Trefle website screenshot

Trefle

An open, freely accessible botanical data source and REST API for plant information covering over 400,000 plant species with taxonomy, morphology, growth requirements, and geographic distributions.

Trefle publishes 10 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Distributions API, Division Classes API, Division Orders API, and 7 more. Tagged areas include Agriculture, Botany, Open Data, Plants, and Science.

The Trefle catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 2 Spectral governance rulesets.

Trefle’s developer surface includes authentication, documentation, signup flow, GitHub presence, and 5 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
47.7/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 31/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-08-05 · rubric v0.9.1
AccessFreemiumSelf serve⚡ Free to try
10 APIs
AgricultureBotanyOpen DataPlantsScience

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-08-05 · rubric v0.9.1
Composite quality — 47.7/100 · developing
Contract Quality 19.2 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 3.9 / 20
Commercial Clarity 7.9 / 20
Operational Transparency 4.8 / 13
Governance 8.3 / 12
Discoverability 6.5 / 10
Agent readiness — 31/100 · agent aware
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8
Request/Response Examples 0 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7
Typed Event Surface 0 / 6
Agent Skills 0 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
A2A Agent Card 0 / 8
Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/trefle: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 10

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Trefle Distributions API

Access geographic distribution zones and retrieve plants native or established in specific regions.

Trefle Division Classes API

Retrieve botanical division class classification data.

Trefle Division Orders API

Retrieve botanical division order classification data.

Trefle Divisions API

Retrieve botanical division classification data.

Trefle Families API

Retrieve plant family classification and taxonomy data.

Trefle Genus API

Retrieve plant genus classification data.

Trefle Kingdoms API

Retrieve botanical kingdom classification data.

Trefle Plants API

Search, list, and retrieve plant species by various attributes including common name, scientific name, slug, and taxonomic identifiers.

Trefle Species API

Access detailed species information including taxonomy, morphology, growth characteristics, soil requirements, and geographic distributions.

Trefle Subkingdoms API

Retrieve botanical subkingdom classification data.

Scroll for all 10

Open Collections 1

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

Trefle API

OPEN COLLECTION

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Trefle Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Trefle Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Trefle Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Trefle Context

44 classes · 0 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 2

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Trefle API Rules

5 rules · 4 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

Trefle API Rules

9 rules · 3 errors 5 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 2

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Trefle Plant

12 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Trefle Species

19 properties

JSON SCHEMA

JSON Structure 1

JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.

Trefle Species Structure

0 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Examples 2

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Trefle Get Species Example

2 fields

EXAMPLE

Trefle Search Plants Example

2 fields

EXAMPLE

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Trefle Authentication

apiKey · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Trefle Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Trefle Agentic Access

18 operations

18 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Signup
Signup

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation
Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess
AgenticAccess

Design & Contract 1

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Vocabulary
Vocabulary

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHub
GitHub

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity
 Authentication
Authentication

