it's sold as, with the differences you can check standing in front of them: a smell, a thorn, a hollow twig. Start with the Callery pear.
- Every plant page says what it gets confused with, in one line. Under "Why it belongs here" you'll find Don't confuse it with and the names, each linking to the full comparison.
- The label says which kind of impostor it is. Some spread into wild places and cost us something; some are ordinary garden plants from elsewhere that do no harm. So each is marked Invasive here, Not from here or Native here too — for the region you're looking at.