Frequently Asked Questions

Plant Provenance is a global platform for collectors, growers, sellers, and breeders of rare plants. It helps the community document, verify, and share the history—or provenance—of each plant in their collection. It also connects users with other trusted plant people worldwide and provides an overview of all plants within the community.

Visit Plant Provenance now and sign up—it's free!

• Upload and manage your plant collection
• Record and track each plant’s provenance
• View the provenance of other plants on the platform
• Create seed batches displayed in the plant’s provenance overview
• Discover and review collectors, sellers, and breeders
• Browse the global plant list
• Contact other users to exchange or collaborate
• and more...

You can add your plant either by starting with a plant from an extensive list that is already listed on the website, or you can manually enter your plant’s information—species, cultivar, acquisition details, etc. You’ll also choose or search for the user you got it from. If they’re not yet on the platform, you can invite them.

You can add more personal details, such as pictures of the plant, its conditions, or other remarks, to make it more personal.

On our Tutorial page, you will find a video tutorial that will walk you through the entire process.

We've explained this in detail in this article.

That’s no problem. You can still upload it and start tracking its provenance from your ownership onward. Over time, more connections might fill in the provenance tree when you or other users upload related plants. Of course, you can always add the provenance later. When you trace back the provenance of the plant, the provenance tree will automatically update.

Yes, absolutely! You can input the seed batches you've created and link them directly to the parent plants in your collection. This adds even more detail to a plant's lineage and significantly helps with transparency in breeding projects. It also makes it easy to track the offspring from any seed batch.

The provenance system works in three simple steps to establish a verified history:

1. Document acquisition: When adding a new plant, you identify the previous owner either by selecting an existing user or initiating an invitation to join Plant Provenance.
2. Confirmation: The previous owner receives and confirms the acquisition request.
3. Generate traceability: The system instantly generates a visual provenance tree showing the plant's complete history and source.

This provenance is reinforced by user reviews. We allow users—whether they are collectors, sellers, breeders, or growers—to leave reviews on other users, tying them to transactions where applicable. Users can also agree with reviews already given by others, which adds collective weight and trust to the overall traceability of every plant on the platform.

A provenance tree is a visual timeline showing the ownership lineage of a plant: who had it before you, and where it originated. It's automatically built as users confirm acquisition links with each other.

Plant Provenance Certificates (PPC) are official, digital documents (available as a PDF or webpage) designed to allow you to easily prove and share a plant's verified history outside of our website.

The certificate is generated by formalizing all the information within the plant's provenance tree.

How They Work and Their Value

The certificate process starts with the Acquisition Confirmation (AC) process, which verifies each step in a plant's chain of ownership and origin.

• Verified history: The PPC compiles all relevant details about the plant’s history, displaying a plant's ownership alongside its listed provenance.
• Traceability: Confirmed steps in the provenance tree are marked by a solid line, while unconfirmed ones are indicated by a dotted line.
• External sharing: Creating a certificate enables you to share this entire history with unregistered users or potential customers.
• Informed trust: The true benefit of a certificate comes from combining the verified ownership and provenance information with the community reputation of the users involved. This dynamic pairing provides potential customers with the comprehensive data they need to make an informed and confident decision.
• Value indication: The value of your PPC reflects both the number of confirmed AC steps and the reputation of previous owners.

Yes. There’s a searchable list of all plants uploaded to the platform. With the designated plan, you can view who owns them, their provenance, and in some cases, contact the owner to ask questions, trade, or collaborate.

You can leave reviews for any listed user, whether they're a breeder, grower, seller, or collector. This helps build trust and transparency within the community. You'll also receive reviews yourself, and you can always respond to any review to add more nuance or upvote others' reviews to show your agreement.

Reviews cover different aspects, including communication, pricing, plant quality, and packaging quality, each of which can be reviewed individually.

Basic features are free. Consult our pricing page to see which features are exclusive to certain plans. Features focusing on adding value to a plant you offer for sale are on a payment plan, but the core provenance system will always remain accessible with a free plan.

