Content Licensing

Plant data

The core plant data (scientific names, common names, edible parts, cultivation notes, distribution, and nutritional information) comes from the Food Plants International (FPI) database compiled by Bruce French. This data is used with the understanding that it is being made freely available for educational and non-commercial purposes. The original data remains the work of Food Plants International.

Plant descriptions

Supplementary plant descriptions are sourced from Wikipedia and are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0). Where Wikipedia text is used, it is attributed on the relevant plant page with a link back to the source article.

Photographs

The database contains approximately 58,000 plant photographs sourced from iNaturalist, GBIF, and Wikimedia Commons. All images marked "all rights reserved" are excluded from the site and the ZIM file. Every image is displayed with its license type and attribution to the original photographer.

The images are published under the following Creative Commons licenses:

The majority of images (~70%) carry a non-commercial (NC) restriction. This means the database as a whole — including the ZIM file — should be treated as non-commercial use only unless NC-licensed images are removed or replaced.

Redistribution and the ZIM file

The ZIM file available on the downloads page contains the full database including all images, descriptions, and plant data. The ZIM file is intended for personal use and educational purposes — keeping a copy on your phone for field reference, sharing it with a school or community group, hosting it on a local server for a research station, or distributing it through humanitarian organizations is exactly what it's designed for.

Because the ZIM file contains images under multiple different Creative Commons licenses, anyone redistributing it should be aware that the most restrictive license present (CC BY-NC-ND) limits the collection to non-commercial use with no modifications to those specific images. Whether aggregating images into a ZIM archive constitutes a "derivative work" or a "collection" under Creative Commons terms is a matter of ongoing interpretation in the licensing community. We believe this project constitutes a collection for educational reference purposes, and that the images are reproduced unmodified with full attribution.

In summary: Personal use and educational redistribution with attribution intact is encouraged. Commercial redistribution of the ZIM file would conflict with the NC-licensed images that make up the bulk of the image collection. This project is not a commercial product — it is a community resource for learning and reference.

Attribution requirements

If you share or redistribute content from this site or the ZIM file, you must provide attribution to the following:

• Food Plants International — the core plant data (names, edible parts, cultivation, distribution, nutrition) was compiled by Bruce French / Food Plants International and must be credited as the original source
• Individual photographers — every photograph must retain its attribution to the original photographer as displayed on the site
• Wikipedia — plant descriptions sourced from Wikipedia must be credited per the CC BY-SA 4.0 license

Attribution information for photographs is sourced from the original platforms (iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikimedia Commons) at the time of data collection. If you are a photographer and your attribution is missing or incorrect, please let us know and we will correct it promptly.

Copyright concerns and takedown requests

We make every effort to only use content that is openly licensed and properly attributed. If you believe any content on this site infringes your copyright or has been used outside the terms of its license, please contact us at [email protected] with the following information:

• The URL(s) on this site where the content appears
• A description of the copyrighted work and evidence of your ownership
• The reason you believe the use is infringing

We will review all requests promptly and remove or replace any content that does not comply with its license terms.

Disclaimer

This website and the ZIM file are provided "as is" for informational and educational purposes only. The content is aggregated from third-party sources and may contain errors or outdated information. Do not eat any plant based solely on information found here — many edible plants have toxic look-alikes that can cause serious harm or death. Always verify plant identification with multiple qualified sources before consuming any wild or unfamiliar plant.

The authors, contributors, and operators of this project accept no responsibility or liability for any adverse effects, damages, or losses resulting from the use or redistribution of information presented on this site or in the ZIM file. Use at your own risk.