Article by William Cinéa — Founder of Botapreneurs, of the Jardin Botanique des Cayes and of the Plant Mastery program.

Botanical data is not only information about plants. It is a living memory. It tells the story of evolution, of food, of health, of agriculture, of ecosystems, of animals, of molecules and of the deep relationships between humanity and nature.

Today, we talk a great deal about data, artificial intelligence, digital databases, models, tokens and technologies capable of analyzing immense quantities of information. But even before computing, before modern laboratories, before global databases, plants were already producing data. They recorded in their forms, their colors, their molecules, their seeds, their adaptations and their relationships with other living beings a story built over millions of years.

The question is therefore not only: how do we use data about plants? The real question is: how do we learn to decipher this immense plant intelligence in order to make better decisions?

Plants are among the most important living beings on the planet. They capture solar energy, transform water, minerals and carbon dioxide into living matter, produce oxygen, feed humans and animals, protect soils, regulate ecosystems and manufacture an extraordinary diversity of molecules. A plant is not only an organism that we name in a flora. It is a living system that produces, adapts, defends itself, attracts, communicates, resists and transmits.

Beyond the name: a multidimensional botany

For a long time, botany mainly organized plants through scientific names, families, genera, species, herbaria, descriptions, collections and classifications. This work remains fundamental. Without taxonomy, there is no solid knowledge. Without a correct name, it becomes difficult to speak of a plant, to compare it, to protect it or to use it with responsibility.

But today, botany must go further. The 21st century needs a botany capable of connecting the visible and invisible data of plants: their uses, their molecules, their ecological relationships, their strategies of adaptation, their roles in health, their contribution to food, their importance for conservation and their potential for innovation.

It is this vision that Botapreneurs calls a multidimensional botany.

A botanical datum can be the name of a plant. But it can also be its smell, its color, its shape, its latex, its flowering period, its habitat, its interaction with a bee, its use by a community, its toxic effect, its active molecule, its role in a soil, its capacity to resist drought or its place in the history of an ecosystem.

Ethnobotanical data: the memory of human uses

Ethnobotanical data is among the oldest. It concerns the way humans have used plants to feed themselves, to heal, to build, to perfume, to color, to celebrate, to protect or to survive. Peoples have observed plants for generations. They learned which leaves could be eaten, which roots were dangerous, which barks were useful, which seeds nourished, which plants healed, which plants poisoned and which plants had to be used with caution.

This knowledge must not be treated as mere anecdotes. It is cultural, biological, medical, food-related and historical data. It can help researchers, doctors, nutritionists, farmers, entrepreneurs, botanic gardens and communities to better understand the potential of a territory. But it must also be protected with ethics, respect and responsibility, because it often belongs to communities that have preserved it for generations.

Zoopharmacological data: what animals reveal to us

There is also data that animals themselves give us. Zoopharmacognosy studies the way certain animals use plants, minerals or other natural elements to heal themselves or reduce certain health problems. It is reported, for example, that primates, elephants or other animals may consume certain plants in particular contexts. These behaviors show that the relationships between plants and health do not concern only human beings. Animals too can reveal to us avenues of observation on the properties, the effects or the roles of certain species.

This data is precious. It opens another way of looking at nature. If an animal selects a plant at a precise moment, in a precise context, with a particular behavior, this can become a scientific question. Why this plant? Why this part? Why at this moment? What compounds does it contain? What effect can it have? Nature then becomes an open library, but a library that demands rigor, caution and method.

Evolutionary data

Evolutionary data is another fundamental dimension. Plants did not acquire their diversity overnight. They evolved over millions of years. Angiosperms, that is to say flowering plants, developed extraordinary relationships with insects, birds, bats and other animals. Flowers, colors, fragrances, nectar, fruits and seeds are not only aesthetic elements. They are strategies of attraction, reproduction, dispersal and survival.

The red, yellow, white, purple, brown or orange color of a flower can be linked to relationships with pollinators. The shape of a fruit can be linked to an animal that eats it and disperses its seeds. The fragrance of a flower can attract an insect. A thorn can discourage a herbivore. A latex can defend a plant. A seed can wait for the right conditions before germinating. Every form is a datum. Every color is a datum. Every strategy is a datum.

Ecological data

Ecological data is just as important. A plant never lives alone. It interacts with the soil, the water, the wind, the sun, the fungi, the bacteria, the insects, the birds, the mammals, the other plants and the humans. It can offer shade, protect a riverbank, stabilize a soil, feed pollinators, compete with other species or become invasive when it is moved out of its natural ecosystem.

Understanding these interactions is essential for making good decisions. When an institution plants a species without understanding its ecology, it can create a problem. When a country eliminates local plants adapted to its climate to import decorative species from elsewhere, it can weaken its ecosystems. When a community ignores the plants that protect its soils, it risks worsening erosion. When a restoration project chooses the wrong species, it can produce a green landscape, but an ecologically poor one.

Adaptation data

The adaptation data of plants is also essential. Plants are masters of adaptation. They cannot flee like animals, but they develop strategies to survive. Some reduce their leaves to limit water loss. Others accumulate reserves in their roots or their rhizomes. Some produce thick leaves, hairs, waxes, thorns, dormant seeds, aromas or defense molecules. Others associate with fungi or bacteria to better obtain nutrients.

