# SMM WildFlowers — of the Santa Monica Mountains

> Wildflower identification guide for the Santa Monica Mountains with extensive photo database. (iPhone/iPad app by Tony Valois.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/smm-wildflowers/id390845765 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Tony Valois](https://appshunter.io/developer/390845768)
- Category: Reference, Education
- Price: Free
- Rating: 4.00/5 from 8 App Store ratings · 10 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.6 · 728 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2010-09-26
- Data updated: 2026-06-05
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/smm-wildflowers/id390845765/reviews.md

## What is SMM WildFlowers?

The National Park Service invites you to take along a virtual botanist the next time you visit the Santa Monica Mountains.  With over 1000 plants and 7500 photos, this App offers both novice and advanced wildflower enthusiasts the opportunity to identify common and rare plants while exploring remote areas of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Visitors can choose several basic flower characteristics on the App's interface like color, size and shape.  Based on those characteristics, the App presents several possible photographs to compare to the actual flower.  Flowers that are more difficult to identify often come with several photographs so that visitors can confidently make an accurate identification.

The App is based off of the award winning website "Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area."  An easy way to experience the content of this app before deciding to do the big download is to visit the on-line (web) version at the Park's web site at www.nps.gov/samo.  Click the dropdown 'Plan Your Visit' > Things to Do > Look for Wildflowers > WildFlower Photo Gallery. Also, when you arrive at the WildFlower web site scroll down to the link 'Standard Version' of the site as that is the version that most resembles this app.

Here is a direct link to this Standard Version of the WildFlower website: https://www.smmflowers.org/mobile/Bloom.htm

The App resides entirely on your iPhone or iPad, so the content generally loads much more quickly than even the highest speed connection allows.  An important benefit of this is that if you are out in remote places without a signal, you can still access all of the App's content.  One consideration when downloading the App is that it takes up about 700MB (0.7GB) of the device’s internal memory due to the high number and resolution of the flower photographs.

## Key features

- Identify over 1000 plant species
- 7500 high-resolution photos
- Identify by color, size, and shape
- Offline functionality
- Detailed identification for difficult plants
- Based on award-winning website

## Recent user reviews (10 of 10)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/smm-wildflowers/id390845765/reviews.md

### 2/5 — beautiful but crashes way too much

*2019-04-22*

Truly excellent photos (high quality images focused on the flower parts necessary for IDing). This app’s catalog of species is extremely comprehensive (includes the majority of taxa in the SMMNRA. The organization is also really good: searchable using by taxonomic family or scientific name or common name....
HOWEVER, I have this it installed on my iPhone SE (with plenty of available memory) but it frequently (over & over & over again) crashes while I do searches. This is frustrating because, otherwise, this is a pretty wonderful app.  Updates shouldn’t abandon relevance for the still widely used iPhone SE. Not everyone drops several hundred dollars every few years to get a new mobile phone when older models are still completely functional.

### 5/5 — Best plant identification guide for generalists.

*2018-03-10*

Easy to use and reliable.  Great photos.  Links to more detailed plant descriptions.  Well illustrated.  Thank you to the app creator for enhancing my hiking experiences.

### 5/5 — Great app for the Santa Monica mountains

*2014-05-30*

I love this app!  I have been using it everyday this spring to identify the flowers I come across while spending time in the mountains.  It would be even better if I could tick the flowers I have identified. The old memory is not what it used to be!

### 5/5 — Loved this app from the start

*2014-01-01*

Thank you to the compilers of this app. You have made my hikes come alive with information. If you live in Ventura County, and love plants in nature, this app is a joy.

### 5/5 — A pleasure to use

*2013-03-21*

I am a highschool student and I collect samples of our local species very frequently and I found this app to be a wonderful companion. It is very comprehensive and has a large database of flowering species. Thank you very much for this field guide!

### 5/5 — SMM Wildflowers

*2012-01-15*

This is a VERY user-friendly app.  It includes great information and photos.  It would be very useful, either for flower lovers or for classroom use.  It is designed to identify plants found in the Santa Monica Mountains area, but after looking through the data base, can see that it would be useful to me (in WI) since so many flowers are the same or similar.  The flower identification tool is especially handy, allowing you to select identifiable features of the plant such as color, woody versus herbaceous, blooming season, etc.  I am impressed!

### 4/5 — Compleat SMM Flowers

*2011-05-23*

Excellent application with an exhaustive list of wildflowers and their various names. Photography is excellent. Particularly useful for identification are multiple photographs of flowers at different scales and leaves and whole plants. Also valuable is searching by both common and scientific names.
On the other hand, if you use the application as a field guide, searching is quite impossible if you don't know the name. For future versionsI would recommend adding searching with thumbrint images organized by color

### 5/5 — Excellent detail to be emulated by the NPS

*2011-03-05*

An excellently organized, cogent, tightly written app to cover the flowers here. 

