A Plain-English Guide to Flora API

Finds plants matching filters you choose.

A list of matching plants, how many matched in total, how many are in this batch, where you are in the list, and whether there are more. Each plant carries:

• Its scientific name and common names
• Its family and genus
• Whether it's Native, Non-Native, or Invasive
• Its USDA symbol and taxonomic rank
• Flags for invasive and legally noxious status
• One representative photo, with its license, credit line, source, and a flag saying whether credit is legally required

A text query; state or county; family or genus; nativity; bloom month; flowering season; flower color; growth habit; light requirement; hardiness zone range; broad habitat type; soil type; ornamental quality; landscaping use; hazard; whether it has photos; whether it has edible parts. Results can be sorted and paged through.

“Native shrubs in Ohio with yellow flowers that bloom in June.”

• Invasive plants are excluded by default. Ask for them explicitly if you want them.
• You get 50 results at a time by default, up to 500.
• An older field returns a photo's address on its own, without the licensing information beside it. It is retained for compatibility and will be removed in a future version — use the full photo record instead.

Given part of a name, suggests full plant names — scientific and common.

What you typed, a list of suggestions, and a count. Each suggestion has the plant's ID, the matching name, whether that name is scientific or common, the plant's nativity, and its family.

A type-ahead search box.

Lets people browse by family or genus instead of searching by name.

The groups at the level you asked for. For a family: its name, how many plants are in it, and how many genera. For a genus: its name, its parent family, and how many plants are in it.

A text query, the level you want, and a state. County filtering needs the Developer plan.

A browsable directory rather than a search box.

Finds plants with recorded edible parts.

A list of plants — each with its ID, scientific name, common names, family, genus, nativity, and which parts are edible (fruit, leaves, roots, seeds, flowers, stem) — plus a liability disclaimer attached to every response.

State, a specific edible part, and native-only (on by default). County filtering needs Developer.

Edible-landscaping lists and foraging reference material.

Returns the complete profile for a single plant. Look it up by Flora's ID number or by its USDA symbol — either works.

Everything in a search result, plus:

A plant detail page. This one request answers most questions about one plant.

• Everything from habitat and soil downward — landscaping, size, foliage, propagation, safety — is free on every plan.
• County-level distribution is omitted on the Free plan. The request still succeeds; that section is simply absent from the response.
• Propagation timing: where a plant lists a season for seed collection but no month, the original source recorded only a season. Flora records what the source stated rather than estimating a month range, so a blank month beside a recorded season is accurate rather than missing.

Lists the places one plant has been recorded.

The plant's ID, the level you asked for (state or county), and the list of locations.

Drawing a range map, or checking whether a plant belongs in your area.

Returns the photo gallery for a plant.

For each photo: the web address, the license it's published under, the credit line, a flag saying whether credit is required, the collection it came from, and a link to the original page so you can verify the terms yourself. The preferred photo comes first.

How many photos; preferred-only; and — usefully — you can ask to exclude photos that require credit, if displaying credit isn't practical for you.

Most Flora photos are published under licenses that make credit a legal condition of use — roughly 70% of them. The flag on each photo tells you which. Check it before you publish an image. See Data Sources & Attribution.

Compares one plant against the climate of one place, given a ZIP code or a county.

A yes/no answer, a plain rating (excellent, good, marginal, poor, or unknown), the location's hardiness zone, the plant's zone range, and a margin of safety — how many zones of buffer you have, negative if the plant is outside its range here.

When Flora has enough data it also returns a much richer assessment: scores against 27 separate climate measurements for the current climate and for future projections, a breakdown of each measurement, a list of the conditions actually holding the plant back here, and a confidence figure. A field tells you which approach was used — the detailed one or the simple hardiness-zone fallback.

A “can I grow this here?” check on a plant page.

Scores run from -1 to 1. A negative score does not mean “slightly unsuitable” — it means the location falls outside the conditions the plant tolerates, and the more negative the score, the further outside it falls.

Lists plants recorded in a state. A separate version limits it to plants native there.

The same plant summaries as search results.

State-level plant lists and native-plant guides.

Returns the climate of a US location, looked up by ZIP code or by county.