These adaptations are information that we must study. They can inspire agriculture, ecological restoration, water management, plant selection, architecture, design, health and innovation. When we understand how a plant survives drought, we better understand how to choose the species for a territory threatened by climate change. When we understand how a plant protects its tissues, we can better study its molecules. When we understand how a plant attracts a pollinator, we can better protect the ecological relationships that support biodiversity.

Chemical data: the frontier of molecules

The chemical data of plants opens another frontier. Today, we have a great deal of information on species, names, families and classifications. But we are still at the beginning of the deep understanding of plant molecules. Modern medicine has often focused on a few major active principles to develop medicines. This approach has produced important discoveries. But a plant does not contain only one or two molecules. It can contain hundreds, sometimes thousands of compounds that interact within its own biology.

These molecules are not produced by chance. Some are linked to growth and primary metabolism. Others, often called secondary metabolites or specialized compounds, are linked to defense, attraction, communication, adaptation, resistance or ecological interactions. Plants produce alkaloids, terpenes, flavonoids, tannins, essential oils, resins, gums, mucilages and many other compounds.

If we consider the diversity of known plants and the diversity of molecules they can produce, we understand that we are still in the genesis of understanding the plant world. Plants represent an immense bank of chemical, ecological, nutritional, medicinal, agricultural, cultural and economic data. And yet, many species disappear before they are even studied in depth.

The paradox of our era

This is one of the great paradoxes of our era. We talk of going to explore other planets, but we do not yet fully understand the plants of our own. We invest in artificial intelligence, satellites, biotechnologies and space technologies, but we let species disappear that perhaps carry information essential for health, food, climate adaptation, ecosystem restoration or innovation.

This does not mean that we must reject technology. On the contrary, technology can help us to better understand plants. Artificial intelligence can analyze images, herbaria, observations, chemical data, ecological data and geographic data. Databases can connect scientific names, traditional uses, occurrences, molecules, habitats and risks. Botanic gardens can become centers of living data, capable of connecting collections, knowledge, conservation, education and innovation.

But we must use these tools with intelligence. The more data we produce, the more we also create heavy digital systems. Artificial intelligence and large models require energy, infrastructures and resources. We must therefore develop a responsible vision of botanical data: collect what is useful, organize what is important, protect what is sensitive and use the information to make better decisions.

Botanical data must serve to protect the environment, conserve nature, improve health, strengthen food, support physical and mental well-being, guide agriculture, avoid planting errors, better understand invasive species, value local plants and train a new generation of people able to observe and understand the living world.

Botanic gardens: living banks of data

This is where botanic gardens have a major role to play. A botanic garden is not only a place where beautiful plants are displayed. It is a living bank of data. Every plant in a botanic garden can carry a story: its scientific name, its origin, its family, its habitat, its uses, its risks, its conservation status, its interactions, its flowering, its seeds, its possible molecules and its value for education.

The botanic gardens of the 21st century must become platforms of knowledge. They must connect living plants to databases, collections to schools, researchers to communities, traditional knowledge to scientific data, young people to ecosystems and conservation to innovation. They must help countries to better know their own plants, to protect threatened species, to document uses, to avoid dangerous introductions and to train Plant Masters.

Plant Master and Botapreneur

A Plant Master is a person who learns to observe and understand plants with method. They do not limit themselves to their scientific name. They observe their forms, their families, their organs, their colors, their smells, their latex, their habitats, their strategies, their molecules, their uses and their risks. The Plant Master connects the visible data to the invisible data. They understand that every plant can be a source of knowledge, of caution, of creativity and of solution.

A Botapreneur is a botanist-entrepreneur or a plant entrepreneur who turns this knowledge into action. They use botanical data to create projects, training, products, services, gardens, databases, conservation programs, agricultural initiatives or plant-based economic solutions. The Botapreneur does not see the plant only as a natural resource. They see it as a source of data, of innovation, of responsibility and of development.

The new mission of botany

The new mission of botany is therefore clear: to turn the knowledge of plants into useful decisions for the planet.

We need ethnobotanical data to respect human knowledge. We need zoopharmacological data to understand what animals can reveal to us. We need evolutionary data to understand the history of plants. We need ecological data to protect interactions. We need adaptation data to prepare territories for climate change. We need chemical data to explore molecules. We need conservation data to avoid extinctions. We need botanic garden data to connect living collections to education and to action.

We are still at the beginning of this understanding.

Plants have produced an immense biological intelligence. They have transformed the planet. They have made human life possible. They continue to feed, heal, protect, inspire and balance ecosystems. But they will not be able to continue helping us if we continue to ignore them, eliminate them or replace them without understanding them.

The 21st century must be that of a new botany: a botany of data, but also a botany of the field; a botany of molecules, but also a botany of communities; a botany of artificial intelligence, but also a botany of observation; a botany of conservation, but also a botany of innovation.

Botanical data is not only figures, names or files. It is the memory of the living world.

And if we want to make better decisions for health, food, nature, the economy and the future, we must learn to decipher this memory before it disappears.