Documentation

Taxonomy related routes

Pl@ntNet API provides a set of routes to explore the taxonomical referentials, also called "floras" or "projects".

General information

Pl@ntNet identification engine will give better results if you request identification within a particular project, ie. a checklist of species-level taxa.

Most projects are related to a geographical area, some are thematical, or both.

In particular the k-* projects, known as "Kew-TDWG" or "KT" projects, are all related to a geographical area from TDWG's WGSRPD, k-world-flora being the union of all KT projects.

For more details, read the documentation about KT and Legacy floras.

Routes list

  • /v2/projects
    • Returns the list of available "projects" (aka "floras" or "referentials")
  • /v2/species
    • Returns the list of available plant species, all projects combined
  • /v2/projects/{project}/species
    • Returns the list of available plant species in a given project
  • /v2/projects/{project}/species/align
    • Aligns a name with Pl@ntNet taxonomical referential for the given project

See OpenAPI doc for details.

Input

Language

Set lang to a language code returned by /v2/languages route to get contextualized results, such as projects descriptions or common names.

Type

Set type to legacy if you explicitely wish to get the list of legacy projects, or species present in legacy projects.

Identification requests on legacy projects are performed by an outdated model! You should always use KT projects.

Pagination (*/species)

Set pageSize and page to any integer > 0 to get paginated results.

Both parameters have to be set together or pagination won't be effective.

The default value null for these parameters leads to a long response time and a heavy response body.

Prefix (*/species)

Set prefix to any string value to get only species starting with this prefix.

Images (*/species)

Set images to true to get a list of illustrations for each species.

This feature requires "pro" plan.

See Using images to learn about images reuse and citation.

lat / lon (/projects)

Set lat and lon to WGS84 decimal coordinates to get only projects close to your position.

authorship (/align)

Set authorship to true when the species name you submit contains authorship (ex: "Acer campestre L."), set to false otherwise.

synonyms (/align)

Set synonyms to true to search among synonyms and not only among accepted names.

cURL examples

GET /v2/projects

curl 'https://my-api.plantnet.org/v2/projects?api-key=YOUR_API_KEY'

[
  {
    "id": "k-world-flora",
    "title": "World flora",
    "description": "Plants of the world flora",
    "speciesCount": 73591
  },
  {
    "id": "useful",
    "title": "Useful plants",
    "description": "Cultivated and ornamental plants",
    "speciesCount": 5443
  },
  {
    "id": "weeds",
    "title": "Weeds",
    "description": "Weeds in agricultural fields of Europe",
    "speciesCount": 1426
  },
  {
    "id": "invasion",
    "title": "Invasive plants",
    "description": "Invasive species potentially threatening livelihoods and the environment around the world",
    "speciesCount": 1087
  },
  {
    "id": "prota",
    "title": "Useful plants of Tropical Africa",
    "description": "Plant Resources of Tropical Africa",
    "speciesCount": 2269
  },
  (…)
]

GET /v2/projects?lat=&lon=

curl 'https://my-api.plantnet.org/v2/projects?lat=43.451&lon=3.145&api-key=YOUR_API_KEY'

When providing lat and lon, only projects close to your location are returned by order of proximity decreasing.

[
  {
    "id": "k-southwestern-europe",
    "title": "Southwestern Europe",
    "description": "Plants of Southwestern Europe",
    "speciesCount": 7248
  },
  {
    "id": "salad",
    "title": "Les Ecologistes de l'Euzière",
    "description": "Les Ecologistes de l'Euzière",
    "speciesCount": 245
  },
  {
    "id": "cevennes",
    "title": "Cévennes",
    "description": "Flora of the Cévennes National Park",
    "speciesCount": 2392
  },
  {
    "id": "provence",
    "title": "Provence, France",
    "description": "Flore provençale Dép. des Bouches-du-Rhône",
    "speciesCount": 2200
  }
]

GET /v2/projects/k-southwestern-europe/species?pageSize=&page=

curl 'https://my-api.plantnet.org/v2/projects/k-southwestern-europe/species?page=1&pageSize=5&api-key=YOUR_API_KEY'

[
  {
    "id": "1743469",
    "commonNames": [
      "Switcheli"
    ],
    "scientificNameWithoutAuthor": "× Elyhordeum rouxii",
    "scientificNameAuthorship": "(Gren. & Duval-Jouve) Kerguélen",
    "gbifId": 4114192,
    "powoId": "912427-1",
    "iucnCategory": null
  },
  {
    "id": "1632983",
    "commonNames": [],
    "scientificNameWithoutAuthor": "× Serapicamptis rousii",
    "scientificNameAuthorship": "(Du Puy) J.M.H.Shaw",
    "gbifId": 2813947,
    "powoId": "77066969-1",
    "iucnCategory": null
  },
  {
    "id": "1632987",
    "commonNames": [],
    "scientificNameWithoutAuthor": "× Serapicamptis traverseriana",
    "scientificNameAuthorship": "S.Baumann",
    "gbifId": 8000297,
    "powoId": "77115622-1",
    "iucnCategory": null
  },
  {
    "id": "1397299",
    "commonNames": [
      "Common silver Fir",
      "Silver Fir",
      "European silver fir",
      "Christmastree",
      "White fir",
      "Swiss pine",
      "Common fir",
      "White silver fir",
      "Spiculum Silver-Fir"
    ],
    "scientificNameWithoutAuthor": "Abies alba",
    "scientificNameAuthorship": "Mill.",
    "gbifId": 2685484,
    "powoId": "60468511-2",
    "iucnCategory": "LC"
  },
  {
    "id": "1393306",
    "commonNames": [
      "Caucasian fir",
      "Nordmann Christmastree",
      "Nordmann fir",
      "Turkey fir",
      "Kazazdagi Fir",
      "Nordmann's silver fir",
      "Nordmann's fir",
      "Christmas Fir",
      "Christmas Tree"
    ],
    "scientificNameWithoutAuthor": "Abies nordmanniana",
    "scientificNameAuthorship": "(Steven) Spach",
    "gbifId": 2685552,
    "powoId": "261599-1",
    "iucnCategory": "LC"
  }
]