Tony Valois, I assume, is an employee of the national park service since this app is copyrighted by the NPS. If so, Tony should be commended and made the NPS project officer for creating a comprehensive suite of applications for the NPS to cover NPS Maps and charts, NPS flora(as here), and NPS fauna. 

Why does the NPS continue to let the need for a centralized app suite from the government jgo unanswered?

Do not continue to let third parties contribute questionable, incomplete maps and information. While the National Geographic society has a great map application, it is for only a few parks, and other apps are scattered into numerous origins and products. 

Make one app, customizable by the end user to include as little or as great information and detail as possible. Allow me to download one NPS app and then in the app add the maps I wish to take with me in the often cellular-bereft environment of our magnificent National Park. Allow me to add the flora and fauna information for as many parks as I wish, to take with me on my adventure. 

This should be the legacy of our great NPS. 

V/R
Matthew R. Chastain, Capt, USAF

### 5/5 — Simply Wonderful

*2010-10-19*

For people who enjoy the Santa Monica Mountains this wildflower identifier gallery is a must. It presents several views of each species and includes the latest finds of rare and endangered species. For people who frequent other areas of Southern California, many wildflower species are the same or similar to those in the Santa Monica Mountains. This a great resource for anyone with the slightest interest in wildflowers of Southern California.

### 5/5 — The best app ever

*2010-10-16*

Beautiful pics. Good for store plant shopping too.

## Frequently asked questions about SMM WildFlowers

### How does SMM WildFlowers help identify flowers?

SMM WildFlowers allows users to select basic flower characteristics like color, size, and shape. The app then presents potential matches with photographs for comparison, aiding in accurate identification.

### Can I use SMM WildFlowers without an internet connection?

Yes, SMM WildFlowers resides entirely on your device, meaning all content is accessible offline. This is particularly beneficial for exploring remote areas of the Santa Monica Mountains without a signal.

### What is the storage size of SMM WildFlowers?

SMM WildFlowers requires approximately 700MB (0.7GB) of internal memory due to its extensive collection of high-resolution photographs.

### What is the rating and number of reviews for SMM WildFlowers?

SMM WildFlowers has a rating of 4.0 stars based on 8 user ratings.

### What devices is SMM WildFlowers compatible with?

SMM WildFlowers is available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices.

### How often is SMM WildFlowers updated?

The latest version of SMM WildFlowers is 2.2.2, and it was last updated on May 8, 2025.

### What is the age rating for SMM WildFlowers?

SMM WildFlowers has an age rating of 4+.

### Does SMM WildFlowers have ads?

No, SMM WildFlowers does not contain advertisements.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 2.2.2 — 2025-05-08

Essentially no new functionality, and only minor content changes:
- Update several Scientific Names from Revision 12 and Revision 13 of the Jepson eFlora website.
- Apply a modest number of minor page format changes, primarily to improve the legibility of some of the text in the high-contrast color schemes.
- Update some of the App Usage Notes.

### 2.2 — 2023-09-18

- Add three new plants and 38 new photos. The app now contains a total of 1010 plants with photos, showcased by 7,523 pictures.
- Add a new feature 'Swipe To Next Of Series'.
- The 'Botanist Mode' setting now switches certain links from the plant common names to their scientific names.
- Apply a modest number of minor page format changes. The most significant was to minimize an infrequent page distortion possible on certain devices when using the app's text size setting of 'Largest'.

### 2.1 — 2023-03-05

- Numerous small formatting changes, mostly to improve the ease of use and accessibility of the app, but many were made simply to improve the look and feel of the app.
- Reorganize the Search Results for easier comparison of the plant thumbnails.
- Incorporate recent taxonomic changes affecting the Scientific Names of the plants.

### 2.0 — 2022-03-10

- Primarily an update to improve accessibility:
       - Includes many small cosmetic improvements, especially to the text layout.
       - Added additional viewing options.
       - Simplified the Toolbar.
  - Flower content remains almost unchanged:
       - Added one new flower.
       - Incorporated recent revisions of the Scientific Names.
  - Rewrote much of the internal workings to take advantage of recent advances in phone technology. Overall performance has been significantly improved.

### 1.5.1 — 2020-03-11

- Update to minimize issues on some recent devices. 
- The "Flower Log" feature has been removed.
- No change to the flower content.

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## More apps by Tony Valois

- [CNM WildFlowers](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cnm-wildflowers/id886826141)

All apps by Tony Valois: https://appshunter.io/developer/390845768

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-05.*