Plant Provenance is a freemium service aimed at serving collectors, breeders, growers, sellers, and plant enthusiasts in general.

Beginner

A free user account (Beginner) will allow you to:

• Create a public Plant Provenance profile
• Add unlimited plants from your collection
• Provide reviews for sellers
• Reply to private messages
• Contribute to the Houseplant Index (future feature)
• Request Acquisition Confirmations to establish provenance overviews
• View your plants' provenance
• Buy credits to issue Plant Provenance Certificates as needed*

Enthusiast

The Enthusiast membership tier costs either 7.99 EUR per month or 79.99 EUR per year. It includes everything included with the Beginner membership, and additionally, you can:

• View the full Plant Provenance of all public plants
• Add a status tagline to your profile to increase visibility
• Add social media links to your profile
• Pre-approve acquisition requests for selected users
• 10 monthly credits to issue Plant Provenance Certificates, with the ability to buy more as needed*

Expert

The Expert level costs 34.99 EUR per month or 349.99 EUR per year, and it includes everything in Enthusiast. Additional features include:

• Issue branded Plant Provenance Certificates
• Zapier integration for automated plant creation from your webshop or datasheets
• Access to an extensive "About" section with a WYSIWYG editor
• Link to your webshop or website in your profile
• 50 monthly credits to issue Plant Provenance Certificates, with the ability to buy more as needed*

Enterprise

For Enterprise users, the membership fees will vary depending on their needs. It includes tiered credit limits for Plant Provenance Certificates, dedicated support, campaign and marketing support, and being featured on the Plant Provenance homepage.

(*) Additional credits for Plant Provenance Certificates

Credits for Plant Provenance Certificates can be purchased from within the platform. 10 credits are €7.49. The included credits for Plant Provenance Certificates in the Enthusiast, Expert, and Enterprise tiers do not roll over per month.

Important Tax Information (VAT)

• EU Consumers (B2C):
  The prices displayed on our website are net prices (excluding VAT). For sales to consumers in the EU, the final price at checkout will include the VAT rate applicable in your country of residence (e.g., 21% in Czechia). This is required by law.
• EU Businesses (B2B):
  The prices displayed are the net prices that will be charged. If you provide a valid EU VAT ID (outside of Czechia), 0% VAT will apply under the Reverse Charge mechanism.
• Non-EU Customers:
  No Czech/EU VAT is charged. Local taxes may apply.

We use Stripe to charge our membership fees. Currently, you can use the following payment methods:

Credit card, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Link, BLIK, Bancontact, EPS, giropay, iDEAL, Klarna, SEPA Direct Debit, and bank transfer.

If none of these are available to you, please email us at hello@plantprovenance.com.

Yes, we do! We proudly offer our Enthusiast Plan free of charge to qualifying nonprofit organizations (including botanical gardens) and educational institutions committed to fostering knowledge and community. Learn more and apply here.

Unless you live in a country that is currently banned from our payment platform Stripe, yes, Plant Provenance is available worldwide, fostering a global network of plant collectors.

Absolutely not. Plant Provenance is designed for everyone—whether you are a seasoned horticulturist, a beginner passionate about rare species, or a hobbyist looking to trade or catalog their collection. While our paid tiers offer features and tools specifically tailored for commercial growers and professionals, the platform is fundamentally accessible to anyone interested in collecting, growing, or trading interesting plants.

Different genera are added to your profile when you add plants to your plant list from that genus. In your profile, you can indicate the expertise of each genus added.

We're sorry to hear you've encountered an issue! We aim to resolve problems as quickly as possible. For immediate assistance:

• Live chat: Use the Chat feature at the lower right corner of any page on the main Plant Provenance website. This is the fastest way to get real-time help.
• Email support: You can also send a detailed message to our support team via email.
• Self-help: For common questions, please check our Knowledge Base (documentation) about Account Settings. We update the Help articles frequently with solutions and troubleshooting guides.

Yes, we do! Our exclusive Affiliate Program is currently open for applications, offering a highly competitive structure for partners who are passionate about Plant Provenance. You can find all the information here: inside.plantprovenance.com/affiliates