Trefle Plants API

openapi: 3.1.0
info:
  title: Trefle Distributions Plants API
  description: Trefle is an open, freely accessible botanical data source and REST API for plant information. The API provides access to data on kingdoms, subkingdoms, divisions, plant families, genus, plant species, and geographic distributions. Over 400,000 plant species are available. Authentication uses a personal access token passed as a query parameter or Authorization header.
  version: 1.0.0
  contact:
    name: Trefle Support
    url: https://trefle.io
  license:
    name: MIT
    url: https://github.com/treflehq/trefle-api/blob/master/LICENSE
servers:
- url: https://trefle.io/api/v1
  description: Trefle Production API
security:
- tokenAuth: []
tags:
- name: Plants
  description: Search, list, and retrieve plant species by various attributes including common name, scientific name, slug, and taxonomic identifiers.
paths:
  /plants:
    get:
      operationId: listPlants
      summary: List Plants
      description: Returns a paginated list of plant species. Supports filtering by common name, slug, complete/incomplete data, and various plant attributes. Results include taxonomic identifiers and basic plant data.
      tags:
      - Plants
      parameters:
      - name: page
        in: query
        schema:
          type: integer
        description: Page number for pagination
      - name: filter[common_name]
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
        description: Filter plants by common name (partial match supported)
      - name: filter[slug]
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
        description: Filter plants by slug
      - name: filter_not[common_name]
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
        description: Exclude plants matching this common name
      - name: order[common_name]
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - asc
          - desc
        description: Order results by common name
      - name: order[scientific_name]
        in: query
        schema:
          type: string
          enum:
          - asc
          - desc
        description: Order results by scientific name
      responses:
        '200':
          description: List of plants returned successfully
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
                properties:
                  data:
                    type: array
                    items:
                      $ref: '#/components/schemas/PlantSummary'
                  links:
                    $ref: '#/components/schemas/PaginationLinks'
                  meta:
                    $ref: '#/components/schemas/PaginationMeta'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
  /plants/search:
    get:
      operationId: searchPlants
      summary: Search Plants
      description: Search for plants by common name or scientific name. Optimized for autocomplete and "as you type" queries with fast response times. Returns matching plant species with basic taxonomy data.
      tags:
      - Plants
      parameters:
      - name: q
        in: query
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
        description: Search query — common name or scientific name
      - name: page
        in: query
        schema:
          type: integer
        description: Page number for pagination
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Search results returned successfully
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
                properties:
                  data:
                    type: array
                    items:
                      $ref: '#/components/schemas/PlantSummary'
                  links:
                    $ref: '#/components/schemas/PaginationLinks'
                  meta:
                    $ref: '#/components/schemas/PaginationMeta'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
  /plants/{id}:
    get:
      operationId: getPlant
      summary: Get Plant
      description: Retrieves detailed information about a plant by its Trefle ID or slug, including full taxonomy, common names, images, and links to species data.
      tags:
      - Plants
      parameters:
      - name: id
        in: path
        required: true
        schema:
          type: string
        description: The plant's Trefle ID or slug
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Plant details returned successfully
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                type: object
                properties:
                  data:
                    $ref: '#/components/schemas/Plant'
        '401':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'
        '404':
          description: Plant not found
components:
  schemas:
    SpeciesSummary:
      type: object
      properties:
        id:
          type: integer
        common_name:
          type: string
        slug:
          type: string
        scientific_name:
          type: string
        status:
          type: string
        rank:
          type: string
        family_common_name:
          type: string
        family:
          type: string
        genus_id:
          type: integer
        genus:
          type: string
        image_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        synonyms:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
        links:
          type: object
    PaginationLinks:
      type: object
      properties:
        self:
          type: string
        first:
          type: string
        next:
          type: string
        prev:
          type: string
        last:
          type: string
    PlantSummary:
      type: object
      properties:
        id:
          type: integer
          description: Trefle plant identifier
        common_name:
          type: string
          description: Common name of the plant
        slug:
          type: string
          description: URL-safe unique identifier
        scientific_name:
          type: string
          description: Scientific (Latin) name
        status:
          type: string
          description: Taxonomic status
        rank:
          type: string
          description: Taxonomic rank
        family_common_name:
          type: string
          description: Common name of the plant family
        family:
          type: string
          description: Scientific family name
        genus_id:
          type: integer
        genus:
          type: string
          description: Genus name
        image_url:
          type: string
          format: uri
          description: URL to the plant image
        synonyms:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
        links:
          type: object
          properties:
            self:
              type: string
            plant:
              type: string
            genus:
              type: string
    Plant:
      allOf:
      - $ref: '#/components/schemas/PlantSummary'
      - type: object
        properties:
          main_species_id:
            type: integer
          main_species:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/SpeciesSummary'
    PaginationMeta:
      type: object
      properties:
        total:
          type: integer
          description: Total number of records matching the query
  responses:
    Unauthorized:
      description: Authentication failed. Access token missing, invalid, or expired.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            type: object
            properties:
              error:
                type: string
              message:
                type: string
  securitySchemes:
    tokenAuth:
      type: apiKey
      in: query
      name: token
      description: 'Trefle personal access token obtained by registering at trefle.io. Can be passed as a query parameter (?token=YOUR_TOKEN) or in the Authorization header (Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN).'