• The USDA hardiness zone, like “6b”
• Average annual low and high temperatures, in °F
• Which county and state the location is in
• An attribution line naming the data source

You can also ask for three extras:

• Month-by-month figures — rainfall and air dryness for each of the 12 months
• Baseline measurements — hot days per year, growing degree days, length of the frost-free period, winter chill hours, annual rainfall, and average air dryness
• The 19 standard bioclimatic variables — the measurements ecologists use to model where species can live, such as annual mean temperature or rainfall in the wettest month. Each comes with a description of what it is.

Filling in “your zone is 6b” on a form, or feeding a plant recommender. More on the sources behind this on the climate data page.

Reports how much of your monthly allowance you've used.

Requests used this month, your monthly limit, and the percentage used; a day-by-day history including how many requests failed; and your ten most-used features.

How many days of history you want, up to 90.

Building a usage dashboard, or checking why requests have begun to be declined. The same figures appear on your account dashboard.

Finds plants similar to a plant you specify — by shared genus or family, similar characteristics, and overlapping range.

A list of plants in the same summary form as search results.

“You might also consider…” on a plant page, or finding a native substitute for something invasive.

Describes the range of climate conditions a plant is actually found living in — its “climate envelope”.

For each climate measurement Flora tracks: the measurement's name and description, its unit, the core range the plant is usually found in, the absolute range after outliers are removed, and how many counties went into the calculation. Plus a count of how many measurements had enough data.

Understanding why a plant does or doesn't suit a place, rather than just whether it does.

The county count matters when interpreting the range. An envelope calculated from 8 counties is far less reliable than one calculated from 800.

Lists every plant recorded in one specific county.

Plant summaries, same shape as search results.

Nativity, blooming season, and paging — up to 1,000 at a time.

County-level plant guides and local native-plant recommendations. State-level lists are included in every plan; county-level lists require the Developer plan.

Suggests what a plant might be, based on physical traits you describe and where you saw it.

A ranked list of suggestions with confidence scores, a total count of potential matches, and an echo of the criteria used — so you can see what Flora actually searched on.

A companion request returns the list of traits you're allowed to describe — the valid flower colors, leaf shapes, and so on — so you can build a form without guessing.

State; growth form; flower colors; leaf shapes; leaf arrangement; the month it's blooming; habitat; and whether to favor native plants (on by default). Up to 50 suggestions.

A guided “what did I find?” flow.

Gives the conservation standing of one plant.

• Its global rank, G1 through G5. G1 is critically imperiled, G5 is secure.
• The specific rarity designations that apply
• The rank translated into words, such as “High Conservation Concern — Critically Imperiled” or “Status Unknown”
• Its nativity, and flags for noxious-weed and invasive status
• Threat detail, unless you turn it off
• An attribution line

Compliance checks, environmental assessments, and grant applications.

Global ranks come from NatureServe and must be credited. The rank is a global assessment — a plant common in your state can still be globally rare, and vice versa. “Status Unknown” means unranked, not secure.

Lists plants of conservation concern in a state.

Plant summaries, ordered with the most imperiled first.

Minimum risk level (High, Moderate, Low), whether to include plants flagged rare, and how many.

Conservation planning, impact assessments, and prioritizing survey work.

The risk categories are Flora's own interpretation of NatureServe's conservation ranks, not NatureServe's own labels. Note this if you republish them.

Works out which plants in a place stay suitable, stop being suitable, or become newly suitable, under a projected future climate.

The location; the scenario and time period you asked for; the climate projections themselves; a summary counting plants by outcome; and two lists — those remaining viable and those becoming unviable. Each plant carries its current and projected status, its current and projected hardiness zone, a confidence score, the multi-measurement scores behind the verdict, and the conditions limiting it.

Give a county code or a ZIP code. Choose a scenario — moderate emissions or high emissions (business as usual). Choose a period — 2050s or 2080s. Limit to native plants, and cap the list length.

Long-horizon planting decisions and climate-adaptation planning.

These are projections under a chosen scenario, not forecasts. The scenario you select changes the results substantially, which is why both are offered. State which scenario you used when you publish results.

