What is this?

On a walk outside, I am often met with a chorus of “What is this?” from young, inquiring minds. Their curiosity ignites my own. They ask about bugs, plants, and, most amusingly, their favorite subject—poop. I don’t always have the answers to the burning questions they fling my way.
One tool I often use—and encourage my children to use—is the SEEK app by iNaturalist. This free app is available for download on any smartphone. Simply click the photo button within the app, and voilà! It identifies the plant or organism in question.
That said, take its results with a grain of salt. The app’s accuracy can depend on factors like the angle, distance, or season in which the photo is taken. For instance, it once identified a fuzzy piece of poop my child scanned as a mammal.
Still, it often surprises with its precision—like when I used it to scan an aloe plant from my backyard, and it got the identification spot-on

One last fun fact I’ve learned this week: Aloe is not a full-sun plant—it prefers the shade. This explains why, as you can see in the photo above, its edges are a little orange and crispy. Fingers crossed it recovers from its sunburn. Sorry, Aloe! Oh, and in the comments—can you guess the plant I mentioned at the start of this post?