GET /v2/projects/k-southwestern-europe/species?prefix=&images=

curl 'https://my-api.plantnet.org/v2/projects/k-southwestern-europe/species?prefix=Acer%20campestre&images=true&api-key=YOUR_API_KEY'

[
  {
    "id": "1356455",
    "commonNames": [
      "Field Maple",
      "Hedge maple",
      "English Maple",
      "Common maple",
      "Maser",
      "Maplin-tree",
      "Dog Oak",
      "شیردار از خانواده افرا"
    ],
    "genus": "Acer",
    "family": "Sapindaceae",
    "images": [
      {
        "organ": "flower",
        "author": "Fabrice Rubio",
        "license": "cc-by-sa",
        "date": {
          "timestamp": 1746128195891,
          "string": "May 1, 2025"
        },
        "url": {
          "o": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/o/358920ed79f0e213ec90480b78b9e8880d8d5e21",
          "m": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/m/358920ed79f0e213ec90480b78b9e8880d8d5e21",
          "s": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/s/358920ed79f0e213ec90480b78b9e8880d8d5e21"
        },
        "citation": "Fabrice Rubio / Pl@ntNet, cc-by-sa"
      },
      {
        "organ": "flower",
        "author": "Fabrice Rubio",
        "license": "cc-by-sa",
        "date": {
          "timestamp": 1746128195891,
          "string": "May 1, 2025"
        },
        "url": {
          "o": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/o/c7af73e0160a7ffb83605c49a12609e62e4cc2ee",
          "m": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/m/c7af73e0160a7ffb83605c49a12609e62e4cc2ee",
          "s": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/s/c7af73e0160a7ffb83605c49a12609e62e4cc2ee"
        },
        "citation": "Fabrice Rubio / Pl@ntNet, cc-by-sa"
      },
      {
        "organ": "flower",
        "author": "Fabrice Rubio",
        "license": "cc-by-sa",
        "date": {
          "timestamp": 1746953621401,
          "string": "May 11, 2025"
        },
        "url": {
          "o": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/o/f0a4c7246163ded66536bbd4b9f6df7bd82c1dd0",
          "m": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/m/f0a4c7246163ded66536bbd4b9f6df7bd82c1dd0",
          "s": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/s/f0a4c7246163ded66536bbd4b9f6df7bd82c1dd0"
        },
        "citation": "Fabrice Rubio / Pl@ntNet, cc-by-sa"
      },
      {
        "organ": "flower",
        "author": "Fabrice Rubio",
        "license": "cc-by-sa",
        "date": {
          "timestamp": 1746953621401,
          "string": "May 11, 2025"
        },
        "url": {
          "o": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/o/531adfb886aa3902299b1b4d0c83267fc891a0ca",
          "m": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/m/531adfb886aa3902299b1b4d0c83267fc891a0ca",
          "s": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/s/531adfb886aa3902299b1b4d0c83267fc891a0ca"
        },
        "citation": "Fabrice Rubio / Pl@ntNet, cc-by-sa"
      },
      {
        "organ": "flower",
        "author": "Konstans Big",
        "license": "cc-by-sa",
        "date": {
          "timestamp": 1586759396448,
          "string": "April 13, 2020"
        },
        "url": {
          "o": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/o/8558756c6d24cbcdf8d8cabe6ba747e4273bde7e",
          "m": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/m/8558756c6d24cbcdf8d8cabe6ba747e4273bde7e",
          "s": "https://bs.plantnet.org/image/s/8558756c6d24cbcdf8d8cabe6ba747e4273bde7e"
        },
        "citation": "Konstans Big / Pl@ntNet, cc-by-sa"
      }
    ],
    "scientificNameWithoutAuthor": "Acer campestre",
    "scientificNameAuthorship": "L.",
    "gbifId": 3189863,
    "powoId": "781250-1",
    "iucnCategory": "LC"
  }
]

GET /v2/projects/k-southwestern-europe/species/align?authorship=&synonyms=

curl 'https://my-api.plantnet.org/v2/projects/k-southwestern-europe/species/align?name=Acer%20campestre&authorship=false&synonyms=false&api-key=YOUR_API_KEY'

{
  "searchedName": "Acer campestre",
  "matchingName": "Acer campestre L.",
  "acceptedName": "Acer campestre L.",
  "isSynonym": false,
  "project": "k-southwestern-europe",
  "family": "Sapindaceae",
  "genus": "Acer",
  "gbif": {
    "id": "3189863"
  },
  "iucn": {
    "id": "193523"
  },
  "eol": {
    "id": "582248"
  },
  "grin": {
    "id": "1101"
  },
  "powo": {
    "id": "781250-1"
  }
}