Patent Document ID: 8577616
Application ID: 11015760
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A process for identifying unidentified plants comprising: (A) obtaining a sample or image of the apical complex of an unidentified plant and identifying at least one distinguishing characteristic of the apical complex typical of the unidentified plant; (B) comparing on a computing machine the distinguishing characteristic of the apical complex with a database of at least one plant genus comprising (1) a plurality of images of distinguishing characteristics of apical complexes for each plant sufficient to distinguish each plant species from all other plant species within the genus; and (2) text data corresponding to said distinguishing characteristics of apical complexes for each plant; wherein substantially every plant in said database is represented by at least one image of distinguishing characteristics of apical complexes sufficient to enable identification of the plant species within the genus; (C) correlating on said computing machine the distinguishing characteristic of the apical complex of the unidentified plant with distinguishing characteristics of the apical complexes of known and identified plants in said database; and (D) repeating step (C) for a second and subsequent distinguishing characteristic until a sufficient number of the distinguishing characteristics of the apical complex have been ascertained to correlate the apical complex of the unidentified plant with said plants in said database, (E) assigning the unidentified plant to a plant genus and/or genus with similar distinguishing characteristic of the apical complex, and (F) displaying the results of step E to a user on a graphics display device.