The optimistic mirror of the above: plants not currently viable in a place that a changing climate is projected to make viable.

The location, scenario, and period; a count of opportunities; and the list of plants, each with the same status, zone, confidence, and limiting-factor detail.

Forward-looking nursery stocking and long-lived plantings like street trees.

A plant becoming climate-viable is not the same as a plant being appropriate to plant. These results say nothing about whether a species is native to the area, or whether it may behave invasively there.

Identifies “climate refugees” — plants currently native to a place that are projected to become unviable there.

The location, scenario, and period; a count; the list of plants with their current and projected status and the reasons; and a breakdown counting them as high, medium, or low conservation priority.

Conservation triage, seed-banking priorities, and grant narratives.

Downloads plant data as a file you can open in Excel or Google Sheets, or as structured data for a developer.

Basic reference information per plant: scientific name, USDA symbol, up to 5 common names, family and genus, state-level distribution, growth habits, bloom season, flower colors, and a photo address. Recent additions include habitat types, soil types, landscaping uses, hazards, and minimum and maximum height. Spreadsheet downloads also include an attribution file and a safety file.

File format (spreadsheet or structured data), state, native-only, part of a scientific name, family, and genus.

• 100 plants per download. If your filters match more than that, the request is declined and returns the total, so you can narrow your filters.
• 10 downloads per hour.
• Each download counts as 10 requests against your monthly allowance.
• Some information is deliberately left out of downloads: county-level distribution, conservation status, exact bloom months, and at-risk data.
• Exports are monitored for automated bulk-collection patterns. Export access may be suspended for accounts that trigger them.
• Keep the attribution file with the data whenever you store or share it.

Lists invasive plants of concern in a state.

The region, a count of alerts, the alerts themselves, and a summary counting them by severity. Severity is High for legally designated noxious weeds and Medium for other invasives.

Whether to include noxious weeds, and how many.

Early detection and rapid response programs, land management, and impact assessments.

Recommends native plants suited to ecological restoration in a region.

For each plant: its ID, scientific name, common names, family and genus, description and habitat, growth habits, the wildlife it attracts, and a score ranking it as a restoration candidate.

Target habitat type, whether to prioritize wildlife value, whether to prefer locally adapted plants, and how many.

Restoration planning, pollinator gardens, and habitat enhancement.

The restoration score is Flora's own ranking, not an established ecological standard. It weights native status most heavily, followed by wildlife support and drought tolerance. Use it to order candidates for review rather than as a scientific rating.

Recommends plants for a place chosen to still be viable at the end of your planning horizon.

The location, your planning horizon and scenario, a count, and the recommendations. Each carries the plant's names and growth habits, its viability now and at your horizon, a resilience score from 0 to 1, drought tolerance, a heat-tolerant flag, and a note explaining the recommendation.

Location (county or ZIP), planning horizon (2050s or 2080s), scenario (the high-emissions scenario is the default, so recommendations stay conservative), native-only, growth habits, flower colors, and how many.

Specifying plants for anything expected to be alive in thirty years.

Analyzes how growing zones across a whole state are projected to move.

Counties gaining warmth and, rarely, counties cooling — each with its current zone, projected zone, and how many zones it shifts. Plus the pattern of zone transitions across the state and a summary of the biodiversity impact.

Scenario and time period.

State-level conservation planning, and finding the places that will change most.

Assembles everything Flora knows about one county's climate future into a single report.

The county's identity; its current climate including month-by-month figures; projections for every combination of scenario and time period; a count of native plants; and, for each combination, how many plants become unviable and how many become newly viable. Available as structured data or as a spreadsheet download.

A document to hand to a planning board or attach to a grant application.

This runs four full analyses in a single request, so it takes noticeably longer to return than other requests.

Takes a list of plants you name and assesses each one against one location, across multiple scenarios and time periods at once.

The location; an assessment grid giving each plant's viability status and score for every scenario and period you asked for; an overall summary; and written recommendations.

Location (county or ZIP), up to 50 plants, and which scenarios and periods to run.

Checking a planting plan someone has already drafted, rather than generating a new one. This is the only part of Flora that starts from your plant list.