Dr. Richard Old, a botanist and plant identification expert, transformed weed identification by creating the XID system in the late 1990s. Frustrated with traditional methods, he developed an innovative tool that used simple, observable traits for plant identification. Initially distributed on floppy disks, the system grew to include interactive images, user-friendly algorithms, and detailed tutorials, making it accessible to users of all experience levels via Windows software. Today, XID Services continues to support plant identification technology, with Weed-ID.app serving as its first online platform.
Our extensive database of plants includes over 1,000 species, 13,500 images, and 120,000 attributes of non-grasslike plants across North America. For licensing rights, please contact us at hello@weed-id.app.
This data has been hand-compiled and verified by Dr Richard Old, who has over 40 years of experience in the field of botany, with extensive work in plant identification, forensics, and noxious weeds. The website and data is brought to life by Richard's son, Patrick Old, who is a technology professional with experience at Nike, LinkedIn, and Pave.
To offer a one-of-a-kind, extensive, professionally-labeled database of high quality invasive weed images and attributes for the United States and Canada.