Taxonomic Sources

List all available taxonomic data sources used by the species validation system, including their authority weights and cache durations.

Overview

This endpoint returns metadata about the 13 sources available to /v1/verify/plant-names: 12 authoritative data sources, including the versioned APC/APNI backbone, plus review-only Gemini suggestions.

Request

curl https://api.superseeded.ai/v1/sources/taxonomic

No authentication or request body required.

Response

object[]

Array of source metadata objects.

Show Source Object

string

Source identifier used in the sources filter parameter of /v1/verify/plant-names.

string

Human-readable source name.

string

Brief description of the source.

number

Weight (0.0-1.0) used in the consensus scoring algorithm. Higher values indicate more authoritative sources.

integer

How long results from this source are cached, in hours.

string

Version of a fixed taxonomic backbone used to produce reproducible results. Currently returned for APC/APNI.

boolean

If true, this source is only queried when all other sources return no match. Only applies to Gemini AI.

integer

Total number of available sources.

Example Response

{
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "apc_apni",
      "name": "Australian Plant Census / APNI",
      "description": "Versioned APC accepted names, synonyms and APNI fallback",
      "authority_weight": 1.0,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 720,
      "backbone_version": "2026-03-25"
    },
    {
      "id": "tnrs",
      "name": "Taxonomic Name Resolution Service (WFO)",
      "description": "World Flora Online taxonomic authority",
      "authority_weight": 1.0,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 720
    },
    {
      "id": "powo",
      "name": "Plants of the World Online",
      "description": "Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew",
      "authority_weight": 0.95,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 72
    },
    {
      "id": "gbif",
      "name": "Global Biodiversity Information Facility",
      "description": "Largest biodiversity database",
      "authority_weight": 0.85,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 24
    },
    {
      "id": "ala",
      "name": "Atlas of Living Australia",
      "description": "Australian biodiversity data",
      "authority_weight": 0.8,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 72
    },
    {
      "id": "inaturalist",
      "name": "iNaturalist",
      "description": "Community science observations",
      "authority_weight": 0.7,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 48
    },
    {
      "id": "ip_australia",
      "name": "IP Australia Plant Breeders Rights",
      "description": "Australian plant variety protection",
      "authority_weight": 0.75,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 168
    },
    {
      "id": "upov",
      "name": "UPOV Plant Variety Database",
      "description": "International plant variety protection",
      "authority_weight": 0.75,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 168
    },
    {
      "id": "eol",
      "name": "Encyclopedia of Life",
      "description": "Comprehensive species information",
      "authority_weight": 0.6,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 72
    },
    {
      "id": "wikidata",
      "name": "Wikidata",
      "description": "Structured knowledge base",
      "authority_weight": 0.65,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 168
    },
    {
      "id": "wikispecies",
      "name": "WikiSpecies",
      "description": "Wikimedia species directory",
      "authority_weight": 0.6,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 168
    },
    {
      "id": "wikipedia",
      "name": "Wikipedia",
      "description": "General encyclopedia",
      "authority_weight": 0.55,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 168
    },
    {
      "id": "gemini",
      "name": "Google Gemini AI",
      "description": "AI-powered fallback for unresolvable names (requires API key)",
      "authority_weight": 0.5,
      "cache_ttl_hours": 240,
      "fallback_only": true
    }
  ],
  "total": 13
}

Source Authority Weights

Sources are ranked by authority in the consensus algorithm:

Source	Weight	Role
APC/APNI	1.00	Australian accepted names, synonyms and nomenclature
TNRS (WFO)	1.00	Taxonomic authority
POWO (Kew)	0.95	Botanical authority
GBIF	0.85	Biodiversity database
ALA	0.80	Regional authority (AU)
IP Australia	0.75	Cultivar authority
UPOV	0.75	Variety authority
iNaturalist	0.70	Observations
Wikidata	0.65	Structured data
WikiSpecies	0.60	Species directory
EOL	0.60	Encyclopedia
Wikipedia	0.55	General reference
Gemini AI	0.50	AI fallback (only)

Cache Strategy

Each source has a cache TTL tuned to its update frequency:

24 hours: GBIF (observation data updates frequently)
48 hours: iNaturalist (observation counts change regularly)
72 hours: POWO, ALA, EOL (taxonomy relatively stable)
7 days: IP Australia, UPOV, WikiSpecies, Wikidata, Wikipedia (data changes infrequently)
10 days: Gemini AI (AI-generated data, stable period)
30 days: TNRS/WFO (authoritative taxonomy, changes rarely)
Pinned release: APC/APNI follows the declared backbone version (2026-03-25)

API documentation

Endpoints

Overview

Request

Response

Example Response

Source Authority Weights

Cache Strategy

​Overview

​Request

​Response

​Example Response

​Source Authority Weights

​Cache Strategy

Overview

Request

Response

Example Response

Source Authority Weights

Cache Strategy