Plant database FAQ
Questions
What is the permapeople database?
Why did you create the permapeople plant database?
Where does all this data come from?
Who can contribute to the database?
What is the license of the database?
I found the wrong information in the database. What can I do?
I have a question that is not listed here.
What is the permapeople database?
The permapeople plant database is an open-collaboration (wiki-style) plant database focused on actionable information for regenerative agriculture. This includes but is not limited to info relevant for creating permaculture style gardens, food forests and applied ecology projects.
Currently the data consists of user contributions with an additional import of Plants for a Future data and Wikipedia Images.
Why did you create the permapeople plant database?
We were dissatisfied with the available information on plants in a regenerative setting. There is a lot of info on the Internet, but it is scattered, hard to apply and not visible to many people. We want to make the database a place where everyone can find useful information for their projects, collaborate and share knowledge and insights for fostering regenerative lifestyles for the health of our planet.
What can it be used for?
No matter if you are a first-time backyard gardener or a long-year farmer, the database can be used for the research of all kinds. You can discover new plants, read up on applicable information to organize and plan your next project.
Who can use the database?
From individuals to organizations, backyard farmer to large-scale farmer, everyone is welcome to use the database. It is free to use under the Creative Commons license. See the license for more information.
Where does all this data come from?
We seeded the original database back in early 2021 from a combination of a data dump from Plants For A Future, our own spreadsheets of which data we’d collected from books and seed packets, images from Wikimedia, and several hours of manual data input. Since then, there have been tens of thousands of contributions from a number of other sources; Thousands of individual manual edits and additions by ourselves and our members, including dozens of new plant profiles, and larger scale import projects when we’ve come across other fairly licensed (CC or Public Domain) data sets. With the help of the Permapeople community, we’ve been able to grow this database into something awesome, and we hope to continue doing so - with your help.
Who can contribute to the database?
The database is only as good as the information its users have put in it. Everyone can contribute to the database. It doesn’t matter if you are a knowledgeable expert drawing from own planting and growing experience or if you just recently read up on that information from another source. Every contribution is valuable, more than welcome, and will help countless others after you to find that information more quickly. So, get involved!
What is the license of the database?
If not stated otherwise, everything in the database and related content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Please reach out to hello@permapeople.org if you have different requirements.
I found the wrong information in the database. What can I do?
Please go ahead and fix it. Don’t be afraid to do something wrong. Every contribution is welcome and there will be other users helping.
I have a question that is not listed here.
Please reach out to us by email to hello@permapeople.org.