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Short answer: SEINet is a web portal for searching botanical specimen records, mostly from herbaria in the southwestern United States. As of 8 November 2026 its home page lists 456 collections and about 24 million records, all searched against one central database, and describes the site as powered by Symbiota software.
Who searches this: researchers, collection managers and students who need to find, map or cite plant specimen data. After reading you should know what SEINet is, how it relates to Symbiota and its sub-portals, and what its Data Usage Policy requires when you cite or reuse records.
Definition and scope
SEINet is a botanical specimen database and portal hosted at swbiodiversity.org. Its home page states that all SEINet portals search one central database, and that the site is part of the SEINet Portal Network. It is built on Symbiota, an open-source biodiversity portal platform, so SEINet is a running service while Symbiota is the software behind it. Development has been supported by National Science Foundation grants, according to the portal.
The record type is the herbarium specimen: a preserved plant, fungus, lichen or alga with collector, locality and date data. That places SEINet in the same family as global aggregators such as GBIF, but with a regional focus and collection-level curation by the contributing institutions.
How researchers use SEINet in practice
The 2010 Arizona State University announcement of the project described a site with identification keys that generate species lists by location, browsing of collections from more than 20 herbaria and botanical gardens, and a map option showing where a species occurs across the Southwest. The current home page also advertises an Image Browser. Typical uses that follow directly from those features are building a checklist for an area, checking where a species has been collected, and locating specimens held by a given institution.
How SEINet has grown
| Date | What the source says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Development began at Arizona State University with a faculty team; NSF-funded. | ASU News, 9 September 2010 |
| 2010 | About 20 member institutions and about 1.6 million specimen records, mainly from the southwestern states and Sonora, Mexico. | ASU News, 9 September 2010 |
| 2026 | 456 collections and about 24 million records shown on the home page. | SEINet home page, read 8 November 2026 |
The counts are the figures each source showed on the dates given; the live portal changes as collections are added.
Sub-portals and related portals
The home page groups additional portals that draw on the same central database:
- Regional consortia: Consortium of Midwest Herbaria, Consortium of Southern Rocky Mountain Herbaria, Intermountain Regional Herbarium Network, Madrean Discovery Expeditions, Mid-Atlantic Herbaria Consortium, North American Network of Small Herbaria, Northern Great Plains Herbaria, Red de Herbarios Mexicanos, SERNEC and TORCH.
- Flora projects: Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado Plateau, Plant Atlas of Arizona, Sonoran Desert and Teaching Checklists.
- Agency floras: National Park Service Intermountain, US Fish and Wildlife Service Region 2, US Forest Service Southwestern, Bureau of Land Management, Coronado National Forest and Tonto National Forest.
- Taxon-group portals: bryophytes, fungi, lichens, macroalgae and pteridophytes.
Because these portals share one database, a record found through a consortium portal is the same record you would find in the main SEINet search.
Citing and reusing SEINet data: a checklist
This checklist is drawn from the SEINet Data Usage Policy (read 8 November 2026).
| Question | What the policy says |
|---|---|
| How do I cite portal-level data? | The recommended citation begins “Biodiversity occurrence data published by: SEINet – AZ/NM Node”, followed by the portal URL and the date you accessed it. |
| How do I cite a single institution’s data? | Use the citation format given in that collection’s profile. |
| Is citing optional? | The policy calls citing and acknowledging the data a matter of professional ethics. |
| Can I pass the data on? | Not without permission of the data owners. |
| What about images? | Contributors keep copyright; images are CC BY-SA 4.0 unless stated otherwise, so attribution is needed. |
| How reliable are the records? | Data are provided as is; report errors to the curators or collection managers. |
| Does a record let me collect at that site? | No. The policy notes that collecting normally requires the landowner’s permission, and rare or endangered plants may need additional permits. |
| Anything sensitive? | Records may include culturally sensitive specimens or historical language. |
Where it matters for labs and collections
For botany and ecology labs, SEINet is a source of occurrence evidence that can be traced to a physical voucher specimen in a named collection. That makes the collection profile, not only the aggregate portal, the unit to cite. For herbaria, contributing records to a shared database makes their holdings searchable alongside those of other institutions. For the wider research-data context, see the Tropicos guide for another botanical name and specimen resource, and What is botany for the discipline itself. Physical specimens are a type of biospecimen only in the broad sense; SEINet holds records about herbarium vouchers.
Common misunderstandings
- SEINet is not Symbiota. Symbiota is the software; SEINet is one portal network that runs on it.
- It is not limited to the Southwest. The name reflects its origin, but the sub-portals include Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Northern Great Plains and Mexican herbarium networks.
- It is not only plants in the narrow sense. Separate portals cover fungi, lichens, macroalgae and bryophytes.
- Free to view is not free to redistribute. The policy restricts redistribution without data owners’ permission.
FAQ
What is SEINet?
A botanical specimen database and portal, powered by Symbiota, whose sub-portals all search one central database (home page, 8 November 2026).
Who built SEINet?
According to ASU News (2010), a team of Arizona State University faculty began developing it in 1999 with NSF funding. The portal says NSF grants have supported its development.
How do I cite SEINet?
Use the citation format in the Data Usage Policy: portal-level data begins “Biodiversity occurrence data published by: SEINet – AZ/NM Node” with the URL and access date; for one institution’s data use the citation in its collection profile.
Can I reuse SEINet images?
Contributors retain copyright, and images are CC BY-SA 4.0 unless stated otherwise, which requires attribution.
Sources
- SEINet home page, swbiodiversity.org/seinet/index.php, read 8 November 2026.
- SEINet Data Usage Policy, swbiodiversity.org/seinet/includes/usagepolicy.php, read 8 November 2026.
- Arizona State University News, “SEINet: desert plant guide online”, 9 September 2010, news.asu.edu/content/seinet-desert-plant-guide-online, read 8 November 2026.
