African Plants – a Photo Guide is a comprehensive identification tool and photographic archive showcasing vascular plants from Africa. It features images of ferns and seed plants, primarily captured in their natural habitats, with some photos of cultivated specimens as well. You can explore the collection through an alphabetical list of species and infraspecific taxa, or identify a plant by filtering the database based on characters such as leaf shape, flower colour, or growth form.

For more detailed information, please refer to the database presentation published in Taxon (Dressler et al. 2014). Additionally, occurrence records are available via GBIF. Images from this guide may be used freely for non-commercial scientific and educational purposes. Any other use requires permission from the copyright holder and our team. Please ensure to credit the photographer (as the copyright holder) and cite our website as follows:

Schmidt M, Dressler S, Faust EM, Gottschalk G, Blanck K, Veranso-Libalah MC, Zizka G. 2025 (continuously updated). African Plants – A Photo Guide. africanplants.senckenberg.de. Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Frankfurt/Main, Germany. [access date]

We warmly welcome contributions of clear, accurately identified plant images from Africa. Please feel free to contact us!