Metaflora

About Metaflora

Metaflora is a daily biology game from Trainwreck Labs, the makers of Metazooa. Its tagline sums it up: plant life is beautiful but also complex, and the game tests your green thumb by seeing how well you can navigate its leafy branches.

Each day there is one numbered Mystery Plant. You type any species to begin, and each wrong guess is added to a tree that shows the shared taxonomic ranks (kingdom, phylum, class, order and so on) between your guess and the answer. The more your guess has in common with the answer, the lower the branch point and the more you learn. A card for each rank gives a short Wikipedia description and photo. You have 25 guesses, and a new game starts at midnight UTC.

The plants were chosen for familiarity and for the spread of species they cover. Classifications follow the NCBI taxonomy, so they can differ from Wikipedia. Cultivated varieties such as broccoli, cauliflower and kale appear together as cabbage, since they are all one species.

It suits gardeners, botany students and Metazooa players who want a second daily tree to climb.

How to play Metaflora

1. Open flora.metazooa.com and start today's game.
2. Guess any plant species to begin.
3. Read the tree: your guess branches off at the last rank it shares with the mystery plant.
4. Use the narrowing ranks to pick closer relatives until you name the plant, within 25 guesses.

Screenshots

Tips

• Open with plants from very different groups, such as a fern, a conifer and a grass, to find the main branch quickly.
• Remember that the game uses NCBI taxonomy, which may differ from what you learned.
• Many vegetables are varieties of one species: broccoli and kale count as cabbage.

Questions