What is the Florilège portal?

Florilège is the portal for plant resources used in agriculture and preserved in France (mainland and overseas territories). It brings together the 19 Plant Biological Resource Centers managed by INRAE, CIRAD, and IRD, which constitute the “Plants” network of the national AgroBRC-RARe infrastructure. The latter brings together five networks of biological resource centers: plants, animals, environment, forests, and microorganisms.

Originally known as “gene banks,” the CRBs preserve plants in various forms: living plants in the field, in vitro tissue cultures, seeds, and DNA fragments. Florilège provides an interface that allows users to obtain detailed information on the accessions stored in these genetic resource collections.

A new, more open version

Launched in April 2025, the new version of Florilège now offers a single, bilingual (French/English) entry point to French plant genetic resources. This makes them more accessible to researchers and plant breeders around the world.

Among the main new features are:

• an interface for ordering plant material directly from the network's CRBs;
• interoperability of tools, enhanced by the adoption of the BrAPI standard, which ensures smooth communication between databases and promotes resource sharing.

By centralizing information and simplifying access to collections, Florilège actively supports the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity, serving research and varietal innovation.

A lever for agroecological transition

Florilège is a portal open to breeders and researchers. With its new features, it offers concrete means to accelerate the identification of and access to genetic resources adapted to climate and health challenges, while facilitating international collaboration.

Promoting agrobiodiversity is a major challenge in developing more resilient and sustainable varieties, thereby reducing dependence on inputs and strengthening food security, but also promoting biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.

To access the Florilège portal: click here.

Part of the development and updating of the data was funded by the BReIF project of the PEPR Agroecology and Digital Technology program.