# Tree identification > Upload a photo of a leaf, bark, a twig, fruit or a flower. Get up to three names for the tree, shrub or vine, whether it is native, and natives to grow instead. Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/identify/ Knowing what a tree, shrub or vine is tells you whether it is a native worth keeping or an invasive worth taking out. It takes up to three photographs of the same tree (a leaf, the bark, a twig, fruit or a flower) and a sentence on anything else you noticed. The tool names up to three species, or five among close look-alikes such as the white oaks, each with how sure it is and the features it saw. For a non-native, it offers natives from our list that fill the same place in a yard. The answer is an AI model's reading of the photo, so check each name against the features listed and, for a species we list, its own page. **Sign in to name a tree.** The tool is for signed-in customers, since an AI model reads each photo you send. Sign in with your email address, and the link we send brings you back to this page. A first sign-in makes your account. There is no password: the link is the sign-in. Without JavaScript this tool cannot run: your browser shrinks the photo and drops the details your camera stored with it before anything is sent, and that work runs in the page. The photos, up to three of one plant, go once to an AI model, Claude Opus 5.5, made by Anthropic. It names up to three species, best first, or five among close look-alikes such as the white oaks. Each name comes with how sure the model is, the features it saw, the look-alike to rule out and the photograph that would settle it. A species on our list links its own page. A non-native or an invasive comes with natives from our list that fill the same place in a yard. The answer is a model's reading, not a botanist's, and this site keeps neither the photo nor your words. ## Start with a photo Choose up to three photos of one plant, add anything you noticed, and press Name this tree. Each name comes with how sure the model is, what it saw, the look-alike to rule out and the photograph that would settle it. A non-native comes with natives from our list that fill its place. ## How to photograph a tree for a name - **One leaf, flat, both sides.** Lay a leaf on a plain, light background, such as a sheet of paper, and photograph it from straight above. Then turn it over for a second photo, since the hairs and veins underneath separate many look-alikes. - **Bark at eye level, with something for scale.** Photograph the trunk at eye level, close enough to fill the frame, with a hand or a key against it for size. - **The tip of a twig.** In winter, photograph the end of a twig against a plain background: the size, color and scales of its buds name most trees. [Winter identification](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/winter-tree-identification/index.html.md) shows what to look for. - **Fruit in the hand.** Hold an acorn, a nut or a fruit in an open hand, so the hand gives its size. - **For an oak, three photos.** [The oak leaf key](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/which-oak-is-this-leaf/index.html.md) reads the tips of the lobes first, then the outline, then the underside. So take a whole leaf from above, the tip of one lobe up close and the underside, and send the three together. - **One subject, in daylight.** Fill the frame with one leaf, twig or patch of bark, in focus and out of deep shade. A whole tree from across the yard is the hardest to name. - **Add what the photo cannot show.** The box under the photo takes a sentence: how tall it is, where it grows, a smell, thorns, or when it flowered or fruited. ## What this tool does with your photo Your browser shrinks each photo to at most 1,600 pixels across and writes it anew, which drops the details your camera stored with it, the place it was taken included. The photos, up to three, and any words you add, are sent once to Anthropic's AI model, which reads them to answer, and this site keeps none of them. Anthropic deletes what the tool sends it within 30 days under its policy, and keeps it longer only where its usage policy or the law requires. You alone are responsible for what you upload, as the [terms](https://bluewhaletrees.com/terms/index.html.md) say. Before the model sees them, the photos and any words you add are read by two of Meta's models run on Cloudflare's servers, which keep nothing. Llama Guard answers only safe or unsafe for the words, and Llama 4 Scout says whether each photo shows a tree, shrub or vine, or something the tool does not take, such as a person as its subject, nudity, violence, a screen or a document. A request they stop goes no further, and nothing is sent to the model. The tool uses the same Cloudflare spam check as our forms, and the address your request comes from is used only to limit how many times one address asks in a minute. The [privacy page](https://bluewhaletrees.com/privacy/index.html.md) says the same. ## Common questions ### Can you identify a tree from just a leaf? Often, yes: one leaf flat on a plain background, with its underside in a second photo, is enough for many trees. Oaks, hickories and maples can need a twig, the bark or the fruit too, and each answer says which photo would settle it. ### Can you identify a tree by its bark alone? Sometimes: a few trees, such as shagbark hickory, beech and American hornbeam, have bark that names them. Most need a twig, a leaf or a fruit too, and the answer says how sure the model is. ### Why does the tool give up to three names? A photo can fit several close species, so the model gives up to three, best first, or up to five among close look-alikes such as the white oaks. A second photo, of the part the answer asks for, narrows them. ### Does the tree identification tool keep my photo? No: your browser shrinks the photo and drops the details your camera stored with it, the place it was taken included, then sends it once to Anthropic's AI model to answer. This site keeps neither the photo nor your words. ### What does it say about a tree that is not native? It names the tree and says whether the model reads it as a non-native ornamental or an invasive. For either, it offers up to three natives from our list that fill the same place in a yard, with our articles on invasives and native replacements. The source of each name is Claude Opus 5.5, an AI model made by Anthropic, reading the photo by rules written for this tool. It names any tree, shrub or woody vine as a botanist would, best first, says how sure it is and what it saw, and never guesses where the photo was taken. Your words are a description for it to weigh, never an instruction. The species it checks each name against are the site's own catalog: the 423 trees and shrubs we grow and 48 common natives we do not, each with its own page. Whether a non-native is invasive is the model's reading of the lists kept across the eastern and central United States, not a ruling for your state. The keys an answer links are our own articles: [Which oak is this leaf?](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/which-oak-is-this-leaf/index.html.md), [Which oak dropped this acorn?](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/which-oak-dropped-this-acorn/index.html.md) and [Winter identification](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/winter-tree-identification/index.html.md). For a non-native, the answer links [invasive trees and the natives they resemble](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-trees-and-the-natives-they-resemble/index.html.md), [invasive vines and shrubs](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md) and [native replacements for the common invasives](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-replacements-for-burning-bush-and-bradford-pear/index.html.md). It is a reading, not a ruling: a name the photo cannot settle says so, and the species' own page, a key or a local expert settles the rest.