About r/whatsthisplant
In its own words:
A community of plant enthusiasts where anyone can upload photos of plant(s) they would like identified. Everyone is encouraged to help each other identify plants.
Community guide
r/whatsthisplant (#600, about 1.8 million) identifies plants from photos. Catalogue description: A community of plant enthusiasts where anyone can upload photos of plant(s) they would like identified. Everyone is encouraged to help each other identify plants.
Format
Plant ID requests with clear photos. Not a general gardening advice megathread—IndoorGarden/gardening cover growing tips. Volume ~32.3 ppd.
Practical pointers
Provide location/context when rules ask; don’t demand medical/foraging certainty from strangers.
SubMouse Editorial
The community was created on May 21, 2011, which makes it 15 years old. Since Oct 26, 2026, it has gained 774 subscribers (+0.04%). It sits just behind r/PersonalFinanceCanada (#582) and ahead of r/soccercirclejerk (#726) in our ranking.
What sets r/whatsthisplant apart
People mostly look and upvote here rather than comment — about 5.7 comments per post, against 14.0 for a typical large subreddit. Its rhythm is strongly tied to time zones: the busiest hour (17:00 UTC) sees about 23.0× as many posts as the quietest (08:00 UTC).
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026, r/whatsthisplant climbed from 1,811,847 to 1,818,464 subscribers (+6.6K, +0.37%). That is about 150 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (9 so far), so it gets longer every week.
Top posts on r/whatsthisplant this week
This week’s highest-ranked posts, in Reddit’s own order (collected Nov 2, 2026).
- a cactus i’ve had for years suddenly grew a flower??u/EmergencyBiter · Oct 31 · gallery
- What cactus is this in San Diegou/americancharlie · Oct 30 · image
- Given seeds to this plant. What is it?u/Vegetable-Pen-3433 · Oct 29 · gallery
- Erupted out of my mulch bed a few days ago. Grape sized rubbery balls with white/green stems.u/Redstar81 · Oct 28 · image
- genuinely the most beautiful flower i’ve ever smelled in my lifeu/glibstergob · Oct 26 · gallery
- What are these berries?u/Internal_Ball_6168 · Oct 27 · gallery
- Name of this tree?u/Exceptional_Raj · Oct 31 · gallery
- Came across this shrub with gorgeously purple berries. What is it?u/CrossStitchVienna · Oct 27 · gallery
- Unknown root vegetable.u/Ok-Establishment2164 · Oct 28 · image
- Saw these cute pink tiny flowers on a walk. Seems to be some kind of vining plant. Flowers are smaller than a thumb.u/moniko-san · Oct 30 · gallery
All-time top posts
The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/whatsthisplant, from 2022 to 2026, ranked by Reddit.
- This tree was in the lobby of my Air BnBu/DrJokerX · Dec 22, 2025 · image
- There’s a house in my town with a sea of blue flowers in their yard.u/TheDillinger88 · Mar 31, 2026 · gallery
- This plant is not dead! I’ve had it for years and it has neither died nor grown. The “branches” are not particularly woody or stiff, at least not as much as they look. What is it?!u/BuriedComments · Jan 11, 2022 · 25,366 points · 2,460 comments · gallery
- Bf bought "venus fly trap" seeds from temu, wtf is this ?u/queenmarimeoww · May 20, 2025 · gallery
- Saw this in a target parking lotu/yourpantsfell · Mar 21, 2025 · gallery
- What is my sunflower doing?u/notgingerbutnotred · Jul 27, 2025 · image
- Identify this plant? A 6years old boy ate some berries and currently developing seizures and is at emergency.u/Middle-Chemistry810 · Apr 29, 2025 · image
- Noticed this thing popped up in front my window about a week ago and it keeps getting bigger. I don’t know what it is, we’ve had this plant for 5 years and it’s never done this before.u/TheNarcissisticNobod · Apr 20, 2025 · gallery
- Unknown plant I stupidly ateu/No-Battle-8441 · Jun 2, 2026 · gallery
- Moved in to this house last fall. I mowed my grass 5 days ago... and this plant sprouted out of no where. 3 of them, and this is the biggestu/Lana-Next-Door · Jun 11, 2025 · gallery
What r/whatsthisplant talks about
Across 233 recent posts (Oct 24–Oct 31), the words that come up most are “plant”, “growing”, “help”, “tree” and “found”. Other frequent themes are poison, flower, identify, cactus, plants and ivy. Recurring phrases include “poison ivy”, “weed growing”, “found growing” and “south east”. By format, 57% are galleries, 40% are images and 3% are text posts.
Popular post flairs: Unidentified 🤷♂️ (223), Identified ✔ (10).
Activity and best time to post
r/whatsthisplant gets about 32 new posts a day. The public archive holds 621,432 posts and 3,517,289 comments in total, about 5.7 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Sunday (37 posts) and the quietest was Friday (25). Posting peaks around 17:00 UTC and is lowest around 08:00 UTC.
Rules of r/whatsthisplant
The moderators of r/whatsthisplant list 4 rules. In short:
- Posts must be about identification of one or more plants. (Mushrooms accepted too.)
- No marketing, advertising, soliciting or selling allowed.
- No being OVERLY rude, mean or antagonistic.
- No political argument/debates
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/whatsthisplant and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How big is r/whatsthisplant?
r/whatsthisplant has 1,818,464 subscribers (Nov 2, 2026), which makes it the #600 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 6,617 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Nov 2, 2026.
How old is r/whatsthisplant?
r/whatsthisplant was created on May 21, 2011, so it has been around for 15 years.
How active is r/whatsthisplant?
Very active: r/whatsthisplant gets about 32 new posts a day (average of the last week). Over its lifetime the archive counts 621,432 posts and 3,517,289 comments. In a sample of 233 recent posts we counted 220 different authors.
When is r/whatsthisplant most active?
Based on post counts from Oct 24, 2026 to Oct 30, 2026, the busiest day was Sunday and the quietest Friday, and most posts arrive around 17:00 UTC, with the fewest around 08:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What is r/whatsthisplant about?
The community describes itself as: “A community of plant enthusiasts where anyone can upload photos of plant(s) they would like identified. Everyone is encouraged to help each other identify plants.” Recent post titles often mention plant, growing, help, tree and found. Most posts are galleries (57%).
Is r/whatsthisplant safe for work?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/whatsthisplant as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
How do I post on r/whatsthisplant?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/whatsthisplant accepts both text and link posts, with images, videos and galleries enabled. It has 4 posted rules, starting with: “Posts must be about identification of one or more plants. (Mushrooms accepted too.)”; “No marketing, advertising, soliciting or selling allowed.”; “No being OVERLY rude, mean or antagonistic.”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
Which communities are like r/whatsthisplant?
Communities with similar topics include r/gardening (9M), r/OutOfTheLoop (3.7M), r/InternetIsBeautiful (16.6M), r/streetwear (5.1M) and r/cars (7.4M).
Stats from public data (data updated Nov 2, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Nov 2, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/whatsthisplant.