Plant Varieties

In this guide, we'll walk through the plant varieties resource and show you how to search, filter, and retrieve detailed data for over 15,000+ cultivated plants across four categories: vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers.

Overview

The Verdantly plant varieties database contains detailed records for cultivated plants -- the specific varieties you would find in nurseries, seed catalogs, and home gardens. Each record includes 80+ data points covering:

• Growing requirements (sun, water, soil, spacing, temperature, hardiness zones)
• Growth details (mature height/width, growth period, growth type)
• Lifecycle milestones (bloom dates, harvest windows)
• Care instructions (planting, pruning, harvesting)
• Pest and disease risks
• Highlights (drought tolerant, deer resistant, pollinator-friendly, etc.)
• Historical and cultural background
• Linked species with full botanical taxonomy

Varieties are organized into a three-level hierarchy: category (vegetable, fruit, herb, flower), type (e.g., tomato, basil, blueberry), and subtype (e.g., cherry tomato, paste tomato).

Searching by Name

The /v1/plants/varieties/name endpoint is optimized for autocomplete and type-ahead. It supports full fuzzy matching, so partial names and minor misspellings return results.

curl -G "https://verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com/v1/plants/varieties/name" \
  --data-urlencode "q=sungold" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Host: verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Key: {apiKey}"

For full-text search across names, descriptions, and highlights, use the /v1/plants/varieties/search endpoint instead. It accepts the same q parameter plus all filter options.

curl -G "https://verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com/v1/plants/varieties/search" \
  --data-urlencode "q=sweet cherry tomato" \
  --data-urlencode "category=vegetable" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Host: verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Key: {apiKey}"

Filtering

The /v1/plants/varieties/filter endpoint lets you narrow results without a text query. Combine any number of filters to find exactly the right plants.

Here is a practical example: find drought-tolerant vegetables that grow in hardiness zone 7.

curl -G "https://verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com/v1/plants/varieties/filter" \
  --data-urlencode "category=vegetable" \
  --data-urlencode "growingZone=7" \
  --data-urlencode "droughtTolerant=true" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Host: verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Key: {apiKey}"

Some of the most useful filters include:

• growingZone -- match varieties to the user's hardiness zone
• sunlightRequirement -- "Full sun", "Partial shade", etc.
• waterRequirement -- "Low", "Moderate", "High"
• Boolean traits -- droughtTolerant, deerResistant, attractsPollinators, isEdible, isNative
• pestAndDiseaseRisks -- find varieties susceptible to (or resistant to) specific threats
• highlights -- free-text match on notable features like "heirloom" or "heat tolerant"

See the full list of parameters in the Plant Varieties resource reference.

Getting Variety Details

Use /v1/plants/varieties/:id to fetch a single variety by UUID. The response includes the full nested structure with growing requirements, lifecycle milestones, care instructions, and linked species data.

curl "https://verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com/v1/plants/varieties/107b8dbb-9fc1-4417-adff-2f647f274969" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Host: verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Key: {apiKey}"

The response is organized into nested objects:

• growingRequirements -- hardiness zones, sun, water, soil, spacing, temperature
• growthDetails -- mature height/width, growth period, growth type
• lifecycleMilestones -- bloom dates, first and last harvest dates
• careInstructions -- planting (indoor start, transplant, direct sow), pruning, harvesting
• species -- linked botanical species with full taxonomy and distribution

Categories and Types

Varieties are organized into a three-level hierarchy that you can browse programmatically:

1. Categories -- GET /v1/plants/varieties/categories returns ["vegetable", "fruit", "herb", "flower"]
2. Types -- GET /v1/plants/varieties/types/:category returns all types within a category
3. Subtypes -- GET /v1/plants/varieties/subtypes/:type returns all subtypes within a type

This hierarchy is useful for building navigation, faceted search, or drill-down interfaces.

# Step 1: List categories
curl "https://verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com/v1/plants/varieties/categories" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Host: verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Key: {apiKey}"

# Step 2: List types for "vegetable"
curl "https://verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com/v1/plants/varieties/types/vegetable" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Host: verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Key: {apiKey}"

# Step 3: List subtypes for "tomato"
curl "https://verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com/v1/plants/varieties/subtypes/tomato" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Host: verdantly-gardening-api.p.rapidapi.com" \
  -H "X-RapidAPI-Key: {apiKey}"

Companion Planting

Verdantly provides a companion planting endpoint that works with variety IDs. Once you have a variety, you can look up which other plants grow well alongside it -- and which to avoid.

For details, see the Companion Planting page.

Species vs. Varieties

It is important to understand the distinction between these two resources:

• Varieties are cultivated plants selected for specific traits -- things like "Sungold Tomato" or "Cherokee Purple Tomato". These are what gardeners choose, buy, and grow.
• Species are the botanical taxonomy -- "Solanum lycopersicum" (tomato) or "Capsicum annuum" (pepper). Multiple varieties belong to the same species.

Each variety record includes a species field that links back to the full species record with taxonomy, distribution, and ecological data. You can use the species ID to look up additional details via the Plant Species endpoints.