The University of Missouri Extension Service has released a free app for the later versions of smart phones.

The app, called ID Weeds, has information that can be used to help producers identify more than 400 weed species in their fields.

For Android devices, download at play.google.com/store.

For iPhone and iPad, download at https://itunes.apple.com/app/id-weeds/id559906313 .

The “Identify a Weed” (Identify icon) feature sends you to a list of selection criteria to aid in the identification of an unknown weed. The selection criteria are based on habitat of the weed and its physical characteristics.

For each selection criterion, there is a bolded line and a select box. Some of the bolded selection criteria lines have a question mark in parenthesis. This indicates that information about the criterion can be viewed by tapping the bolded line. If there is no question mark on the criterion line, this means that selection of the appropriate category from the provided list will be obvious.

Some of the categories are based on length or width of plant parts, with dimensions given in mm. Just remember that an inch is 25.4 mm. Therefore, a quarter inch is about 6 mm, a half inch is about 13 mm, and three fourths inch is about 19 mm.

The “Search for a Weed” (Search icon) feature allows the search for a weed by its common or Latin name.

The “View Weed List” (List icon) feature shows all the weeds in the database sorted alphabetically by their common or Latin name. Color pictures of each weed from seed through maturity are provided, along with a written description of the physical characteristics of the weed.

Many of the tap features work best with a stylus.

Composed by Larry G. Heatherly, Jan. 2013, larryheatherly@bellsouth.net