Company 2

The organization behind the API

LinkedIn
LinkedIn
 Website
Website

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: trefle
name: Trefle
description: An open, freely accessible botanical data source and REST API for plant information covering over 400,000 plant
  species with taxonomy, morphology, growth requirements, and geographic distributions.
type: Index
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  label: Freemium · Self-serve signup
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/trefle.png
tags:
- Agriculture
- Botany
- Open Data
- Plants
- Science
created: '2025-02-24'
modified: '2026-05-19'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/trefle/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: trefle:trefle-distributions-api
  name: Trefle Distributions API
  description: Access geographic distribution zones and retrieve plants native or established in specific regions.
  humanURL: https://trefle.io/
  baseURL: https://trefle.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Distributions
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/trefle-distributions-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/docs/guides/getting-started
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-plant-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-species-schema.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/trefle-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/trefle-species-structure.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-search-plants-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-get-species-example.json
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: rules/trefle-rules.yml
- aid: trefle:trefle-division-classes-api
  name: Trefle Division Classes API
  description: Retrieve botanical division class classification data.
  humanURL: https://trefle.io/
  baseURL: https://trefle.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Division Classes
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/trefle-division-classes-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/docs/guides/getting-started
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-plant-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-species-schema.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/trefle-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/trefle-species-structure.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-search-plants-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-get-species-example.json
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: rules/trefle-rules.yml
- aid: trefle:trefle-division-orders-api
  name: Trefle Division Orders API
  description: Retrieve botanical division order classification data.
  humanURL: https://trefle.io/
  baseURL: https://trefle.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Division Orders
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/trefle-division-orders-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/docs/guides/getting-started
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-plant-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-species-schema.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/trefle-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/trefle-species-structure.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-search-plants-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-get-species-example.json
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: rules/trefle-rules.yml
- aid: trefle:trefle-divisions-api
  name: Trefle Divisions API
  description: Retrieve botanical division classification data.
  humanURL: https://trefle.io/
  baseURL: https://trefle.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Divisions
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/trefle-divisions-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/docs/guides/getting-started
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-plant-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-species-schema.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/trefle-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/trefle-species-structure.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-search-plants-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-get-species-example.json
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: rules/trefle-rules.yml
- aid: trefle:trefle-families-api
  name: Trefle Families API
  description: Retrieve plant family classification and taxonomy data.
  humanURL: https://trefle.io/
  baseURL: https://trefle.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Families
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/trefle-families-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/docs/guides/getting-started
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-plant-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-species-schema.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/trefle-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/trefle-species-structure.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-search-plants-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-get-species-example.json
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: rules/trefle-rules.yml
- aid: trefle:trefle-genus-api
  name: Trefle Genus API
  description: Retrieve plant genus classification data.
  humanURL: https://trefle.io/
  baseURL: https://trefle.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Genus
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/trefle-genus-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/docs/guides/getting-started
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-plant-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-species-schema.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/trefle-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/trefle-species-structure.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-search-plants-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-get-species-example.json
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: rules/trefle-rules.yml
- aid: trefle:trefle-kingdoms-api
  name: Trefle Kingdoms API
  description: Retrieve botanical kingdom classification data.
  humanURL: https://trefle.io/
  baseURL: https://trefle.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Kingdoms
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/trefle-kingdoms-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/docs/guides/getting-started
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-plant-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-species-schema.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/trefle-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/trefle-species-structure.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-search-plants-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-get-species-example.json
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: rules/trefle-rules.yml
- aid: trefle:trefle-plants-api
  name: Trefle Plants API
  description: Search, list, and retrieve plant species by various attributes including common name, scientific name, slug,
    and taxonomic identifiers.
  humanURL: https://trefle.io/
  baseURL: https://trefle.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Plants
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/trefle-plants-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/docs/guides/getting-started
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-plant-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-species-schema.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/trefle-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/trefle-species-structure.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-search-plants-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-get-species-example.json
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: rules/trefle-rules.yml
- aid: trefle:trefle-species-api
  name: Trefle Species API
  description: Access detailed species information including taxonomy, morphology, growth characteristics, soil requirements,
    and geographic distributions.
  humanURL: https://trefle.io/
  baseURL: https://trefle.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Species
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/trefle-species-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/docs/guides/getting-started
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-plant-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-species-schema.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/trefle-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/trefle-species-structure.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-search-plants-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-get-species-example.json
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: rules/trefle-rules.yml
- aid: trefle:trefle-subkingdoms-api
  name: Trefle Subkingdoms API
  description: Retrieve botanical subkingdom classification data.
  humanURL: https://trefle.io/
  baseURL: https://trefle.io/api/v1
  tags:
  - Subkingdoms
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/trefle-subkingdoms-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://docs.trefle.io/docs/guides/getting-started
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-plant-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/trefle-species-schema.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: json-ld/trefle-context.jsonld
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: json-structure/trefle-species-structure.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-search-plants-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/trefle-get-species-example.json
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: rules/trefle-rules.yml
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/trefle-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/trefle-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/trefle-authentication.yml
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trefle-api
- type: Website
  url: https://trefle.io/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://docs.trefle.io/
- type: Signup
  url: https://trefle.io/users/sign_in
- type: GitHub
  url: https://github.com/treflehq
- type: Vocabulary
  url: vocabulary/trefle-vocabulary.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com