API Search for plant/insect/mushroom details by its name

During our continuous botanical data merging and cleaning endeavor, we have compiled a huge species database. It consists of 33 325 plant species, 6 387 insect species and 3 100 mushroom species.

For these records, we register various useful data in various languages. Regarding the plants it is for example:

• common names in different languages
• text description in different languages
• wikipedia link
• represenative photos
• taxonomy info
• possible uses or propagation methods

Until recently, this “knowledge base” could only be accessed through photo identification. Though this is useful in most use-case scenarios, sometimes the end user already knows the species name and only needs information of some kind.

This is why we introduced new endpoints allowing you to use either part of the latin name, or its latin synonyms or common names for all species to find your species match.
Lets see how it is used in plant.id:

• Search for the string match: https://plant.id/api/v3/kb/plants/name_search?q=aloe vera
  (getting the access token - for free)
• Extract plant details info: https://plant.id/api/v3/kb/plants/:access_token?details=common_names,url,description
  (using the access token - for 0.5 credits)

The first endpoint is designed to be used for dynamic plant name suggestions during typing the plant, insect or mushrom name.

Check the two new endpoints in the docs for more info and let us know how it can be improved. We already received some great ideas and are currently trying to find some space for it in the roadmap.

You can find the equivalent functionality in insect.id or mushroom.id products.